The contract for the next tranche of British Chinooks will be committed through the Strategic Defence Review 2030, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
The confirmation came from Defence Minister Lord Coaker in a written answer to Baroness Goldie, the former defence minister, who asked how many new Chinooks the Government will purchase following the Defence Investment Plan and when. “Current planning assumptions envisage contractual commitment through the Strategic Defence Review 2030, with deliveries of new Chinook aircraft commencing in the mid-2030s,” Coaker said, as quoted in the answer, with Initial Operating Capability expected in the latter part of the 2030s and further procurement activity supporting the fleet through to at least 2060.
The answer restates the position given in the Commons earlier this month, when Defence Minister Luke Pollard set out the same timeline for Chinook Capability Sustainment Programme Tranche 2, the effort that will replace legacy Chinook aircraft and sustain the UK’s heavy lift capability beyond 2040, distinct from the previously approved Tranche 1 procurement of 14 H-47 Extended Range aircraft due to begin arriving from 2027. Where the Commons answer referred simply to “SDR30”, however, the Lords version spells the reference out in full, confirming that the planning assumption is a Strategic Defence Review in 2030 and that the contractual commitment for the new heavy lift fleet is being timed to run through it.
The sequencing means the number of aircraft will not be settled this side of that review, with Coaker repeating that the final quantity and delivery profile “will be determined through future approvals and force design decisions based on the requirements, threat assessments and the technological changes to have taken place by then,” while the programme continues to refine the requirement through its assessment phase.
In the meantime, the retirement of the oldest Chinook Mk6A airframes, which ministers have said are increasingly costly to sustain, creates a temporary reduction in heavy lift capacity before Tranche 2 deliveries arrive from the mid-2030s, a gap the department has described as understood and planned for.
Well there you go then.
So the ink on the long delayed DIP is hardly dry, and we are already putting off major investment decisions until the next strategic review?
Probably more to do with the change of leadership tomorrow.
Might be wishful thinking but perhaps the King in the North is planning some defence industry investment.
Just trying to find some defence sector activity which might be supported by the new Government.
What a surprise. Oh yes we will, oh no we won’t More from the pantomine government.
I’m not too bothered by the delay in buying more Chinooks, I am very upset that they are planning another Strategic Defence Review in 2030.
Last labour government managed 14 years of government with just one.
Is anyone in Whitehall so keen to go through this process again.
Indeed. What would be the point? They are never implemented…we are right back to (Wilson’s and) Blair’s Britain: ‘Willing the mission but not the means’
‘…when he became defence secretary in 1999 there was a belief in the MoD that they had never received the cash that they needed to fund the 1998 strategic defence review.
When he pressed the Treasury for additional funding, he was rebuffed.
As a result, some kit – such as desert combat fatigues and desert boots – failed to reach the front line in time for the start of the war in March 2003.
“Some got to theatre in time, some did not,” he said. “There were certainly complaints about desert combats. Quite a lot of soldiers went into action in green combats and they didn’t like it.’
‘He said the Treasury had to be “beaten over the head” to release funds – but there was a general lack of coherence in government in the run up to the Iraq war and the earlier invasion of Afghanistan.
“There was no feeling that we had a war cabinet or, indeed, cabinet ministers who thought we were at war.
“I suspect if I had asked half the cabinet whether we were at war, they wouldn’t know what I was talking about. So there was a lack of political cohesion at the very top. In Iraq’s case, possibly because some people were not happy about what we were doing there anyway.”
On Mr Blair’s assurances about equipment, the former forces chief told the inquiry: “I know he says that but actually getting it delivered is quite a different matter altogether. Particularly on the money side. ‘Don’t worry, you can have everything you want. Go and see the chancellor.’ Brick wall there.”
He added: “The Treasury didn’t think we were on a war footing.”
