The UK will boost its submarine fleet with plans to build up to 12 new nuclear-powered attack boats as the country moves to “warfighting readiness”, Sir Keir Starmer will announce today.
The increase in state-of-the-art attack submarines forms part of the Government’s highly anticipated Strategic Defence Review, which ministers said will send a “message to Moscow” in the face of mounting aggression from the Kremlin.
It comes alongside a renewed commitment to deliver the fleet of Dreadnought nuclear-armed submarines, with a £15bn investment into the sovereign warhead programme over this parliament, which will ensure the UK maintains its continuous at-sea deterrent.
In response to the review, the Government will make a “landmark shift” in the UK’s approach to deterrence and defence, moving the country to warfighting readiness in order to deter threats and strengthen security in the Euro-Atlantic region.
It include a major increase in munitions stockpiles and support equipment, to ensure the country is better prepared for crises or all out war. As part of this, up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons will be purchased, supporting 800 defence jobs.
From the late 2030s, the UK will dramatically scale up its submarine fleet, building one new nuclear-powered boat every 18 months at BAE’s Barrow shipyard and Rolls-Royce’s Raynesway site in Derby. The new SSN-AUKUS fleet will from the late 2030s replace the UK’s seven Astute Class attack submarines.
An MoD source said the “drumbeat” of 18-month turnaround times for new submarines represented an “unprecedented rate” in the modern era and would be a “huge investment in the infrastructure that is needed at Barrow and at Derby”.
Building the new submarines, which is part of the Aukus partnership with the US and Australia, will support 30,000 highly skilled jobs into the 2030s as well as 30,000 apprenticeships and 14,000 graduate roles across the next 10 years, the Ministry of Defence said.
The Prime Minister said: “This Strategic Defence Review will ensure the UK rises to the challenge and our Armed Forces have the equipment they need that keeps us safe at home while driving greater opportunity for our engineers, shipbuilders and technicians of the future.”
Today’s publication of the review marks a shift in approach to deterrence, with Defence Secretary John Healey telling the BBC on Sunday: “The world is more uncertain. The tensions are greater but we prepare for war in order to secure the peace. If you’re strong enough to defeat an enemy you deter them from attacking in the first place.”
He said Russia is “attacking the UK daily” as part of some 90,000 cyber attacks from state-linked sources were directed at the UK’s defence over the last two years.
Former Tory defence minister Tobias Ellwood said the SDR would be “very different” to previous defence reviews, and would shift the UK to a “whole of society approach” to warfare, which he said would be a “step towards national service potentially being on the way”.
Ellwood said lessons were constantly being learned from Ukraine, which has utilised drones to maximum effect in its war with Russia, while he said the authors of the SDR have also looked to Finland and Norway, which have smaller full-time armies backed by civilian forces ready to deploy if called upon.
He added that if the electricity were to go down, as seen in Spain and Portugal recently, “an all of society approach means every community has the resilience, the capabilities to stand up and know what to do”.
“And we’re far from that,” he added.
As revealed by The i Paper last week, the SDR will also deploy cyber experts on the battlefield alongside the regular Armed Forces as part of a major modernisation of the British military to prepare for drone warfare.
A new “digital warfighting group” with skills in hacking and cyber operations will work alongside infantry soldiers to scramble enemy drone signals, take down drone “swarms” and launch counter-attacks, if the UK is engaged in another war.
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