Ministry of Defence

As set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy, investing in mobile test technologies has the potential to accelerate innovation, particularly amongst smaller companies for whom geographically remote and highly capable test ranges may be prohibitively expensive. The same technology will also help Defence undertake more testing in the field, under operationally representative conditions, contributing towards the industrial, innovation and warfighting readiness ambitions in the Strategic Defence Review.

Mobile testing is one aspect of the Department’s Test and Evaluation Transformation programme, which is forecast to spend over £1 million on mobile test technologies this year. The scale of future funding is dependent on the outcome of the Defence Investment Plan.

The Defence Industrial Strategy set out average times to contract for major projects (such as tanks, frigates and aircraft) of six years, and for pace-setting modular upgrades (such as comms, sensors and weapons upgrades) of three years. We have set targets to reduce these averages to two years and one year respectively, and a target of three-month cycles for rapid commercial exploitation.

The introduction of this segmented approach to procurement, with associated timescale targets, is a key element of our acquisition system reforms. This initiative, and our move to a portfolio-driven approach, will drive greater to increase pace and agility in delivery. Our support to Ukraine has shown the pace at which we can deliver.

Planning for the new Defence Office for Business Growth is well underway. The operating model has been produced following wide ranging consultation with industry. The Office will provide services to both small businesses and MOD teams, which will focus on growth and shaping the defence industry landscape to develop resilient supply chains.

The detail of how the service will operate, including scope and launch date will be released shortly and it is expected that initial operating capability will be achieved in spring 2026.

The National Armaments Director Group is actively progressing plans to establish a dedicated strategic supply chain scenario planning capability as a core component of its Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP). This initiative will underpin a structured programme of scenario testing exercises—integrating wargaming, simulation, and strategic foresight—to stress-test supply chain resilience and inform defence policy and planning.

The capability will be delivered in collaboration with industry and government partners, leveraging our new supply chain illumination capability and aligning with the Defence Experimentation and Wargaming Hub. The capability will work with the wider landscape of existing scenario planning and wargaming activities that already take place within the Ministry of Defence and across government. Early development phases include pilot exercises across three service levels, with a proof-of-concept capability targeted by March 2026.

To improve the long-term productivity and capacity of both MOD and commercially operated UK test ranges, the Defence Industrial Strategy announced the launching of a ‘Range of the Future’ programme at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. This programme will work with SMEs, range operators and regulators to derisk T&E technology and make ranges more available, affordable, and capable of supporting the next generation of Defence capability

A project is underway within DSTL to lead the work to scope out the programme, plan how it will be delivered in partnership with UK industry and identify its priorities and operating model. Whilst the formal programme is developed, DSTL are actively engaging with the UK T&E enterprise, including recently supporting a hackathon for the UK T&E Community of Interest.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is strengthening how it communicates its demand signal to industry through the establishment of a new Market Engagement (ME) Coordinating Authority within the NAD Group. This new authority will set the standard for how the MOD engages with industry during the early ‘options’ phase of the defence capability development cycle.

The ME Authority will lead structured, early engagement with suppliers, to help refine the MOD’s requirements ahead of procurement and support the development of capability roadmaps that clearly communicate the Department’s long-term needs.

The Ministry of Defence publishes annual statistics on expenditure by region, with the latest publication for the 2024-25 period available GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-regional-expenditure-with-industry-index.

This Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) (published on 8 September 2025) sets how we will deliver a more competitive, innovative, resilient and integrated defence sector to make defence an engine for growth. To assess progress against the priority outcomes of the strategy we will consider a range of indicators, including levels of venture capital investment in UK defence companies. This is being considered as part of our DIS implementation plan, ensuring that we improve the data we hold on venture capital investment in defence.

The UK publishes annual Official Statistics on defence exports. The five-year moving average of UK defence exports orders has shown a trend of modest growth since 2018 and stands at approximately £10 billion. Market intelligence on other countries’ exports is also published. But because Official Statistics and market intelligence use different methodologies, respective results are not comparable. There are publicly available defence export datasets, such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which make their own assessments independent of His Majesty's Government.

The National Armaments Director (NAD) was appointed on 13 October 2025 and started the role on 14 October 2025.

The hon. Gentleman met him on 27 October in the House and I hope he found it useful.

The Security and Defence Partnership agreed with the European Union on 19 May 2025 is an example of this Government delivering on our manifesto commitments to strengthen European security, support growth and reinforce NATO.

We will continue to prioritise engagement and cooperation on the issues that are most important in helping to safeguard European security and prosperity – all in support of this government’s NATO First defence policy as set out in the Security and Defence Review.

The Security and Defence Partnership outlines that the UK will consider its participation in EU CSDP civilian and military crisis management activity. This cooperation can take many forms and officials are in discussions with the EU to explore potential options.

