Defence Secretary outlines 2030 vision for British military

Fewer boots on the ground in favour of drones and cyber warfare

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has outlined the 2030 vision for the country's armed forces, as part of government's plan to further modernise and upgrade military capabilities. The intent is to ensure that British forces are prepared for new and emerging threats, which are no longer limited to the phsyical world.

The strategy, 'Defence in a Competitive Age,' comes off the back of the government's recent 'Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy,' which is being billed as the largest foreign and security policy overhaul since the Cold War.

The new strategy proposes investing billions of pounds across land, air, sea, cyber and space domains, to enable fast responses to the equally swift changes in the field.

The plan is to reduce the number of active personnel and instead focus more on the use of unmanned technologies.

According to the report, the size of the British Army could be reduced from a current strength of 76,500 personnel down to 72,500 by 2025, to make more funds available for drones, robots and cyber warfare.

The Defence Department will spend more than £85 billion on equipment over the next four years, intending to help the armed forces 'adapt, compete effectively, and fight decisively when needed'. This will also support about 400,000 jobs across the UK.

Moreover, the British Army will receive an additional £3 billion to spend on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), long-range rocket systems, new vehicles, air defence systems, cyber capabilities and electronic warfare.

About £1.5 billion will be spent on a 'digital backbone', enabling the military to use massive amounts of data to improve decision-making. The report states the data will come 'through the cloud, and across secure networks that are resilient to cyber-attacks from state, proxy and terrorist adversaries.'

Another £6.6 billion will go into R&D projects to build new equipment capabilities, mainly in space, where the Defence Ministry plans to set up a surveillance and reconnaissance satellite constellation.

UK air capabilities will be boosted with an investment of over £2 billion in the Future Combat Air System.

"For the first time that I can remember we have an alignment of the ends, ways and means to modernise and transform the posture of our nation's armed forces to meet the threats of a more uncertain and dangerous world," Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter said.

Wallace says the strategy proposed in the Defence Command Paper will ensure that British forces are "threat-focused, modernised and financially sustainable".

"We will continue to work with allied partners to address future global security threats whilst also enhancing critical outputs in the battlespace domains," he added.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Britain needs to advance its cyber capabilities, to ensure that threats from adversaries in cyber space are "thwarted at every turn".

The government announced the UK's new National Cyber Force (NCF) in November last year, to counter threats from hostile nations by targeting them digitally.

NCF has apparently been operating secretly since April 2020, with many experts from GCHQ, MI6 and the armed forces based at GCHQ's headquarters at Cheltenham; the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down; and several other military sites around the country.

According to the PM's Office, the NCF will be permanently based in northern England, as part of the government's efforts to establish a 'cyber corridor' across the region and to drive growth in digital, tech and defence sectors outside London.