WASHINGTON — Hours before the expected publication of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP), the United Kingdom has released new details about its contents, emphasizing a dramatic shift to hybrid and unmanned systems for years to come.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will officially kick off the DIP rollout with a speech Tuesday at a “British defence firm.” But ahead of that speech, the MoD put out a release emphasising major investments and specific projects, including £5 billion ($6.6 billion) for a “drone transformation,” featuring a shift away from large naval ships to a “hybrid” fleet and a new collaborative combat aircraft program for the Royal Air Force.
“This game-changing investment will strengthen our Armed Forces on land, at sea and in the air, ensuring our servicemen and women have the cutting-edge capabilities they need to deter evolving threats and keep the British people safe,” Starmer said of the plan, according to the MoD’s release.
The total investment is reported to be £13.5 billion, far short of the £28 billion the MoD had originally requested.
As for the drone transformation, the MoD said the goal is to “build a flexible, integrated force with attack drones flying alongside Army helicopters, RAF jets made invisible from enemy detection with new drones, and a hybrid Royal Navy made up of crewed and uncrewed vessels.”
That “hybrid” naval fleet is among the shifts likely to make the most waves, as the UK is forgoing the planned purchase of Type 83 destroyers in favor of “at least six” of what the MoD is calling Common Combat Vessels. The Common Combat Vessel is envisioned as acting as a “control hub” for a fleet of aerial, surface and underwater drones.
“Rather than concentrating capability in a small number of large, expensive ships, the Royal Navy’s shift to a hybrid navy will mix crewed and uncrewed capabilities and be more suited to the pace and nature of modern warfare,” the MoD said in a separate release.
The preview rollout also announced a “new, national Collaborative Combat Air programme,” described as the “development of new autonomous fighter jets which will fly alongside crewed jets, to defend the UK’s skies with a demonstrator flying by at least 2030.”
That appears to be a separate effort from Project PANTHEON, which the MoD described as an effort to develop “a Hybrid Carrier Air Wing, including trialling jet-powered drones to work alongside our F-35B force[.]”
On land, the MoD said it would make a “major investment into inexpensive expendable autonomous systems and loitering munitions” as well as establish a new program to “rapidly develop and produce uncrewed vehicles and their associated mission systems[.]”
The DIP was originally supposed to be published months ago but became a hot-button issue amid the broader political turmoil in the UK. The sharp disagreement over topline defense funding spurred the surprise resignation earlier this month of secretary of state for defense John Healey, who has since been replaced by Minister of State at the Home Office Dan Jarvis. Jarvis, the MoD said Sunday, has spent the last several days on the job “refocusing” the DIP “so that it prioritises getting the latest kit into the hands of military personnel, including for the UK’s elite Commandos.”
Check back for more details on the DIP on Tuesday when it’s published in the UK. Tim Martin in Belfast and Ashley Roque in Washington contributed to this report.
