On Monday, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace released an outline for the government’s 2030 vision for the country’s armed forces. Primarily, the plan intends to expand investment into the land, sea, air, space, and cyber domains to expand the preparedness of the armed forces to counter new and emerging threats. To achieve this, the UK intends to reduce the size of its army from 82,000 to 72,500. This was referred to as a shift from “mass mobilisation to information age speed.” According to Wallace, “increased deployability and technological advantage” would mean that smaller armies can achieve a greater effect.
While making the announcement, Wallace applauded the plan saying, “This Defence Command Paper ensures our armed forces are threat-focused, modernised and financially sustainable. Our military will be ready to confront future challenges, seize new opportunities for Global Britain and lay the foundations of a more secure and prosperous Union.”
According to a release by the British government, by 2025, £85 billion ($117 billion) will be spent to help the country’s armed forces “adapt, compete effectively, and fight decisively” against the “new and emerging threats and challenges” faced by the country. This, the release claims will support 400,000 jobs in the United Kingdom (UK). In this regard, Wallace said, “Our people and their expertise are at the heart of what we do and further investments into training, welfare and support facilities will be reflective of this and ensure our armed forces are well equipped to face tomorrow’s threats today.”
Apart from this, the British army will also receive £3 billion ($4.14 billion) to acquire new “vehicles, long-range rocket systems, air defences, drones, electronic warfare, and cyber capabilities”. The plan also intends to create new ranger regiments and new warfighting experimentation battlegroups to counter “hybrid and conventional threats.”
Moreover, to enhance its maritime capabilities, the British Royal Navy will develop a new Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance ship, which is scheduled to come into service by 2024. Further, the plan also brings in enhanced investment into shipbuilding to increase the number of frigates and destroyers.
Furthermore, the UK is also set to pump £2 billion ($2.76 million) into the country’s air capabilities by developing a Future Combat Air System that will “deliver a pioneering mix of crewed, uncrewed, and autonomous platforms including swarming drones and the ultra-modern Tempest fighter jet.”
The plan also seeks to enhance research and development capabilities, enhance investment into space defence technologies, and enhance digital capabilities to “share and exploit” data across networks “that are resilient to cyber-attacks from the state, proxy, and terrorist adversaries.” Further, it sets out a plan for improving Single Level Accommodation for members of the defence forces and enhances childcare facilities. The UK, as a result of this plan, will also adopt a “global outlook” and pursue investments in overseas training to enhance the capabilities of its allies and partners.
The announcement was celebrated by British Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, who said, “For the first time that I can remember we have an alignment of the ends, ways and means to modernise and transform the posture of our nation’s armed forces to meet the threats of a more uncertain and dangerous world.”
The Defence Command Paper has been published in pursuance of Britain’s integrated review of foreign policy and defence, titled Integrated Review of Security, Defense, Development, and Foreign Policy, subtitled Global Britain in a Competitive Age, which was announced by the country’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson last Tuesday. One of the major changes made by the document was the upliftment of the overall cap on the country’s nuclear warheads by more than 40%, a reversal from the country’s earlier policy of eventual disarmament since the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
According to the 100-page report, the aforementioned changes in British defence policy have been made largely in accordance with China’s increasing dominance globally. “China’s increasing power and international assertiveness is likely to be the most significant geopolitical factor of the 2020s...There is no question that China will pose a great challenge to an open society such as ours, but we also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests including building a strong and positive economic relationship and in addressing climate change,” Johnson said.
To this end, the report states: “The fact that China is an authoritarian state, with different values to ours, presents challenges for the UK and our allies. China will contribute more to global growth than any other country in the next decade with benefits to the global economy.”
The increased focus on China also forms part of the UK’s “Indo-Pacific tilt”, a region which the report acknowledges as the “world’s growth engine: home to half the world’s people; 40% of global GDP”. In fact, in a meeting between British and Japanese foreign and defence ministers in February, the UK announced that it would be deploying its aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, and her Carrier Strike Group to the Indo-Pacific later this year.
Similarly, the report outlines Russia as the most “acute threat to our security” and that Moscow continues to pose a “full spectrum of threats”. In response, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, said that while the UK and Russia continue to share economic and cultural ties, political relations are “nearly dead”. He also described the Johnson administration’s decision to increase the nuclear stockpile as a “violation of the treaty of non-proliferation and many, many other agreements”.
The release of the defence report this week combined with the foreign policy review last week delineate the UK’s evolving strategies, policies, commitment to international agreements, and its threat perceptions in a rapidly changing global environment.
UK to Reduce Army Size, Focus on Modernisation by 2025
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s integrated defence review report outlines the UK’s focus on modernising the army and countering the new threats such as cyberattacks.
March 23, 2021
SOURCE: TEISS