We led the Strategic Defence Review. This is how Starmer can keep Britain safe

Yahoo

2 days ago

We three, a politician, a soldier and a foreign policy expert, led the 2025 Strategic Defence Review on behalf of the Prime Minister and overseen by the Defence Secretary. Our report is published in full today by the Government.
Conducted in full cooperation with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), we examined over 8000 submissions and worked with the very best in UK defence to address the most profound changes to defence for well over 100 years.
We were asked two important questions. First, what is required to ensure the UK has the military capability it needs to meet the threats we face. Second, how can that be against a challenging economic backdrop?
There was an inevitable gap between these answers, but the Government's important decision to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027/28 and, vitally, to 3 per cent in the next Parliament made an enormous difference. The decision established the affordability of our recommendations across a 10-year programme.
The Review was conditioned by four major factors.
First, the relative comfort of the post-Cold War era evaporating. Today, the UK must protect its security, prosperity and values in a world shaken by population growth, climate change, nuclear proliferation and the digital age, and dominated by state-level confrontation.
This period of unprecedented instability demands enhanced collective security with allies, especially Nato, to sustain deterrence that prevents opponents from considering inflicting harm. The US play a different role in European security, but a modernised 'Nato First' approach is the only effective, affordable option for the UK.
The new world poses risks to our country at a potentially 'existential' level, and the resilience of the UK homeland in a 'whole of society' undertaking is as vital to deterrence as projecting armed force. The Armed Forces must, of course, play a significant part in protecting the cables, pipelines and other critical national infrastructure that enable the UK to function, but resilience involves every institution, enterprise and citizen.
The second major factor is the digital age, which changes defence and security just as much as it is changes how we live, work and play. Data in secure cloud, AI, robotics, autonomy, bio-science, quantum computing, and new materials are as vital as missiles and radars. Deterrence means transforming how Armed Forces are designed, constructed, operated and supported.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine shows what war really means in the digital age. It illustrates the scale and pace of military transformation and has some important lessons for UK defence. We recommend a constantly evolving transformation, that combines existing and new technology to make the UK the most technology-enabled Armed Forces in Europe.
Adopting an 'Integrated approach' is essential, but this does not diminish the importance of the single Services applying their own ingenuity and initiative, but it does mean conforming to one plan.
Integration means adopting a common digital foundation, evolving at pace from crewed equipment to a 'never-complete' blend of crewed, uncrewed and increasingly autonomous forces. We were delighted by the ability of the Royal Navy, the Army, the Royal Air Force, and Strategic Command to articulate this. Now they need to be led and supported to deliver it.
Our third major consideration was that, with the end of the Cold War, the current UK Armed Forces were shaped by reductions in size, equipment, numbers, and readiness in the absence of a major threat. They were thus unlikely to be a perfect fit for this much more demanding world – or for extraordinary technological transformation. Our transformative path for UK defence can be accelerated as circumstances change.
The fourth factor is that transformation extends beyond the 'front line'. We examined the whole 'defence enterprise', making recommendations across almost every aspect, including: people, education, training, acquisition, and infrastructure. This accounts for the length and significance of our report.
The report also sets out a transformation of the relationship between the MoD and industry; crucial for a true partnership. The partnership will only flourish if procurement rules and processes change as we recommend, to draw both the best innovation and the unmatchable power of commercial investment into R&D, and areas like infrastructure. The appointment of the new National Armaments Director is vital to this outcome.
The implementation of our recommendations now rests with the MoD, the Armed Forces and industry. We hope that as many citizens as possible will support this vital work and insist that it is delivered.
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