The UK Strategic Defence Review, subtitled ‘Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad’ was publicly circulated at 17:17 today, reports Bob Morrison.
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This long-awaited document, commissioned by the incoming Labour Government after it won the 2024 UK General Election last July, is 140ish pages long so it will take some time to wade through all of it. However at speed-reading first glance, and after perusal of the supporting Two-Pager of headline paragraphs, I have not yet spotted anything of substance to whet my appetite that has either not been pre-announced over the last few days or isn’t just an extension or continuation of previous Government policies and/or promises.
Certainly there are intentions in SDR2025, and from the Defence Secretary’s comments in the House of Commons, to: increase “when funding allows” British Army numbers by two or three thousand before the end of the current Parliament (which is scheduled to run until mid-2029); expand munitions production facilities over the course of the Parliament; bring sub-standard forces families accommodation up to par; and bring laser directed energy weapons into service. No indication, however, of when firm orders or irreversible instructions are likely to be announced.
It is stated: “We will create a British Army which is 10x more lethal to deter from the land, by combining more people and armoured capability with air defence, communications, AI, software, long-range weapons, and land drone swarms” ~ though few details or costs for this ‘ten times more lethal’ aspiration are given. These minimal measures and an ambition to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2034, however, are unlikely to dissuade the Russian Bear if it turns nasty in those Alliance countries where UK boots are currently deployed on the ground with mostly outdated equipment and systems.
If I liked popcorn, this evening I’d open a tub and sit down to read very slowly through all 140ish pages of SDR2025… but as I can’t stand the stuff I’ll just uncork a bottle of Tempranillo and tear open a bag of salt & pepper cashews as I wade through the dross to try to discover any hidden gems. Today has already been a long and busy day, so I suspect it might be a late start for me tomorrow morning.
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Updated 08:30, 03 June 2025: After spending the evening reading and rereading SDR2025, washed down with a four-pack of IrnBru rather than a bottle of Tempranillo because I quickly realised I would need a very clear head to sort any wheat from the chaff, my bullet point conclusions were:
- Smoke & Mirrors
- Emperor’s New Clothes
- Reinventing the Wheel
- Political Spin
When one strips away defence projects already announced by previous Governments, such as the building of seven SSN-AUKUS submarines and procurement of the DragonFire Directed Energy Weapon, to give two obvious examples, plus the promise of a long overdue upgrade of dilapidated military housing stocks and an ambition to restock on munitions using as yet unbuilt UK factories, there does not really appear to be much substance or immediacy in the document. I doubt potentially hostile enemy states who might be thinking of facing up to the UK and her Allies in the near future (military thinkers with brains bigger than mine consider this to be almost a foregone conclusion) will have lost much sleep last night. In my opinion, the UK needs major investments in Defence right now and not 0.3% of GDP in additional funding in two or three years time with ambitions to add another 0.5% by the middle of the next decade. BM
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