The head of the UK's armed forces hopes to set up a cyber command to both protect the country from online strikes and launch its own attacks.
General Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff, said there would be a "cultural change" in warfare, with the internet playing a crucial part alongside troops on the battlefield.
He said: "We must learn to defend, delay, attack and manoeuvre in cyberspace, just as we might on the land, sea or air and all together at the same time.
"Future war will always include a cyber dimension and it could become the dominant form."
Last week the military chief visited the US cyber command at the Pentagon, which was launched in May last year to co-ordinate cyberunits set up across the US armed forces.
Gen Richards believes a similar facility for the British forces would be an asset to the country's defence capabilities, as enemies seek increasingly innovative ways of attacking.
He told The Sunday Times: "At the moment we don't have a cyber command and I'm very keen we have one.
"Whether we like it or not, cyber is going to be part of future warfare, just as tanks and aircraft are today. It's a cultural change."
Last Friday he took the heads of the Army, Air Force and Navy to Cheltenham to visit GCHQ where agents monitor the internet, listening out for potential cyberattacks and devising ways to counter them.
He added: "In the future I don't think state-to-state warfare will start in the way it did even 10 years ago. It will be cyber or banking attacks - that's how I'd conduct a war if I was running a belligerent state or a rebel movement. It's semi-anonymous, cheap and doesn't risk people."
