Earl of Minto

Government, through its modern Industrial Strategy, is working with industry, including Rolls-Royce, to support its industrial ambitions to unlock growth and jobs in the UK.

Government is supporting the aerospace sector, including Rolls-Royce and its supply chain, through Aerospace Technology Institute research and development programme which has funding of up to £2.3 billion to 2035. The support awarded to Rolls-Royce is key to helping it develop its new UltraFan engine which, when realised, will secure jobs in the UK for decades to come.

Under the leadership of the National Armaments Director (NAD), the NAD Group brings together teams delivering the national ‘arsenal’, the Defence Industrial Strategy, innovation and end to end acquisition to enable better ways of working and empower greater collaboration across Defence.

Part of the wider Defence Reform programme, the NAD Group is streamlining previously complex systems and structures, ensuring greater control over our defence development and acquisition structure, with simplified reporting lines, better coordination and less duplication of effort.

The NAD Group is already delivering improvements. For example, in January 2026 the Group’s Commercial and Industry team launched the Defence Office for Small Business Growth, which will simplify procurement processes, provide expert advice, and encourage private sector investment, enabling Small and Medium Enterprises to play a greater role in strengthening the UK’s defence capabilities.

The Government is focused upon improving Armed Forces recruitment, modernising and refining our policies and processes to attract the best possible talent. The results are clear; UK Regular Armed Forces intake has increased by 13% when compared to previous 12-months and intake is now greater than outflow at the Tri-service level, for the first time in four years.

We have delivered this through policies which have included a 35% pay increase for new recruits; one of the largest pay increases in the last 20 years for existing personnel; scrapping over 100 outdated medical policies; the creation of novel entry pathways such as the military Direct-Entry Cyber and ZigZag Careers pathways as well as the recently announced Armed Forces Foundation Scheme (‘Gap Year’); and delivering the ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days.

The Type 26 and Type 31 frigates have been designed with flexibility and adaptability in mind, including provision within the baseline designs to accommodate a range of future capability enhancements as required.

As part of routine capability planning, the Ministry of Defence keeps potential upgrades to all Royal Navy platforms under regular review.

The department is working to finalise the Defence Investment Plan, which we will publish as soon as we can. We need to ensure investment choices are right for both now and the future. It is the first zero-based review of Defence's budgets in eighteen years and goes significantly further than the last Government's Equipment Plan by looking across every budget line, including people and infrastructure.

The Ministry of Defence has had delivery of over 7,900 uncrewed systems since July 2024. Due to operational security considerations, it is important to guard against the threat of adversary data aggregation regarding the specific detailed breakdown of UK military capability and stockpiles, including uncrewed systems platform numbers and types. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to comment further.