Government needs a big idea for defence – or these are just cuts

The Defence Secretary is seen with the Chancellor at a military facility
John Healey, seen here with Rachel Reeves, has announced his decision before the strategic defence review - Leon Neal/PA

Any decision by the Ministry of Defence to cut – sorry, retire early – certain pieces of long-treasured equipment such as planes, ships or helicopters, is usually followed by a chorus from retired military types of “what’s the big idea?”.

The announcement by John Healey, the Defence Secretary, of bringing forward the dates for the “disposal of legacy equipment” should be met with exactly that question – but not for reasons of misplaced and rose-tinted nostalgia.

It is extraordinary that the MoD should choose to take such action today, given almost every question put to the Government since it took power about how it plans to defend the realm has been met with “wait until after the Strategic Defence Review.”

Only when the review has decided the “ends” of Government defence policy (what it is trying to achieve) and the “ways” (through what mix of capabilities will this aim be achieved) can the “means” (the actual kit) be thought about.

The ongoing review is expected to report early next year, and there is no point second-guessing any aspect of defence until then, officials tell us. In which case, how can the Defence Secretary be absolutely sure Britain will not need the Watchkeeper drones, anti-submarine frigate or helicopters he announced would be mothballed?

Perhaps they could “retire early” the Strategic Defence Review, as it would appear it is no longer necessary: either the MoD already knows the answer to the ends-ways-means conundrum, or these cuts have just been a cash-saving exercise.

The timing of these defence cuts is appalling.

Absent of any “big idea” (“that will come in the Strategic Defence Review”, one can almost hear an MoD official saying), Donald Trump won’t care that this is old kit being put out of its misery (although Watchkeeper only fully entered service in 2018).

All he’ll see is yet another European nation ditching heavy metal just as they cry out for the US to do more to support Ukraine.

Looking at the defence cuts today, it seems the Government has decided two things.

First, it appears Keir Starmer wants to get out of the amphibious warfare game. Yes, Britain’s two amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, have been in a sorry state of repair for years, but to say the full gamut of amphibious warfare capabilities can be seamlessly picked up by the three Bay-class Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels is as believable as mermaids.

A cartoon by blower shows a Navy crew crammed into a dinghy while their rusty warship sinks behind them
A cartoon by blower shows a Navy crew crammed into a dinghy while their rusty warship sinks behind them

Second, it seems the Government has decided that highly sophisticated but eye-wateringly expensive drone capabilities like Watchkeeper are not worth it, given the evidence from Ukraine suggests incremental development of affordable mass will succeed on an attritional battlefield.

Mass, attrition and “old-school” military capabilities are coming back into fashion. They may lack the Hollywood appeal of fancy kit and cyber war but, with thousands of drones being lost every week in Ukraine, it is foolish to keep investing in exotic, and very precious kit.

As the former head of the army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, said, you can’t cyber your way across a river.

So if the Government believes His Majesty’s Armed Forces will no longer have to make an opposed landing on a hostile shore, and at the same time is about to announce huge investments in British defence companies to produce less-sophisticated but much more numerous and affordable equipment, maybe it is a good idea to put some warhorses, old and new, out to pasture.

If this is not just a cost-saving exercise and is, in fact, born of a coherent and affordable plan for defence, why the need for the Strategic Defence Review?

In other words, what’s the big idea?