Plus ca expletive deleted change…
Surely depends on the emerging threats, warfare has changed a lot in the last 5 years and not sure waiting another 14 would be sensible as I suspect I would have changed a lot again and a load of redundant gear purchased
SDR 2035?
Defence should be able to pivot to new technologies and capabilities without a ridiculous political Sherard every five years.
Should yep, do nope. I used to think that the government should just set the budget and leave the MOD to utilise it, but it seems the MOD are terrible at spending money well and a full review is probably needed to keep them on their toes.
They need to somehow break the symbolic relationship between the people buying kit and industry. Stop them immediately taking roles on retirement in industry, which causes all the conflicts of interests that stop problems behind handler properly. I just don’t know how you can do that without causing a lot of soldiers to find themselves unemployed when they leave the service.
We still operate the largest Chinook fleet outside the US.
But an awful lot of decisions have been put off beyond 2030, with the DIP covering 4 not the 10 years of previous equipment plans.
Not for much longer!
Numbers will go down to just above 20 in the next couple of years, so that “second only to the US” in numbers is chuff mate! With the removal of Puma and the slow process of delivery of its AW replacement, the removal of Wildcat very soon (to save money to pretend it’s new cash for the DiP) and the low numbers of serviceable Apaches, our rotary fleet is smaller than Elon Musks! It would be laughable if not so serious.
Depends partly on the ER delivery schedule. Given the deep maintenance requirements of some very old airframes, how many of the current fleet are operational at any one time? Around 20/25?
As I said, the number of programmes left until after 2030 is worrying. I simply don’t understand why the DIP covered such a short period. Compared to previous 10 year equipment plans, there is a real lack of accessible detail.
Which in time takes the fleet back up to 36 I believe.
I think Tranche 2 will be quietly dropped, just like Boxer batch 2 seems to have been.
Fine. Now. But if you haven’t got a replacement in place when that largest Chinook fleet outside the US is scrapped then you finish up not having a Chinook fleet at all!
The planned introduction of the 14 H-47ER Chinooks will undoubtedly provide a significant boost to UK Special Forces aviation capability. Their extended range and enhanced operational flexibility will allow a greater proportion of specialist tasks to be undertaken by a dedicated platform, reducing demand on the remainder of the Chinook fleet and improving overall fleet availability. For the Special Forces community, this is clearly a positive development.
However, the Ministry of Defence must also recognise the wider implications of delaying the Chinook Capability Sustainment Programme Tranche 2. Extending the service life of the existing fleet inevitably pushes to the right any associated infrastructure investment that would ordinarily accompany a major fleet replacement programme.
Nowhere is this more apparent than at RAF Odiham. While investment in aircraft is essential, the infrastructure that supports them cannot continue to be overlooked. Much of the station’s estate traces its origins back to the 1930s and remains heavily reliant on facilities that, despite periodic upgrades, are fundamentally rooted in pre-war and Second World War-era infrastructure.
The UK has long deferred the comprehensive modernisation of its military estate, and the result is that service personnel are too often expected to operate world-class equipment from facilities that are decades behind modern standards. The nation’s defence infrastructure should have been substantially upgraded many years ago rather than repeatedly patched and extended.
While the arrival of the H-47ER fleet is welcome and will enhance operational capability, the Government’s decision to delay commitment to the next generation of Chinooks must not become another excuse to defer investment in RAF Odiham. Aircraft capability and infrastructure resilience go hand in hand; one cannot be truly effective without the other. If the UK is serious about maintaining a credible heavy-lift helicopter force into the 2060s, it must invest not only in the aircraft themselves but also in the bases and facilities from which they operate.
Why are you using AI for your posts? Whats the point?
David Lloyd does It too 🫡😁🤦♂️
A few others too. I just take the view of “if you didn’t bother to write it why should I bother to read it?” If I want to talk to an AI chatbot I’ll just skip the middle man.
Its so strange. Im here to read peoples opinions, some i agree with, some not. Im not interested in what a chat model has got to say. Why would somebody outsource their thinking on a discussion forum?
