Challenges in British munitions supply

During a Defence Committee session, Defence Secretary John Healey outlined key challenges affecting the UK’s defence industrial capacity and provided insights into strategies to address them.

The discussion focused on long-term planning, industrial partnerships, and replenishing stockpiles of critical munitions.

Healey identified three main issues impacting the defence industry:

1. Short-Term Contracts: Healey criticised the traditional contract-by-contract approach, describing it as unsustainable for leveraging private investment. He called for a shift to long-term partnerships between the Government, businesses, and trade unions, “If we want to leverage higher levels of private investment into defence… we have to be willing to have a long-term relationship and long-term strategy.”
2. Overlooking Economic Impact: Healey spoke on the need to prioritise domestic economic benefits in procurement decisions, “We need to do more to recognise that defence has a vital role not just in strengthening our security, but in boosting our economy… where we can, we should look to develop our own British jobs and support British-based companies.”
3. Procurement Delays: Highlighting lessons from Ukraine, Healey underscored the need for a more agile procurement system, “We simply cannot have a procurement system that may take several years even to get to the point of a contract.”

He also called for integrating smaller and medium-sized companies into the defence industrial base to enhance flexibility and innovation.

Replenishing Munitions Stockpiles

Responding to questions from MP Derek Twigg, Healey acknowledged that the UK remains some way off replenishing its munitions stockpiles, “To be fair to the previous Government, it is why they said, ‘Right, we now need a 10-year strategy to do that.’”

Lieutenant General Sir Rob Magowan provided additional context, highlighting a formal 10-year agreement with defence contractor MBDA for £6 billion in investments covering munitions like Aster and Storm Shadow. He explained the importance of a resilient “always on” approach to munitions supply, ensuring the ability to scale production quickly, “We need to be able to create a system whereby we can turn to industry… and say, ‘I want you to ramp up by X per cent within two months.’ We do not have that capability at the moment.”

Classified Briefing on Munitions Strategy

The Committee requested access to the classified munitions plan underpinning the strategy. Healey agreed to consider sharing the document within appropriate security constraints, “Let me have a look at the level of classification on that. It is not automatic that I can share everything that the Committee might want at every level of classification.”

The future

Despite the challenges, Healey expressed confidence in the UK’s ability to modernise its defence industrial strategy, citing lessons learned from the rapid development of Taskforce Kindred, which supported Ukraine, “We can do this… We can take some of those lessons into our own system and learn from them.”

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