Snapshot: UK Defence Review 2021

This Integrated Review was previously described by Boris Johnson as the largest defence review of its kind since the Cold War and "will send a message about what the UK stands for as an independent actor on the global stage". The report was published in March 2021 following the announcement of ￡16.5bn additional funding for MOD over the next four years.

Below is a brief summary of outputs from the Defence Command Paper titled 'Defence in a Competitive Age':

Royal Navy

HMS Trent, a Batch 2 River-class patrol vessel, will be permanently based in Gibraltar, and HMS Tamar (P233) will be permanently based in the Indo-Pacific.

A new surveillance ship will be acquired, tasked to deal with protecting critical national infrastructure, such as undersea cables.

Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel and Sandown-class minehunter will be replaced by autonomous minehunting vessels.

A Bay-class landing ship will be converted to a littoral strike role for the Royal Marines, who will also evolve into the Future Commando Force and be forward-based.

The Type 83 destroyer will be developed to replace the Type 45 destroyers in the late 2030s.

Two Type 23 Frigates will be retired early, before an increase in numbers with the introduction of the Type 26 Frigate and Type 31 Frigate.

Harpoon will be retired and replaced by the interim Surface to Surface Guided Weapon; the Type 45 Destroyer will also receive upgraded air defence weapons.

British Army

The British Army will be reduced in size, to 72,500 regular personnel by 2025, with no change in reserves.

77 Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks will be retired, with the remaining 148 upgraded to Challenger 3.

The planned Warrior upgrade will be cancelled, and instead the vehicles will be retired upon the introduction of Boxer in the mid-2020s.

￡250 million will be invested in Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).

￡800 million will be invested in a new automated fires platform.

The Infantry will be restructured into four new administrative divisions.

A new four-battalion Ranger Regiment will be formed, from the Royal Scots Borderers; 2nd Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment; 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment; and 4th Battalion, The Rifles. The new regiment will sit within a newly-formed Army Special Operations Brigade.

A new Global Readiness Force will be formed, consisting of a newly formed 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, and 16 Air Assault Brigade, the latter of which will be reinforced by a further infantry unit.

The British Army will be re-organised into 7 self-sufficient Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) – two heavy, two light, one deep strike, one air maneuvre, and one combat aviation.

The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Mercian Regiment will be amalgamated.

A Security Force Assistance Brigade will be formed to assist and train partner nations.

Manning will increase in the areas of electronic warfare, air defence, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

23 Gazelle, 20 Puma, and 5 Bell 212 will be replaced by a new medium-lift helicopter.

Royal Air Force

￡2 billion will be invested over the next 4 years, into the Future Combat Air System, alongside further development of the LANCA UCAV system.

The UK will commit to grow the F-35B fleet beyond 48 aircraft.

24 Typhoons retired in the next few years, Hawk T1 will go too.

Five E-3D Sentry early warning aircraft will be replaced by a more capable but smaller fleet of three E7 Wedgetail in 2023. These will be based at RAF Lossiemouth.

The UK will retire the C130-J Hercules in 2023, after 24 years of service. Twenty-two A400Ms, alongside the C17s remain.

Counter terrorism operations are currently supported by nine Reaper RPAS (‘drones’) which will be replaced by 16 Protectors by 2024.

The UK will further develop combat drone swarm technologies.

The UK will upgrade the remaining Typhoon jets radars and introduce Spear Cap 3 deep strike capabilities.

Other

￡200 million will be invested in enhanced electronic warfare & signals intelligence capability.

￡6.6 billion will be invested into space over the next 4 years.

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