war footing

plural war footings · alternative wartime footing

1. A state of preparedness for waging war.

   move to a war footing

   4 more examples

   The government moved swiftly to place the armed forces on a war footing.

   After all, it was less than a year and a half ago that Obama promised, in an address at National Defense University, to remove America from the "perpetual war footing" it had assumed since the September 11 attacks.

   2014 September 11, Uri Friedman, “Is It Peacetime or Wartime in America?”, in The Atlantic

   The RMT union has told Network Rail and train operators that it has moved to a "war footing" over planned service and workforce cutbacks.

   2021 September 8, “Network News: RMT on "war footing" in response to workforce cutback threats”, in RAIL, number 939, page 15

   The EU is also now trying to put the European defence industry on to a war footing. Joint procurement of weapons by the European Defence Agency has been introduced for the first time.

   2023 September 30, Patrick Wintour, “‘No turning back’: how the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU”, in The Guardian, →ISSN