Ministers have given their backing to all 62 recommendations in the just-published Strategic Defence Review 2025 – including a commitment to reduce the Ministry of Defence’s civil service costs by “at least 10%” by 2030.
The latest SDR also includes calls to ramp up the UK’s capacity for uncrewed and autonomous defence systems – such as drones – and for a “comprehensive approach” to improving industrial productivity that supports the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
Investment in artificial intelligence is another core area of the SDR, which was conducted by former defence secretary Lord George Robertson, ex-US presidential adviser Dr Fiona Hill, and former joint-forces commander Gen Sir Richard Barrons.
The review is the first to be commissioned since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Work on the document began before the re-election of Donald Trump as US president and the significant shift in attitude to Nato in the White House.
In a statement to parliament yesterday, defence secretary John Healey told MPs the world had become “more dangerous” and that the review confirmed the need for the UK to “move to warfighting readiness", which he said meant “stronger deterrence”.
The government has already committed to increase the UK’s defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, and to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament.
Healey told MPs that “new efficiencies” would see £6bn reinvested “directly into defence” during the current parliament.
The SDR’s proposal for the MoD’s civil service costs to be “reduced by at least 10% by 2030” follows perm sec David Williams’s November announcement that he expected headcount to decrease by that proportion.
The SDR says civil servants are “central to defence outcomes” but adds that the MoD “must invest with purpose in the civil service it needs – reshaping the workforce with a focus on performance, productivity and skills”.
It says artificial intelligence and augmentation technology would enable some 5,000 military personnel as well as civil servants to move away from back-office functions into front-line roles, reducing admin costs in the process.
"To maximise existing resources, the MoD should seek to move all regular personnel from administrative into front-line roles and should automate at least 20% of human resources, finance, and commercial functions by July 2028," the review recommends.
Elsewhere, it stresses the need for the MoD to work across government to build national preparedness and resilience, and increase options for retaliation in response to an attack, or threatened of attack, on the UK and its allies.
The SDR calls for the nurturing of “a robust strategic culture” to ensure senior leaders and officials across government understand the “nuclear dimensions and escalation risks of today’s strategic environment”.
As part of a “whole-of-society” approach to defence that the SDR broaches, the MoD is also urged to work with the Department for Education to develop better understanding of the Armed Forces among schoolchildren.
Ahead of the review’s publication, ministers announced a £1bn investment in cutting-edge battlefield technology that will allow UK forces to disable threats with drones or cyber operations.
Yesterday the MoD said UK troops and warships will be protected by drone and laser weapon technology through a £5bn investment in autonomous systems and nearly £1bn for directed-energy weapons.
Other SDR-related commitments include: the building of up to a dozen new attack submarines for the Royal Navy; the procurement of up to 7,000 new UK-built long-range weapons; the delivery of at least six new munitions and energetics factories in the UK; and spending of more than £1.5bn to improve the state of military housing.
Additionally, the review calls for the proceeds of MoD land sold off for new housing to be spent on new or improved accommodation for service families.
Defence secretary Healey told MPs yesterday that ministers are “aiming” to increase the ranks of the British Army to at least 76,000 full-time soldiers in the next parliament.
He also pledged to create a new Defence Exports Office in the MoD, which was another SDR recommendation. Healey said the move would drive both exports to allies and “growth at home”.
The review document said part of the rationale for the move would be to “establish the necessary conditions” for increased defence exports and joint-capability partnerships. The Department for Business and Trade currently has responsibility for defence and security exports.
Healey told MPs that the government’s commitments for new nuclear submarines alone would safeguard around 20,000 jobs in Barrow and Derby.
'Welcome and necessary': union response
The Prospect union, which represents professionals in the civil service as well as in the wider defence sector, said the SDR “rightly” put UK industry and defence jobs at the heart of the nation’s security.
General secretary Mike Clancy said increased spending was “welcome and necessary”, but that big-picture commitments needed to be matched by a defence industrial strategy to address skills challenges.
“UK defence is only as strong as its people, whether in industry or in the public sector,” he said. “Investing in them, including in MoD capabilities, and creating an inclusive defence working culture is the way to translate this spending into both improved security and tangible benefits for communities.”
Malcolm Chalmers, general secretary of defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute said the SDR was the “most ambitious” document of its kind for a generation – but cautioned that it needed to be.
Chalmers said the UK defence sector faced fundamental geopolitical and technological challenges. He said that while the review pointed to the need to recapitalise defence and invest in new technologies, it was less clear about the timescale required for doing so
“The reviewers have been clear that the full realisation of their proposals will require the government to deliver on its ‘ambition’ to spend 3% of GDP by 2034,” Chalmers said. “While the government has been clear how it is paying for the increase from 2.3% to 2.5% – by cutting the aid budget – it has not explained how it will pay for the extra £16bn annually that will be needed for a sustainable increase to 3%.”