The Government’s election manifesto committed to placing the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law. During Armed Forces week in June, the Prime Minister announced that Service personnel, Veterans, their families and the bereaved are to have their unique circumstances legally protected by central and devolved Governments for the first time under new plans to extend the Covenant Legal Duty to more policy areas and across the UK. It is our ambition to include these statutory changes in the next Armed Forces Bill.

Defence has made a concerted effort and is absolutely committed to raising awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant Legal Duty through our election manifesto commitment to fully extend the duty into law. This includes the creation of a Duty toolkit which explains the practical implications for the Armed Forces community and outlines the key policies that it encompasses. The toolkit is held on the Covenant’s dedicated website, available at the following link: https://www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk/

Questions concerning the Duty are embedded within both the Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey and Families Continuous Attitude Survey, helping to assess awareness levels and identify areas where Service personnel and families may face disadvantage. Through the implementation of the Covenant Legal Duty Extension, we will be producing and providing educational and communications’ resources to support understanding further.

The Strategic Defenvce Review reinforced this Government's commitment to increasing defence spending and strengthening the UK's space capabilities, with clear recommendations to invest in nationally separable capability to control the domain at a time and place of our choosing, global decision advantage, and space-based sensors to understand and act.

Owing to the sensitive nature of UK Space Command's mission and work, we cannot disclose details on its capabilities or assessments on the resilience of UK military space systems.

The Ministry of Defence cannot comment on the decisions made by other British satellite manufacturers and operators regarding measures to protect against stalking and disruption.

In this instance, ‘disciplinary process’ has been defined as a misconduct and discpline case and ‘officials’ as Civil Servants. The table below shows the total number of misconduct cases over the last five years.

The total numbers of misconduct cases that had full investigations is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

A small team of UK planning officers, led by a 2* deputy commander, have embedded in the US-led Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in Israel to ensure that the UK remains integrated into the US-led planning efforts for Gaza post-conflict stability. This team is not monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza. The UK continues to work with international partners to support the Gaza ceasefire to see where the UK can best contribute to the peace process.

A small team of UK planning officers, led by a 2* deputy commander, have embedded in the US-led Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in Israel to ensure that the UK remains integrated into the US-led planning efforts for Gaza post-conflict stability. This team is not monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza. The UK continues to work with international partners to support the Gaza ceasefire to see where the UK can best contribute to the peace process.

A small team of UK planning officers, led by a 2* deputy commander, have embedded in the US-led Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in Israel to ensure that the UK remains integrated into the US-led planning efforts for Gaza post-conflict stability. This team is not monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza. The UK continues to work with international partners to support the Gaza ceasefire to see where the UK can best contribute to the peace process.

A small team of UK planning officers, led by a 2* deputy commander, have embedded in the US-led Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in Israel to ensure that the UK remains integrated into the US-led planning efforts for Gaza post-conflict stability. This team is not monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza. The UK continues to work with international partners to support the Gaza ceasefire to see where the UK can best contribute to the peace process.

A small team of UK planning officers, led by a 2* deputy commander, have embedded in the US-led Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in Israel to ensure that the UK remains integrated into the US-led planning efforts for Gaza post-conflict stability. This team is not monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza. The UK continues to work with international partners to support the Gaza ceasefire to see where the UK can best contribute to the peace process.

To achieve the Strategic Defence Review’s vision of the UK as a leading tech-enabled defence power, with an Integrated Force that deters, fights, and wins through constant innovation at wartime pace, Defence must transform to become more integrated by design, innovation-led, and industry backed.

One of the ways we will achieve this transformation is by making it easier for everyone developing UK military equipment, to rapidly assess if their systems are safe, fit for purpose, and capable of contributing to the success of UK military operations. Operations which will increasingly rely on advanced technology, rapid and reliable integration of new systems into complex capabilities, and a faster feedback loop from the frontline to the factory floor.

This is the scope of the Test and Evaluation Transformation programme, to build the world’s most productive, relevant, and responsive, military test and evaluation enterprise here in the UK. The programme will focus on delivering the common technical, commercial, and architectural enablers required to make this a reality by the early 2030s, with several initiatives already underway and others announced recently in the Defence Industrial Strategy. Future levels of funding in the programme are subject to the outcome of the Defence Investment Plan, and its delivery will be guided by the ideas set out in ‘Future Advantage Through Evaluation’ (FATE), MOD’s concept for future test and evaluation:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defence-test-and-evaluation-future-advantage-through-evaluation-fate

The advanced new air defence interceptor drone, named Project Octopus, will be mass produced in the UK with a target to produced thousands per month to provide to Ukraine to support its ongoing fight for freedom against Russia’s illegal full scale invasion. No decision has yet been made on the proportion of manufacturing to be conducted in the UK and in Ukraine.

