Ahead of Strategic Defense Review, UK Defense Secretary Announces Equipment Cuts

On November 20, U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey announced a slate of decommissioning initiatives aimed at saving £500 million ($623 million) over five years. The equipment slated for retirement, the defense secretary noted, is all effectively outdated and/or unused. Platforms being mothballed include five naval warships, 31 helicopters, and the British Army’s entire inventory of 46 Watchkeeper unmanned airborne systems (UASs) used in the intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) role.

Healy stated that the cuts will accrue savings equaling £150 million ($188 million) through the coming two years, and an overall £500 million through five years. He noted that all the savings would be “retained in full in defense.”

While the Conservative political opposition decried the announcement, Healy went on to state that the cuts were all backed service chiefs and made in consultation with the panel of advisors charged with drafting an upcoming Strategic Defense Review (SDR) due to be released in mid-2025. He also pointed out that the Labour government inherited a defense equipment budget left in poor shape by the Conservatives.

Healy’s claim is supported by the National Audit Office (NAO) in its December 2023 report which determined that a £16.9 billion ($21.2 billion) imbalance between what is planned and what is budgeted for had emerged. That deficit represented the largest since the Ministry of Defence (MoD) first began publishing its ten-year equipment plan outlook in 2012.

In July, Healy announced that this “black hole” in the defense equipment budget stood higher than the NAO’s earlier estimate, stretching upwards to £22 billion ($27.6 billion).

Such an imbalance served to reinforce the Healy-led MoD’s equipment cut decisions, which covered platforms nearing retirement or currently out of service, or – in the case of the Watchkeeper UAS – perceived as not worth the investment to upgrade.

Additionally, Healy and the Labour government can fall back on an earlier announcement by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, of a £2.9 billion ($3.77 billion) hike for the defense budget in fiscal year 2025-2026 as a defense against political opposition claims of undercutting the British armed forces.

The catch for the Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer is, however, a campaign pledge to bring Britain’s topline defense budget up to a level of 2.5 percent of GDP at an unspecified time.

With the future of defense expenditure to be shaped largely by the upcoming SDR, Healy opted to get ahead of certain choices by mothballing what he termed as “outdated capabilities.”

Most noteworthy of the announced cuts are two amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, which are to be officially retired by year-end. These two ships – used by the Royal Marines – remained actively in service on paper but were, in actuality, sitting unused and costing £9 million annually to retain. Both ships were slated for official retirement between 2033 and 2034, although they were effectively already retired and long out of service. Going forward they are to be replaced by the conceptual Multi-Role Support Ship (MRSS), which form a part of the government’s long-term naval modernization strategy.

Two other ships – Wave-class auxiliary oilers RFA Wave Knight and RFA Wave Ruler – will be retired by March 2025. They have been unused since 2017 and 2022, respectively, and are being replaced by four newer Tide-class fleet tankers that were commissioned into service between 2017 and 2019.

The fifth ship to come under the axe is the Type 23 frigate HMS Northumberland, which will also be retired by March 2025. This warship was deemed uneconomical to repair following the discovery of structural damage during its current refit. The Northumberland, like the entire Type 23 fleet, will be replaced by the newer Type 26 frigates, the first of which is expected to be commissioned in late 2027.

As for the helicopters, Healy’s announcement covers fourteen CH-47 Chinooks heavy-lift helicopters (some over 35 years old) and the remaining fleet of 17 Puma multirole units. The latter were already slated for retirement in 2025 under the auspices of the previous Defence Command Paper. However, where that strategic document noted the Pumas would be replaced by the New Medium Helicopter (NMH) that project is now uncertain following the decision by two potential competitors – Airbus Helicopters and Lockheed Martin – to opt from submitting bids, leaving just Leonardo to pitch a rotorcraft alternative.

Meanwhile, the older Chinooks will be replaced by the H-47ER (Extended Range) starting in 2027.

All told the cuts announced by Healy are not drastic, but – as Healy himself pointed out in his announcement of them to the House of Commons – they do portend a further round of tough choices to be made regarding existing military capabilities ahead of (or in parallel with) the SDR.

Further, they expose emerging or growing gaps in ambitions versus reality, particularly on the naval front. Where the Royal Navy featured 19 surface combatants (destroyers and frigates) as recently as 2021, that number now dwindles to just 14 vessels. With the previous figure of 19 warships already considered too low, the gap between where the U.K. wants to be – as outlined by former PM Boris Johnson’s plan to grow the fleet to around 25 such warships by the mid-2030s – and where it currently stands is yawning.

Current plans call for acquisition of eight Type 26 frigates and five general-purpose Type 31 frigates. Some of these are already under construction or on order. The Type 26 will replace the remaining Type 23 frigates with the lead ship, HMS Glasgow, not expected to achieve initial operating capability (IOC) until 2028.

Without the two amphibious ships the Royal Navy will now need to find answers for its Littoral Response Group (LRG) ambitions as the prospective six-ship MRSS procurement remains distant. The MRSS have still not advanced through the design phase yet, though they are seen as integral to long-term naval goals and therefore likely to be spelled out as a clear requirement in the upcoming SDR.

As for the helicopter cuts, the largest question will be the fate of the NMH program, which – like the MRSS project – will likely be framed within the SDR, whether it survives or is scrapped in favor of another alternative.

Another important thing to note in the wake of the equipment cuts is that the MoD announced a retention bonus scheme unfolding over three years that will benefit 12,000 Army personnel, with another 5,000 aircraft engineers spread across the three service branches also eligible. With years of reports of poor retention in the service branches this is a crucial step towards shoring up the backbone of U.K. defense.

All this represents but a small, initial step by the Labour government to tackle many of the questions facing the British security environment and armed forces. Harder questions, tougher choices and important answers await.