Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Accepted
Autonomy, including mixed crewed and uncrewed platforms, is increasingly crucial in modern warfare.
Conclusion
The Department said that autonomy is starting to really matter in warfare. The importance of having a mix of crewed and uncrewed platforms is now more apparent, such as by augmenting crewed helicopters with 11 Q 26 12 Qq 26, 44 and 45 13 Q 45 14 Q 26 15 Q 54 16 Qq 26 and 39 17 Q 39 10 autonomous collaborative platforms. Similarly, the use of artificial intelligence is important to support operations in battlefields when there are very high levels of electronic warfare.18
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the implicit recognition of the strategic importance of autonomy and AI in warfare, stating it has implemented lessons from Ukraine into procurement reforms and established UK Defence Innovation (UKDI).
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: June 2026 2.2 As the report recognises, the government has identified and implemented numerous 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. 2.3 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. 2.4 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. 2.5 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. 2.6 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. 2.7 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.