A £9 million White House-style 'situation room' is to be built in the bowels of the Cabinet Office as a hub for the PM during emergencies.
Number 10 sources confirmed that the Government's integrated review into foreign and defence policy will announce the creation of a Situation Centre in Whitehall when it is revealed on March 16.
The Situation Centre - known in defence circles as SitCen - will act as the UK's equivalent of the White House Situation Room, where former president Barack Obama watched the raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.
Due to be operational by the summer, it is likely to act as the Government's command centre during emergencies such as terror attacks and epidemics.
The high-tech SitCen will be built in the Cabinet Office near to where Cobra meetings, usually called to deal with national emergencies, are held.
It will be kitted out with interactive dashboards, heat maps and geospatial visualisations, with the data used to inform decisions both during crises and in the long term.
Officials said due to the speed that data will be able to be collated, the technology available will reduce the time it takes to brief ministers and have them act on situations from weeks to a matter of minutes.
The idea for the SitCen, according to No 10 sources, came from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when officials and ministers realised there was a need for rapid, detailed and real-time visualisations of the spread and impact of Covid both in the UK and around the world.
The £9.3 million earmarked for the souped-up refurbishment has been allocated from the Cabinet Office budget this year.
The integrated review - covering foreign, defence, security, and development policy - has been billed as the most significant overhaul of the UK's strategic posture since the Cold War.
Downing Street last week confirmed that Boris Johnson will announce the outcome of the far-ranging review on March 16.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said it would be followed on March 22 by the publication of the Ministry of Defence's detailed plans - said to be a 100-page document - for the modernisation of the armed forces.
The spokesman said Mr Johnson had asked the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter - who had been expected to retire in June - to continue in his role until the end of November to oversee the changes.
