Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 117
117
Accepted
DCP23 highlights MOD's critical role in homeland strategic resilience and defence improvements
Conclusion
The Defence Command Paper Refresh (DCP23) looked at the requirements for strategic resilience in its final chapter. In relation to the defence of the homeland, the MOD highlighted areas where Defence plays a critical role, including the policing of national airspace (through the constant provision of Quick Reaction Alert aircraft) and UK waters (monitored by maritime patrol aircraft, surveillance software, coastal radar, 227 Q350 228 Q351; 361; 374; 402; 446; 453 229 Q472–3 230 Q473; Oral evidence taken on 18 April 2023, HC (2022–23) 1246, Q56 231 Oral evidence taken on 12 December 2023, HC (2023–24) 54, Q118 232 Q383 Ready for War? 45 aviation operations, space-based reconnaissance, and government vessels)233 The DCP23 committed the MOD to increasing efforts to deliver integrated air and missile defence with the RAF promoting the use of “advanced ground-based, airborne, at sea and space-based sensors, and an extensive range of air and missile capabilities, including counter-UAS, to detect, protect and defend the UK”.234 The MOD also announced it would examine the missile “detection and interception technologies of the future”.235 In November 2023, we heard that proposals to strengthen “medium-range air defence system and improving its command-and-control capability, to go beyond what we currently have in the Falklands and to develop a contingent capability” were shortly to go before the investment approvals committee in the MOD.236
Government Response Summary
The government lists military outputs and non-discretionary tasks related to strategic resilience, confirms the importance of Reserves, and reiterates the Armed Forces' ongoing role in civil contingencies and national security.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Releasable Detail from DPA23 4 x Military Outputs: 1. Strategic Resilience 2. NATO Contribution 3. Crisis Response 4. Global Competition Redacted Non-Discretionary Tasks: 1. CASD. 2. Protect UK seas, airspace, cyberspace and outer space assets. 3. NATO commitments. 4. Warfighting in the Euro-Atlantic. 5. Operations outside the NATO Area. 6. Defence specialist capabilities for MACA. 7. Small scale crisis response. 8. Medium scale framework nation. Our strategic resilience draws also from our ability to mobilise at scale our military resources in a time of crisis in response to threats to our homeland. Our Reserves, with specialist skills and unique connections, will be at the heart of this effort, forming the core of the second- and third echelon forces that will reinforce and sustain warfighting capabilities and protect the homeland. The Strategic Reserve–built around the ex-regular reserve forces–will add further depth of capability, able to generate previously unassigned surge capacity and wider access to expertise in time of crisis or national emergencies. On Civil Contingencies, the UK’s Armed Forces continue to form an integral part of the Government’s effort to counter the threat from terrorism and other emergent crises–at home as well as overseas. We will continue to support the civil authorities more generally and will hold forces at high levels of readiness to respond to a wide range of national events and crises.