Defence investment plan criticised as ‘too little, too late’ ahead of launch – UK politics live | Politics
important events
What’s in the defense investment plan (Dip)?
Department of Defense He has already provided some details on what is in the defense investment plan (Dip), although full details will not be revealed later.
Inside overnight news releaseThe Ministry of Defense published this summary.
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is evolving into a Hybrid Navy, combining autonomous ships and artificial intelligence with warships and aircraft:
-Type 91: Uncrewed missile platforms to increase the firepower of the Hybrid Fleet.
-Type 92: Uncrewed detection platforms designed to hunt enemy submarines across the North Atlantic, supporting our new frigates.
-Type 93: Extra-large uncrewed underwater ships that will operate in conjunction with crewed hunter-killer submarines to search for and destroy enemy submarines.
-Type 94: Uncrewed detection platforms designed to scan the skies for threats to the hybrid navy or homeland.
-In the 2030s, we will increase the number of the above platforms and put into service at least six Joint Warships as the brains of the networked Maritime Air Defense system.
-Project PANTHEON: Development of the Hybrid Carrier Air Wing, including the testing of jet-powered drones that will work with our F-35B force.
-Our Royal Navy Commandos will benefit from further investment in their conversions, equipped with new high-speed boats and the latest drone and autonomous technology.
British Army
The British Army is increasing its lethality including:
-A major investment in inexpensive expendable autonomous systems and stray munitions to increase the Army’s lethality; This includes £50 million over the next 12 months for the Army’s RAPSTONE programme, funding additional first-person vision and interceptor drones.
-Crewless Ground Vehicles: A new program to rapidly develop and produce crewless vehicles and their associated mission systems for the Army through UK industry.
-Project NYX: Up to 24 autonomously armed drones will be operational by 2030, flying alongside the Army’s recently upgraded Apache helicopters. They will conduct reconnaissance, precision attack and electronic warfare.
-Project Corvus: Up to 24 surveillance aircraft to replace the Watchman system, which carries out intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance activities.
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is transforming and investing in:
-New, national Cooperative Fighter Air programme: Development of new autonomous fighter jets to fly alongside crewed jets to defend UK skies, with a demonstrator flying by at least 2030.
-Storm Cover system: Put our new crewless electronic warfare drone into service this year.
And, in another newsletterThe Ministry of Defense has provided more details about the new “joint warships” it has acquired.
The Joint Battleship will replace the current fleet of six Type 45 destroyers, with delivery expected to take place from the early 2030s. Unlike its predecessors, the new warship will serve as a control center for crewless systems, increasing the Navy’s range, endurance and firepower without a commensurate increase in crew or cost.
These new ships, which will be outlined in the soon-to-be-published Defense Investment Plan, will replace previous plans for the Type 83 destroyer. Rather than concentrating capabilities on a small number of large and expensive ships, the Royal Navy’s move to a hybrid navy would mix crewed and uncrewed capabilities and be better suited to the pace and nature of modern warfare.
Defense investment plan criticized as ‘too little, too late’ by opposition parties ahead of launch
Good morning. Keir Starmer has said he will not make major policy announcements in his final days in office after agreeing to resign next month to allow Andy Burnham to succeed him. However, there was one exception; Starmer has been committed to publishing his defense investment plan (Dip) ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Türkiye, taking the view that it is an existing policy commitment, not a new one, as it is more or less ready.
This is definitely a policy that consumes a lot of government time. The government published its strategic defense review (SDR) more than a year ago. The Dip, the plan that determines how much money ministers will allocate to defense spending to meet the threats identified in the SDR, was originally planned for the autumn. It finally arrives today – but only after triggering John Healey’s resignation as defense minister earlier this month over his want of defense spending rising to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 – and which he was unhappy with when Dip lifted it to just 2.68 per cent by the end of the decade. The new defense secretary, Dan Jarvis, has released some more money from the Treasury and will present the Dip in a statement to MPs later.
Before Jarvis speaks, Starmer will give his own speech at the Dip somewhere outside London. Here’s our preview: Dan Sabbagh And Kiran Stacey.
Opposition parties already say that Dip is not at the desired level. James CartlidgeThe Shadow Defense Secretary said:
This is too little, too late. Very little, because that’s little more than the money John Healey and Al Carns resigned themselves to when they said Britain would be “less safe”. And it’s too late because the scheme is almost a year overdue and is being rushed through Keir Starmer’s desperation for an inheritance.
And where is this from? Ed DaveyLiberal Democrat leader.
This late and underfunded plan is inexcusable. This is a political choice that makes us all less safe, puts jobs at risk and threatens businesses in supply chains across the country.
The government has left our armed forces dangerously short-changed when it needed urgent investment after years of neglect by the Conservative Party. Defense chiefs had to make difficult choices when they had to be given what they needed.
Andy Burnham needs to go much further and embrace the Liberal Democrats’ defense bond plans to give our armed forces the investment they need to keep our country safe.
Here is the agenda of the day.
9am: Labor deputy leader Lucy Powell speaks at the New Statesman conference. Other speakers include EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds at 10.45am, attorney-general Lord Hermer at 2pm and UK Reform deputy leader Richard Tice at 4.30pm.
10am: Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the infected blood inquiry, gives evidence to the public administration committee.
10.30: Keir Starmer speaks on the defense investment plan.
11.30: Deputy prime minister and justice minister David Lammy answers questions in the House of Commons.
After 12.30: Defense Minister Dan Jarvis makes a statement to MPs about Dip.
14.30: Culture secretary Lisa Nandy and technology secretary Liz Kendall present evidence on artificial intelligence and copyright to the Lord’s communications committee.
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