The Ministry of Defence must “impose the power of yes” and be prepared to “risk public money so as to be more effective and go faster,” according to Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, who stepped down as chief of the defence staff this month.
Speaking at the Institute for Government, Admiral Radakin – who served as First Sea Lord before being appointed as CDS in 2021 – called on the department to “scrape the barnacles from the hull to go faster” as it seeks to deliver the objectives set out in the Strategic Defence Review.
Radakin called for the department to reduce the number of both senior managers and layers of oversight to create clear accountability and speed up decision-making. He also said it should adopt the “the first principle of war” – "the selelction and maintenance of the aim" – with a clear focus on objectives rather than process.
Radakin’s speech began by noting that there is political commitment to a “maximalist approach to the military instrument”, which sees defence as not just an “insurance policy” but a driver of growth and contributor to trade and diplomacy as well as a protector of society.
He described the “momentous decision”, announced in June, to increase spending on national security to 5% of GDP by 2035 – a new Nato target. With defence spending set to grow by over 50% in the next 10 years, Radakin called for the department to “develop the instincts for growth and acceleration” so it can follow through on the political commitments made in the SDR and at Nato.
“Following through also means having the courage to embrace technology and innovation and our industrial base in a much stronger way,” he said.
He said that while embracing innovation is often seen as the willingness to take risks, the opposite is true, saying: “All the risk is vested in doing the same old thing and failing to adopt the technological opportunities.”
Radakin also warned of the need for a “new call to arms control”, saying "the nuclear international safety blanket is slipping away".
"What it reveals is very ugly and dangerous," he added.
To support all of this, Radakin called for radical change in the way defence operates. “The state is not working as it should. Fix it or everything fails – we must reform,” he said.
He pointed to the drawn-out recruitment process for a new national armaments director and failure to adequately upgrade the Continuous at Sea Nuclear Deterrent as examples of how the state is not working.
The reasons for these and other failures “are various but have common themes”, he said, describing a focus on process over outcome; a struggle to make long-term decisions; lack of real accountability; and a failure to take risk – including his observation that “we would rather waste money than risk money”.
In what he described as his “last throw of the dice” to drive radical change, Radakin called for the MoD to adopt “processes and procedures and protocols that are anathema to much of what the centre of Whitehall seeks to impose”.
He called for the department to reduce levels of control over spending and “risk public money so as to be more effective and go faster”. There should also be a reduction in hierarchy, he said, noting that the number of senior civil servants in defence has risen by about 85% since 2018, while Defence overall has got smaller and the “military star count has remained largely static”.
He also called for a more assertive and streamlined decision-making process, saying: “Reduce the power of anyone and everyone to say no to a project and impose the power of yes.”
“If you are not responsible for the outcome… you should not have authority in decision making,” he said, later describing “these extraordinary Teams calls of 20 or 30 people who are not in charge and not going to face the accountability if something goes wrong or it doesn’t happen, but they have the ability to say no”.
He contrasted this with his experience after the death of Queen Elizabeth II: “When the late Queen died and we had her funeral 10 days later, I lived in a world where everybody said yes because everybody was so clear what needed to happen,” he said.
“If there was a problem, for example, we’re going to do a rehearsal overnight and that means you’ve suddenly got to provide 4,000 breakfasts that weren’t part of the contract – actually, you’ve got a relationship with the contractor and we’re going to provide those breakfasts at four o’clock in the morning.
“It wasn’t, ‘Let’s establish a committee to work out how many breakfasts we’re going to do.’ I think we’ve got too many systems and processes that don’t allow good people to get on with it.”
He added that the department must “preference the front line, not the back room” to encourage innovation. “You are much more innovative if you think you are about to be shot. Whitehall is too remote and lacks the incentive to do things differently,” he said.
He noted that this approach reflects the one adopted for Project Kindred, the MoD’s effort to provide equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has seen investments made at pace to support drones and other innovative approaches. “We have even achieved that rarity in defence of a complimentary NAO report and recognition that we are achieving increased value for money. We do that by having fewer senior people in charge, a small team, less control and the willingness to take risk,” he said.
Successive prime ministers have spoken of the need for defence reform but it is not happening as strongly and as quickly as it should, Radakin said.
“We need to understand why and we need to put it right,” he continued. “Because if we don’t, we will squander the additional investment; not look after our amazing people or unlock their potential; miss the technological opportunities; and not keep our nation as safe as we could.”