WASHINGTON \u2014 Hours before the expected publication of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP), the United Kingdom has released new details about its contents, emphasizing a dramatic shift to hybrid and unmanned systems for years to come.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will officially kick off the DIP rollout with a speech Tuesday at a \u201cBritish defence firm.\u201d But ahead of that speech, the MoD put out a release<\/a> emphasising major investments and specific projects, including \u00a35 billion ($6.6 billion) for a \u201cdrone transformation,\u201d featuring a shift away from large naval ships to a \u201chybrid\u201d fleet and a new collaborative combat aircraft program for the Royal Air Force.<\/p>\n \u201cThis game-changing investment will strengthen our Armed Forces on land, at sea and in the air, ensuring our servicemen and women have the cutting-edge capabilities they need to deter evolving threats and keep the British people safe,\u201d Starmer said of the plan, according to the MoD\u2019s release.<\/p>\n The total investment is reported<\/a> to be \u00a313.5 billion, far short of the \u00a328 billion the MoD had originally requested.<\/p>\n As for the drone transformation, the MoD said the goal is to \u201cbuild a flexible, integrated force with attack drones\u202fflying\u202falongside Army\u202fhelicopters, RAF\u202fjets\u202fmade\u202finvisible from enemy detection with\u202fnew drones, and a hybrid Royal Navy made up of crewed and uncrewed vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201chybrid\u201d naval fleet is among the shifts likely to make the most waves, as the UK is forgoing the planned purchase of Type 83 destroyers in favor of \u201cat least six\u201d of what the MoD is calling Common Combat Vessels. The Common Combat Vessel is envisioned as acting as a \u201ccontrol hub\u201d for a fleet of aerial, surface and underwater drones.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than concentrating capability in a small number of large, expensive ships, the Royal Navy\u2019s shift to a hybrid navy will mix crewed and uncrewed capabilities and be more suited to the pace and nature of modern warfare,\u201d the MoD said<\/a> in a separate release.<\/p>\n The preview rollout also announced a \u201cnew, national Collaborative Combat Air programme,\u201d described as the \u201cdevelopment of new autonomous fighter jets which will fly alongside crewed jets, to defend the UK\u2019s skies with a demonstrator flying by at least 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n That appears to be a separate effort from Project PANTHEON, which the MoD described as an effort to develop \u201ca Hybrid Carrier Air Wing, including trialling jet-powered drones to work alongside our F-35B force[.]\u201d<\/p>\n On land, the MoD said it would make a \u201cmajor investment into inexpensive expendable autonomous systems and loitering munitions\u201d as well as establish a new program to \u201crapidly develop and produce uncrewed vehicles and their associated mission systems[.]\u201d<\/p>\n The DIP was originally supposed to be published months ago but became a hot-button issue amid the broader political turmoil in the UK. The sharp disagreement over topline defense funding spurred the surprise resignation<\/a> earlier this month of secretary of state for defense John Healey, who has since been replaced by Minister of State at the Home Office Dan Jarvis. Jarvis, the MoD said Sunday<\/a>, has spent the last several days on the job \u201crefocusing\u201d the DIP \u201cso that it prioritises getting the latest kit into the hands of military personnel, including for the UK\u2019s elite Commandos.\u201d<\/p>\n Check back for more details on the DIP on Tuesday when it\u2019s published in the UK. Tim Martin in Belfast and Ashley Roque in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Hours before the expected publication of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP), the United Kingdom has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[23071,28532,4977,13,2100,24504,252,25119,9908,8489,2016,5590,33299,216,31125,5],"class_list":["post-73071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-air-force","tag-ajax","tag-army","tag-britain","tag-drones","tag-eurofighter-typhoon","tag-europe","tag-f-35a","tag-f-35b","tag-global","tag-nato","tag-navy","tag-new-medium-helicopter","tag-royal-navy","tag-space-force","tag-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116836423637699956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}