The UK's regional partners listed in the Strategic Defence Review include Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The UK also has a long-standing partnership with Brunei, where we have recently renewed our agreement to maintain the Garison, which is home to a battalion from the Royal Gurkha Regiment. Alongside New Zealand and Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, the UK is a member of the Five Power Defence Arrangements, which promotes cooperation and interoperability in the region. The UK also regularly collaborate with our remaining Five Eyes partners Canada and the United States.

In response to a Ukrainian demand for additional long-range effectors, the Ministyry of Defence initiated Project BRAKESTOP, which is the development of a new, low-cost, ground launched, 200kg+, cruise missile for Ukraine, with a 600km+ range.

The project was initiated in October 2024 with industry engagement followed by an invitation to tender. Full details of the specifications for BRAKESTOP are available via the publicly accessible Defence Sourcing Portal.

The Defence Investors Advisory Group has been established, and its co-chairs have been announced as Kerry Baldwin and Sharon White.

We expect manufacture of the advanced new air defence interceptor drone, named Project Octopus, to begin within weeks. This Project will see the mass production of these drones with a target to produce thousands per month for Ukraine.

At the latest Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting on 15 October, it was announced that over 85,000 military drones have been delivered to Ukraine in the past six months with £600 million invested by the UK to accelerate drone delivery.

This Defence Industrial Strategy (published on 8 September 2025) emphasises the importance of supporting UK-based businesses, to build a thriving, resilient and competitive UK industrial base. The nature of the support we are providing UK-based businesses is set out in Section 4 and includes a comprehensive review of defence contracting, establishing a new Defence Office for Small Business Growth and dedicated SME Commercial pathway, and transforming the way we export through the new Office for Defence Exports and new Government-to-Government exports offer. There are further measures throughout the strategy to create the business environment needed to the UK defence industry to thrive and grow in priority areas.

The Ministry of Defence are currently exploring various options regarding the anchor from HMS Prince of Wales, but no final decisions have yet been made. The Malaysian authorities continue to have primacy over the investigation into the illegal salvage of the ship.

Analysis of docking capacity for the maintenance of Submarines and Warships is the subject of ongoing analysis as part of the Royal Navy’s planning process - the Naval Support Integrated Global Network (NSIGN) Programme is an integral part of this.

There are no current plans to mandate the use of Gibraltar for Submarine Dry Docking.

The Defence Industrial Strategy, published on 8 September 2025, sets out our vision to make the UK defence sector more competitive, integrated, innovative and resilient. To do this, we are backing UK based businesses (Section 4), fixing defence procurement (Section 7) and putting the UK at the leading edge of defence innovation (Section 5), to make defence an engine for growth. Recent steps include the launch of UK Defence Innovation, the launch of an offset regime consultation, and progress towards the establishment of the Defence Office for Small Business Growth in Spring 2026. The Defence Investment Plan will include economic growth considerations and offer long-term procurement signals to encourage investment.

One of the top priority outcomes in the Defence Industrial Strategy, published on 8 September 2025, is to put the UK at the leading edge of defence innovation. To support tech companies to scale up we have launched the new UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), supported by a ringfenced annual budget of at least £400 million. UKDI will support and grow the UK technology sector, including improving companies’ access to innovation funding and advice, and drive pace and agility of defence innovation (Section 5.2). In addition, we are also streamlining the regulatory environment to make it fit for the current era of threat, removing barriers limiting faster delivery, scale up and innovation at wartime pace (Section 5.2.4).

REPLICATOR 2 is a US Department of War initiative delivered through the US Defense Innovation Unit (US DIU) to Counter threats from Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS). Under this initiative UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) has entered into a joint project with the US DIU to rapidly develop Low Collateral Defeat (LCD) solutions to counter small-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CsUAS) within the US or UK homeland.

The project is being run by the US DIU utilising their Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) process. Phase 1 took place in May 2025, and saw over 200 US and UK companies apply to the Area of Interest issued by the USDIU. Following a period of evaluation, which included UK participation, 18 potential solutions were down-selected to present their solutions to a joint US-UK evaluation board. Upon completion of this board in September 2025, eight companies, including two UK options, were selected for Phase 2 – Prototyping. Following this, any successful protypes, will be considered for procurement by UK and US transition partners.

The Defence Industrial Strategy adopts a whole of society approach to the defence sector and redefines the UK defence industrial base to include academic institutions based on the contribution they make to defence Research and Development and the provision of skills and education needed in the workforce that defence relies upon.

