UK support in the Gulf may put programmes at risk

With no clear cost breakdown and immediate fiscal commitments around the world, namely air defence against Iranian strikes across the Middle East, the UK Government risk sidelining new defence programmes.

British defence industry experts voiced their concerns in a parliamentary Defence Select Committee session discussing the impact of the delay to the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) on 24 March.

Among them, Samira Braund, defence director for ADS, a UK trade organisation, acknowledged the Government will have to think about allocating its limited funds to support Gulf partners in the short term.

Last week, Government officials sought to repair the damage caused by its perceived weak response to the Iran-Middle East crisis, holding a meeting with representatives of Gulf states and 13 defence industry executives, affirming its support for the region.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) declined to comment on the total amount spent in deploying platforms, weapons systems and equipment to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East in the last several weeks.

Secure priorities, publish the DIP

Despite this reality, Braund suggested there may be ways for the country to “ring fence certain pots,” calling for the MoD to secure key defence programmes which the overdue DIP was meant to confirm at the end of 2025.

Although the panel welcomed certain contract awards, most notably the £1bn New Medium Helicopter deal, which will sustain work at Leonardo’s Yeovil plant, even though the company was the only tender for more than a year, many other programmes remain in limbo.

“We need to move [the DIP] to publication quickly,” Braund urged. The UK needs to send “smoke signals” to inject confidence in industry, prompting decisions to expand capacity or invest in a new generation of manufacturing specialists.

So far, however, MoD officials have only hinted at intangible contract incentives.

At the end of February, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard alluded to uncrewed vehicle orders, unable to afford any more conventional warships, after Babcock complete the production of Type 31 frigates at Rosyth Shipyard in the 2030s.

But in the meantime, small and medium sized enterprises across the UK are “going bust,” said another witness, Andrew Kinniburgh, director-general of Make UK Defence, which he said is having a ripple effect back up through the supply chain.

Kinniburgh ascribed this business decline to relentless energy costs, going so far as to warn that energy expenses are “slowly deindustrialising this country.”

While the MoD did not respond to Army Technology about whether commitments to the Gulf will further delay the DIP beyond the spring period, a spokesperson said: “We are working to finalise the DIP and will publish it as soon as possible.”