Britain’s armed forces may lack the “modern battle-winning capabilities” they need to meet the demands of future warfare, MPs have said.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a reminder of the “risks and responsibilities” that come with the UK’s membership in Nato.
But while other countries have been developing new technology such as hypersonic weapons, the committee said the Ministry of Defence has had to face “capability gaps” in the current forces.
The Government Integrated Review of foreign policy and defence last year identified Russia as “the most acute threat” to national security.
But the committee said it was concerned that recent events meant the ministry still “downplays” the scale of the threat Moscow poses to the UK’s interests.
Despite a £16.5 billion budget increase in the four years to 2024-25, the committee expressed frustration with the “complacency” within the ministry over the affordability of its equipment plan.
“We are concerned that the department may not have identified all the modern battle-winning capabilities our armed forces need and also that it is not developing its existing large programmes with sufficient urgency,” it said.
“The invasion of Ukraine highlights rapid technological advances by other potential adversaries beg serious questions about the pace, scope and ambition of the department’s equipment plan.”
The committee said that while the ministry was beginning to develop next-generation systems, there was “relatively little money” to exploit promising research during the coming decade and a lack of clarity as to whether they would be truly “battle-winning”.
It noted that new radar for the RAF’s Typhoon fighter jets was not due to enter service until 2030, even though it was first announced in 2015 and development work had begun much earlier.
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The committee also questioned the overall affordability of the equipment plan, which depended upon delivering billions of pounds of future cost reductions but no plans as to how they would be achieved.
It expressed concern that a Treasury “contingency” for the new Dreadnought submarines — which will carry the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent — was being seen as a “blank cheque” by the ministry, “freeing it from the need to control costs”.
Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier, said: “The MoD trumpeted a step change in this year’s equipment plan after the Integrated Review, with new priorities and a huge cash injection — but the invasion of Ukraine has cast in stark relief the realities of current and future warfare.
“Senior officials appear unable to recognise the poor state of affairs in MoD’s procurement or the deep-rooted issues that undermine our confidence that it will actually get a grip on the situation.
“A diminished role in global security, enhanced risk to our national security and the service personnel defending it are the unacceptable costs of the ministry’s ongoing and repeated failures.”
