Written by ADS Defence Policy Adviser, Emma Baker

Background:

In July, the Prime Minister Commissioned a Strategic Defence Review, to be led by three external reviewers: Lord Robertson, Dr Fiona Hill, and General Sir Richard Barrons. Over August ADS held a series of workshops with MOD to feed into the submission, the first of which was opened by General Sir Richard Barrons. This blog provides a summary of the recommendations in ADS’ submission.

The strategic Defence Review occurs amidst rapid technological advancement and rising global instability. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has proven industry to be the foundational strategic enabler underpinning military capability, and the UK must now formally recognise this in military planning. The Government must ensure defence is central to the new industrial strategy, and set a course that ensures resilience through strategic partnerships.

The UK’s contribution to NATO:

  • Rising threats have underlined the importance of the NATO alliance, and Government must ensure UK alignment by assessing how NATO defence policy can be incorporated into UK strategic planning.
  • Through consultation with industry, the UK should determine the areas where the UK can lead in emerging technologies, and translate these into demand signals for industry, mapped against UK areas of industrial strength, and working with other Government departments to concentrate R&D on areas of overlap
  • NATO’s success depends on the interoperability of its allies, and the UK can strengthen its contribution to NATO by fostering collaboration, both in traditional senses, and leveraging multi-national companies to build industrial bridges.This will enhance NATO’s industrial capacity, defence preparedness and ability to address shared threats.
  • The UK could make better use of NATO exercises and demonstrations to test and promote UK products.

How to ensure security and resilience:

  • The Government must articulate the capabilities which should be built up as a UK manufacturing capability, the capabilities which the UK should look to collaborate with allies, and the capabilities that can be bought directly from strategic partners.
  • Long-term contracting, multi-year funding, and steady demand signals are necessary to ensure the UK’s defence industry can ramp up production during times of crisis.
  • The MOD should consider a bespoke Social Value criteria for defence, as the current criteria is not realising the intended policy outcomes.
  • Resilience is not just about kinetic ability. The UK should draw on international examples like Finland’s total defence model to build a “whole country” approach to resilience. This should include exploring and supporting the application of dual-use technologies, identifying commonality with adjacent industries, and investigating the opportunities of flexible factory concepts for times of surge requirement.
  • It is vital that Government and industry drives awareness amongst investors of the challenges faced by defence companies with access to capital, to ensure a strong investment environment to build resilience.

Partnerships with industry to drive modernisation and transformation:

  • A National Armaments Director with proper budgets and authorities is vital as a systems leader for operationalising industry as a strategic enabler.
  • The MOD should look to simplify the innovation landscape through a single entry point, and establish a 10-year roadmap for defence innovation and technology, providing clear opportunities for investment.
  • Investing in digital capabilities is crucial to increase defence productivity and address cyber-security risks. MOD must address the inability to automate and integrate data due to legacy systems.
  • MOD must develop clearer pathways for emerging technologies. Technology scouts and digital champions should be appointed to connect new technologies with strategic goals, ensuring the MOD stays ahead in defence innovation.

How Defence acquisition delivers agility and pace:

  • It is vital that the MOD gets the basics right to create stability, build resilience, and deliver against strategic aims. The MOD must address SME financing challenges, reduce contract complexity, and streamline decision-making.
  • Pace is a deterrent in its own right, MOD must simplify the commercial routes to market to enable faster delivery. To create faster pull-through, MOD should investigate opportunities of linking Front Line Command technology hubs with a simplified innovation landscape.
  • MOD should also look to speed up acquisition by building on existing procurement transformation programmes to place time limits on MOD processes, increase risk appetite of procurement teams, and deter requirement creep and overspecification of projects.
  • Government should look at how to deploy Public-Private Partnerships to leverage private sector investment to ensure sustainable programme delivery.

Building relationships with allies:

  • International partnerships with allies are crucial for enhancing the UK’s defence exports, innovation and strategic resilience. To prioritise defence export potential, the long-promised Government-to-Government (G2G) framework must be implemented.
  • Government must foster defence industrial dialogues with allies and utilise corporate diplomacy to aid international strategic aims.
  • International collaboration programmes are vital for driving innovation, exports, job growth, opening up new markets, and forging closer ties with allies.
  • A formalised UK-EU defence and security pact is essential to build the resilience of the European industrial base.

Next Steps:

Now that contributions have all been submitted, the review team enter a “test and challenge” phase, before consolidation of ideas, and publication in 2025. ADS will continue to engage with and support the SDR team throughout this period.

The Government have also committed to a Defence Industrial Strategy, which we understand will flow from the SDR. ADS are working closely with MOD to facilitate industrial engagement into this process. For more information on this, please contact Defence Policy Adviser, Emma Baker.