UK Strategic Defence Review: Making Britain Safer – Secure at Home, Strong Abroad ()

Key Chapter Title List

1. Prime Minister's Introduction
2. Defence Secretary's Foreword
3. Review Panel's Foreword
4. Introduction and Overview
5. The Necessity of Transformation
6. The Role of UK Defence
7. Transforming the UK's Way of Warfare
8. 1 The Integrated Force Model
9. 2 Innovation and Industry: A New Path for Deterrence and Growth
10. 3 'One Defence': People, Training, and Education
11. Allies and Partners
12. Homeland Defence and Resilience: A Whole-of-Society Approach
13. The Integrated Force: A Force for 21st Century Warfare
14. 1 UK Nuclear Deterrence
15. 2 The Maritime Domain
16. 3 The Land Domain
17. 4 The Air Domain
18. 5 The Space Domain
19. 6 The Cyber and Electromagnetic Domains
20. 7 Strategic Command

Document Overview

This Strategic Defence Review is a "comprehensive and thorough" defence assessment initiated by the UK Government in July 2024 and led by an external review panel, aiming to address the most severe and unpredictable security environment the UK has faced since the end of the Cold War. The report clearly states that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine constitutes a strategic inflection point, marking the return of interstate war to Europe, while rapid technological advancement is changing the character of warfare at an unprecedented pace. In this context, the UK's traditional military advantages are being eroded, and its critical national infrastructure faces daily 'grey zone' attacks below the threshold of war. The report argues that UK defence suffers from 'hollowness' in terms of size, readiness, and foundational capabilities, with its mindset and ways of working still rooted in peacetime, rendering it ill-prepared to effectively counter the threat of a high-intensity, protracted conflict with a 'peer' military power.

To this end, the report outlines a vision for defence transformation up to 2035: to build the UK into a "technology-enabled leading defence power," possessing an 'Integrated Force' capable of deterring, fighting, and winning through continuous innovation at wartime speed. The three core pillars of this vision are: integration by design, innovation-driven, and industry-backed. The 'Integrated Force' model aims to break down barriers between services, integrating the design, planning, and delivery of nuclear, conventional, and special forces under the unified military authority of the Chief of the Defence Staff into a more lethal and agile fighting force, underpinned by a common digital backbone and shared data. The report emphasizes the need to learn from the war in Ukraine by reshaping the relationship between defence and industry into a new partnership, fundamentally reforming procurement processes to adopt emerging technologies—particularly artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and uncrewed platforms—at wartime speed, and positioning defence spending as a new engine for UK economic growth.

The report establishes the fundamental principle of 'NATO First,' making strengthening the UK's contribution to NATO and Euro-Atlantic security the core of defence policy. However, it also stresses that 'NATO First' is not 'NATO Only,' and the UK must still uphold its interests and responsibilities in key regions such as the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East. The report also calls for a 'whole-of-society approach' to strengthen homeland defence and national resilience, enhancing the protection of critical national infrastructure through legislation, government-private sector collaboration, and public engagement, and preparing to mobilise reserve and industrial capacity in a crisis.

The review process extensively consulted over 1,700 individuals and organisations from within and outside government, held nearly 50 high-level expert challenge workshops, and introduced a 'Citizens' Panel' to provide a public perspective. The report puts forward 62 recommendations covering all aspects from nuclear deterrence modernisation and capability building across all operational domains to constructing a digital target network, and reforming defence healthcare, infrastructure, and personnel policies. The UK Government has committed to accepting and implementing all these recommendations and plans to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, rising to 3% in the next parliament subject to economic and fiscal conditions. This assessment marks the beginning of a new era for UK defence strategy, aimed at rebuilding readiness, strengthening deterrence, and adapting to the realities of 21st-century warfare.