The Committee welcomes written evidence on the following: Are the armed forces sufficiently capable, resourced and ready to protect the UK and our allies? What are the main gaps in capability and/or readiness, and what will it take to fill these gaps? Are the UK armed forces a ‘tier one fighting force’? Do they need …
| Title | HC No. | Published | Items | Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Report - Ready for War? | HC 26 | 4 Feb 2024 | 132 | Responded |
The Chief of the Defence Staff told us that whilst there may be a tension between training and operational sorties, by Spring 2023 the RAF had delivered twice as many operational sorties as in the previous 12 months while also managing to deploy to the US Red Flag series of …
The Chief of the Air Staff argued that the RAF had benefitted significantly from investment in the past 15 years which had resulted in the bringing into service the F-35 fleet; A400M fleet; the Voyager fleet and the P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft fleet. This had made the RAF “more capable” …
He acknowledged the difficulty of talking about readiness in relation to Strategic Command given that “a lot of my organisation operates at readiness all the time, and readiness does not apply to quite a lot of my organisation”. He cited the nature of “constant engagement” in the work of PJHQ; …
When we asked the Commander Strategic Command how he was working on alleviating shortfalls, he provided the following examples: Health • Increasing the level of medical stocks whilst working with the NHS to ensure rotation the stock from MOD shelves through the NHS in order to avoid wasting product by …
The Government has previously pointed to its successes in signing contracts—in June 2022 it noted that it had secured “contracts for Next Generation Light AntiTank Weapons, Starstreak High Velocity Missiles, Lightweight Multirole Missiles, Archer 6X6 Artillery 132 Q406 133 Q406–7 134 Q453 135 Q213; 220; 237; 322 136 Ammunition supply …
We address the DCP23’s policy intentions on the MOD’s relationship with industry and the steps it has subsequently taken to improve industrial capacity in the final chapter on strategic readiness. Recruitment and retention
In December 2023, we were told that budgetary constraints meant that training had been cut in 2023 (and had the potential of being cut similarly in 2024) in order to manage the pressures on the defence budget.184 As the Chief of the General Staff noted, training is a vital part …
Military Aid to Civil Authorities (MACA) requests are an additional operational pressure on the armed forces, but we are unable to quantify this without information on the impact of MACA on the readiness of the Armed Forces, requested from the Government in November 2023, but not received at the time …
Service accommodation is also part of the package of incentives available to the Armed Forces and their families. We expect to report separately on this later in 2024.193
The Minister for the Armed Forces welcomed the work ongoing in relation to the Haythornthwaite recommendations but when asked whether that work could be speeded up, told us that whilst the MOD’s inclination was to implement as many of the recommendations as possible, that work was not cost-neutral and the …
The original Defence Command Paper (DCP21) had committed to reserve forces being “given new, more clearly defined roles” including providing “capacity, alongside their regular and civilian colleagues, and an alternative source of diverse talent to conduct operations at home and abroad”. The MOD would “create an efficient and fluid spectrum …
Both the Chief of the Defence Staff and the MOD Permanent Secretary pointed out that much of the work relating to the Haythornthwaite Review would impact on thinking about the Reserves.200 In July 2023 the Chief of the Defence Staff told us that the MOD intended to respond to Lord …
It therefore goes wider than the remit of the Ministry of Defence—for example, having appropriate infrastructure and sufficient skilled and experienced workers are areas which are vital but are responsibilities of other government departments.230 A current example of this is that the national skills shortage is the main cause of …
| Date | Witnesses | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Nov 2023 | General Sir Jim Hockenhull · Ministry of Defence, Rt Hon James Heappey MP · Ministry of Defence | View ↗ |
| 14 Nov 2023 | Admiral Sir Ben Key KCB CBE · Ministry of Defence, Rear Admiral Steve Moorhouse CBE · Ministry of Defence | View ↗ |
| 7 Nov 2023 | Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton KCB · Ministry of Defence, General Sir Patrick Sanders · Ministry of Defence | View ↗ |
| 21 Jun 2023 | General (Retd) Sir Nick Carter, Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) | View ↗ |
| 20 Jun 2023 | The Lord Houghton of Richmond GCB CBE DL | View ↗ |
| 6 Jun 2023 | Dr Simon Anglim · Kings College London, Nick Childs · The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Professor Justin Bronk · RUSI | View ↗ |