Asked by: Lord Stirrup (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what milestones they envisage for Atlantic Bastion, Atlantic Strike and Atlantic Shield; and to what extent a putative Arctic Sentry mission might intersect with these efforts.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Navy will enhance warfighting readiness over the next four years through the innovative transformation programmes of Atlantic Bastion, Atlantic Shield, and Atlantic Strike. The Atlantic Bastion capability options submitted for consideration in the DIP include a blend of uncrewed systems, underwater payloads, options to increase lethality, and improvements to crewed platforms. These are consistent with the pivot to a Hybrid Navy and reflect industry maturity to deliver.
Arctic Sentry remains a concept, rather than an agreed activity. Discussions are ongoing between Allies on how NATO can continue to bolster security in the High North to address the increasing threat from Russia.
Asked by: Lord Stirrup (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the resilience and readiness of supply chains for critical components used in uncrewed systems, including whether it maintains strategic reserves of key parts, and the criteria used to designate components as critical.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) sets out steps to develop a more resilient UK industrial base and policies capable of adapting and surging to address emerging priorities and demands. It details steps to enhance the resilience of the industrial base and improve the readiness of supply chains. This includes regularly assessing the scalability and resilience of production for all major procurements and strengthening supply chain data and enhancing resilience of critical and cross-cutting supply chains (page 76, policies 6.2.2.3 and 6.2.3.1). Central to this is the Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP) which is pivotal to ensuring operational readiness and resilience across Defence and has scoped the work required to address critical minerals and component supply within Defence.
The autonomous systems are identified as a priority sub-sector in the DIS which include combat air, complex weapons, directed energy weapons and next-generation land and maritime capabilities.
Asked by: Lord Stirrup (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the United Kingdom’s ability to surge domestic production of uncrewed systems in the event of a conflict, including the principal industrial, workforce and supply-chain constraints identified.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) sets out steps to develop a more resilient UK industrial base and policies capable of adapting and surging to address emerging priorities and demands. It details steps to enhance the resilience of the industrial base and improve the readiness of supply chains. This includes regularly assessing the scalability and resilience of production for all major procurements and strengthening supply chain data and enhancing resilience of critical and cross-cutting supply chains (page 76, policies 6.2.2.3 and 6.2.3.1). Central to this is the Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP) which is pivotal to ensuring operational readiness and resilience across Defence and has scoped the work required to address critical minerals and component supply within Defence.
The autonomous systems are identified as a priority sub-sector in the DIS which include combat air, complex weapons, directed energy weapons and next-generation land and maritime capabilities.