In response to the forthcoming UK Strategic Defence Review (SDR) plans have been announced to build new UK munitions and energetics factories, writes Bob Morrison.
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In a press release, jointly issued this morning by the UK Defence Secretary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, intent has been announced to:-
- Spend £1.5 billion in an ‘always on’ pipeline for munitions and build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK.
- Procure up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons for the UK Armed Forces.
According to the press release, which like most Whitehall releases since the end of 2024 is littered with ‘Plans for Change‘ aspirations and spin: “The [not yet published] SDR recommends creating an ‘always on’ munitions production capacity in the UK allowing production to be scaled up at speed if needed. It says the MoD should also lay the industrial foundations for an uplift in munitions stockpiles to meet the demand of high-tempo warfare.”
[© Bob Morrison]
Today’s release also states: “The additional funding will see UK munitions spend hit £6 billion this Parliament.” [i.e. theoretically by near the end of the decade, with the current Parliament scheduled to dissolve in July 2029]
In late February this year it was announced that the UK will commit 2.5% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to defence spending from April 2027 and the intent is to increase to 3% of GDP by the end of the next Parliament [though of course there are no guarantees that the current Government will win the 2029 General Election to allow them to meet this commitment by the end of the next Parliament in 2034]
It will be intriguing to read what hard promises are made in the SDR, particularly regarding much-needed urgent modernisation and procurement of frontline equipment such as field artillery and vehicles plus equally needed boosts to soldier levels. After all there is little point in setting up munitions factories when there are few guns to use them and insufficient trained soldiers to fire them. Reading between the lines, we suspect the 7,000 projected weapons are most likely to be missiles rather than the heavy guns and multiple launch rocket systems which UK Land Forces urgently need to counter any further Russian expansionism into independent territories that the former Soviet Union occupied from the end of WWII until the fall of the Iron Curtain 45 years later.
It will also be interesting to see if the forthcoming SDR announces firm commitments to procuring no-brainer requirements such as: Active Protection Systems for all armoured vehicles; major investment in large numbers of Air Defence systems and vehicles; thermal camouflage ‘ghillie suits’ for all soldiers likely to be deployed at first and second echelon levels; etc. etc. Many lessons should have been learned from Ukraine’s struggles following Russia’s 2014 annexation of The Crimea and then its 2022 full-scale invasion of its previously peaceful neighbour to the west.
SDR 2025 is the chance to show that these lessons have not been ignored by UK Government and that National and Alliance Defence, rather than garnering personal support for a civil servant turned politician, are what truly matter in these challenging and dangerous times.
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