Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Update Committee by June 2026 on operational improvements identified from Ukraine support.
Conclusion
Lessons learned from supporting Ukraine have made the Department examine its own decision-making and procurement processes, finding some of them in need of improvement. The Department has learned several lessons from its support for Ukraine. These include: the need for a mixture of high-end capabilities, such as Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, and affordable high-mass equipment, such as drones; the importance of augmenting crewed capabilities, such as helicopters, with uncrewed autonomous collaborative platforms; the advantages of having fewer systems for easier logistics management; and having the industrial ability and capacity to sustain equipment if supply chains are disrupted. The Department has responded to these lessons by splitting its procurement of military equipment into three segments: big strategic programmes to provide long-term platforms, such as submarines, ships and aeroplanes; 4 programmes for developing capabilities used on the platforms; and the rapid development and deployment of inexpensive, innovative capabilities. The Department also recognises it must reassess what financial and operational risk it is willing to tolerate, because a higher risk appetite allows it to deliver equipment quicker. In addition, the Department has learned that the pace of innovation means equipment can become outdated quickly, so it must adapt to ending programmes sooner and disposing of equipment which no longer meets requirements. recommendation The Department should update the Committee by the end of June 2026 on what further improvements to how it operates it has identified from its support for Ukraine, and how it will implement them.
Government Response Summary
The government details ongoing reforms to procurement processes, including tailoring acquisition, early industry engagement, driving pace through spiral acquisition, and establishing UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) on 1 July 2025 to implement lessons learned from supporting Ukraine.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. lessons learned from supplying Ukraine into how it is reforming the department’s procurement processes, and the department is committed to continuing to learn from this conflict. The conflict in Ukraine has shown that the department must fundamentally change the way it procures. The rapidly changing threat and technology environment requires the department to increase the pace of military capability delivery, maximise the output from the defence budget, and ensure that the department can innovate at a wartime pace. The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) recognised the complexity of the defence operating environment and the imperative to reflect national and industrial needs in the department’s procurement strategies. The department’s response to Ukraine has shown that the system can work in an agile and accelerated way, balancing risk to deliver capability at pace. The vision set out in the SDR is now being delivered through Defence Reform. As such, the department is reforming its acquisition system to drive increased pace and agility in capability delivery. A new segmented approach to procurement will enable tailoring of acquisition processes to the type of capability, supplier and risk involved. The department will also engage with industry early, rewarding productivity and risk-taking and sharing risk with suppliers earlier in capability development to increase the speed of delivery whilst ensuring alignment. The department will drive pace through approaches such as spiral acquisition to deliver a minimum deployable capability to the front line more rapidly and then iterate it to adapt quickly to a changing environment. On 1 July 2025, the department stood up UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), a new organisation that draws on lessons learned from Ukraine, MOD’s own best practice and the experience of international partners. UKDI will ruthlessly prioritise to focus on the areas with most potential, with significant freedoms to contract with speed, simplicity, and flexibility, harnessing and bolstering the competitiveness of the UK’s tech sector, as well as further supporting UK SMEs.