UK Defence Innovation track relevant UK defence scale-ups. The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Business Growth and Finance team tracks approximately 300 high-growth SMEs in real time using the Beauhurst platform. Around 70% of these companies are demonstrating scale-up potential, evidenced through annualised growth rates, revenue, equity investment and other signals.

The Business Growth and Finance team focuses on supporting SMEs with scale-up potential.

Investigations into the illegal salvage are still ongoing. The Ministry of Defence is unable to provide a response regarding the presence of human remains until these investigations have concluded.

Should any remains of British Service personnel be identified, the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) will ensure that they are afforded a dignified military funeral and final resting place.

This Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) (published on 8 September 2025) sets how we will deliver a more competitive, innovative, resilient and integrated defence sector to make defence an engine for growth. To assess progress against the priority outcomes of the strategy we will consider a range of indicators, including levels of venture capital investment in UK defence companies. This is being considered as part of our DIS implementation plan, ensuring that we improve the data we hold on venture capital investment in defence.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Department for Education (DfE) recognise the vital work of Cadet Forces in schools, membership of which is proven to help develop self-confidence, teamwork, leadership and resilience in young people. Since 2012 the two Departments have been working together on the joint Cadet Expansion Programme (CEP) in schools. This has seen a significant increase in the number of Cadet Units in schools – the vast majority being Combined Cadet Force contingents – with the focus on improving provision in the state sector. Prior to the CEP, 75% of School Cadet Units were in independent schools; now around 60% are in the state sector.

The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) recommended an expansion of in-school and community-based Cadet Forces across the UK of 30% by 2030, an increase of some 40,000 new Cadets, backed by an investment of £70 million. The CEP will form a key component of this initiative. Expanding the Cadet Forces, which provide skills and qualifications to young people from diverse backgrounds, and support economic growth, will benefit all areas of the UK, and work is already underway to establish where the 30% increase will be realised. The SDR is clear on the need for a whole of society approach to defence and the ongoing relationship between the MOD and the DfE is an important element of that plan.

The Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP) is a multi-year transformation programme aimed at building resilient, agile, and collaborative supply chains underpinning both national security and economic growth.

It is a central delivery vehicle for the Defence Industrial Strategy and the Strategic Defence Review, aligning priorities to safeguard operational and UK sovereignty, industry and warfighting readiness; embedding resilience, and a more transparent, innovative partnership with industry.

The programme is shifting from reactive to proactive supply chain risk management, underpinned by digital innovation. Capabilities including scenario modelling and supply architecture will help anticipate disruptions and assess operational impact. Early industry involvement in capability development—through the Defence Joint Industrial Council—will strengthen collaboration, by providing industry with much more visibility of Ministry of Defence future plans.

I am withholding details of when HMS VICTORIOUS will complete her refit and re-join the Fleet as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

As of July 1, 2025 UK Defence Innovation has reached initial operating capability.

UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) represents a fundamental transformation of how the Ministry of Defence (MOD) approaches innovation. We recognised that for too long, innovative companies and start-ups faced significant barriers when trying to engage with defence innovation programmes. The previous landscape was fragmented, slow, and difficult to navigate, which prevented promising companies from scaling their solutions and securing the investment they needed to grow.

The Establishment of UKDI consolidates and simplifies structures, creating a clearer pathway for innovation that aligns with the Government's agile state agenda and ensures we can harness the best of British innovation for our defence capabilities.

Sat at the heart of the National Armaments Director Group, UKDI will accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge commercial technology in support of Defence’s most pressing strategic challenges. We are drawing upon the success of the US Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) model relevant to the UK Ministry of Defence.

As of July 1, 2025 UK Defence Innovation has reached initial operating capability.

UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) represents a fundamental transformation of how the Ministry of Defence (MOD) approaches innovation. We recognised that for too long, innovative companies and start-ups faced significant barriers when trying to engage with defence innovation programmes. The previous landscape was fragmented, slow, and difficult to navigate, which prevented promising companies from scaling their solutions and securing the investment they needed to grow.

The Establishment of UKDI consolidates and simplifies structures, creating a clearer pathway for innovation that aligns with the Government's agile state agenda and ensures we can harness the best of British innovation for our defence capabilities.

Sat at the heart of the National Armaments Director Group, UKDI will accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge commercial technology in support of Defence’s most pressing strategic challenges. We are drawing upon the success of the US Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) model relevant to the UK Ministry of Defence.

This Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) (published on 8 September 2025) sets how we will deliver a more competitive, innovative, resilient and integrated defence sector to make defence an engine for growth. To assess progress against the priority outcomes of the strategy we will consider a range of indicators, including a competition index. This is being considered as part of our DIS implementation plan.

I cannot provide specific detail for the numbers of men and women who entered the submarine service as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

The offsets consultation was launched on 23 October 2025.