The UK must harbour no illusions about the threats it faces, its vulnerabilities, and the pressing nature of the response needed, according to the Strategic Defence Review 2025, subtitled Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad. It advocates a ‘whole-of-society approach’.
As for critical national infrastructure (CNI), the Review says much greater focus is needed on ensuring the UK’s CNI is protected from attack, ‘below and above the threshold of war’. The Review says that state-backed cyber-attacks and sabotage campaigns ‘already cause substantial disruption to UK public services, incurring significant recovery costs’. The document points to the upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) ‘which is intended to strengthen UK cyber defences’.
The Review admits that many CNI operators ‘do not have the ability to protect the infrastructure they own in the face of such complex and evolving threats. The MoD [Ministry of Defence] should explore, with wider Government, options for a ‘new deal’ for the defence of CNI’, the document says. It suggests that the Royal Navy should take a new leading and coordinating role in securing undersea pipelines, cables, and maritime traffic carrying the UK’s information, energy, and goods.
It’s suggested that Government look at its options for ‘a new force that is modelled on the Reserves and connects local communities with Defence: recruited and employed locally, with a narrowly defined remit and training commitment’. This could sit under the Reserves Forces structure, led by the Army, and equipped with ‘basic communications, weapons, and technology such as drones’, the Review suggests.
The 144-page document states that ‘what has happened to Ukraine since 2022’, Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, ‘shows what modern conflict can be like, including the ripple effects reaching far beyond the battlespace’. Hence the document says that the Government must make national resilience to threats below and above the threshold of an armed attack, ‘through a concerted, collective effort involving — among others — industry, the finance sector, civil society, academia, education, and communities’.
The Review stresses that the armed forces should be ‘reconnecting with society’; among the ideas are to expand Cadet Forces; and invite leaders of FTSE100 and other ‘relevant’ companies, and civil society to attend Defence courses, ‘either bespoke offerings or parts of courses such as those offered by the Defence Academy’. This would in the words of the document ‘increase understanding of society’s role in national resilience and industrial mobilisation in the event of war’.
Defence Secretary John Healey said at a meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Brussels: “We will invest in technology to give our troops the edge in the battlefields of the future; transforming our Armed Forces and boosting our war-fighting readiness. This will increase our lethality, provide a powerful deterrent to our adversaries, and put the UK at the leading edge of innovation in NATO. We will back UK business to innovate at a war time pace; creating highly skilled jobs and fast-tracking the weapons of tomorrow into the hands of our warfighters, as part of our Government’s Plan for Change.”
For the policy paper, visit the MoD website.
Comment
The defence and security trade association ADS Group described the Review as ‘a defining moment for the UK’s security and resilience sector’. Jon Gray, ADS Director – Security & Resilience, said: “As the silent guardian to the UK, our sector continues to deliver the critical technologies that protect lives, safeguard infrastructure, and enable the UK to uphold its international responsibilities. The SDR rightly seeks to build on this foundation.”