I think it’s a combination of lazyness and low self esteem. I’ve seen it too often in art forums with Image prompters.
People don’t want to put the work in, whether it’s to learn to draw or to do research and actually gain knowledge about the subject. Because it actually does require a fair amount of effort. So they convince themselves they can’t do it.
But then AI comes along and they go “Well if I prompt it it elevates me to the same level as the people who do the work!” And then usually get very upset when people turn around and point out that they still can’t do it.
Drawing (lol) on Art again, you typically see AI prompters crying about “Gatekeeping creativity” when people who actually put the work in and can draw don’t want anything to do with them.
So we’ve spent the last year being told ‘you’ll have to wait for the DIP’… and now it’s ‘wait for SDR30’ 👍🤣
I recall the DIP was meant to be a 10 year document, now quietly reduced to a 4 year one, with all else kicked down the road to beyond 2030, so someone else’s problem to fund.
S.O.P, and still some don’t see the farce being played out.
They’ve got so used to using the DIP as the reason for delaying decisions that they now need another excuse to defer investment.
#SDR30
Here we go again, wait, delay, pass the buck, state normal. Who is in charge of the MOD ? they seem to for every bluff, deflect, and talk a lot but do little, the DIP was a waste of time not fully funded and more a wish list than comfirmed orders. So the farce carries on,
The DiP was an unfunded, platform removing, can kicking down the road session. I will say this yet again, UK Government planning has stated we may be at war with Russia by 2030, but luckily we have the DiP which has provided 1/3 of what was needed, by at least 2035! How fucking lucky we are to have such an outstanding, inept, clueless, North Korean type Government in charge! But as long as its voter pool is fed, watered, given LTR and housed, the second rate cabinet and the PLP don’t really give a fuck!
And again and again and again and again… wait until the capability has gone before you discuss the replacement… when will the government ever learn? You need the new equipment as soon as the old stuff goes…
The list of kit promised by DIP that won’t be ordered before 2030 is getting longer and longer every day: Chinook’s, Tranche 2 F-35’s, Army Wildcat replacement, new satellites, digital targeting web, … even improved housing. And even that 2030 date assumes that the defence budget will leap by about 13% in real terms (to 3.0% of GDP) in 2030/31 compared to 2029/30, and then keep rising by about 5% a year in real terms, to 3.5% in 2035/36. I doubt if anyone believes that this fantasy will will actually happen. The reality is that UK government is expecting that by the start of 2029 Trump (and possibly Putin) will be gone, the Ukraine-Russian War will be over one way or another, and it will actually be possible to cut rather than increase defence spending.
If you look at previous SDRs it’s an old trick repeated many times.
Cuts are immediate though, and much is Jam tomorrow, more correctly described as Jam under another’s responsibility to pay.
Then the carrots are slowly nibbled down the line when the news moves on.
Only Defence watchers remember what was before, and service chiefs tow the line for the most part.
We don’t need SDRs. If you need something you can adjust spending accordingly. SDRs and to the same extent the DIP are just mechanisms to delay spending or flat out cut spending. In a similar vein they are a vessel to avoid awkward questions and decisions.
The odds are this lot will be nowhere near govt in 2030 so then it becomes someone else’s problem! It’s all a cunning plan😡
DT would have left the presidency by then (maybe). It’s as if all these promised spends are scheduled after his departure with plenty of time to cancel.
I think we need to accept the fact the days of us being a world class military are gone. The Navy is a dilapidated sheep, the Army doesn’t have enough of anything and that includes personnel. The RAF is the only service that could be considered holding its own, but looking at future plans one has to question how long will it before that also enters a death spiral. Sad and all on less than one generation!
What is a world class military? Who has one? Did we ever have one?
Sheep=shell
I have posted this opinion previously but I think it is still valid – The reduction of the military helicopter fleet has a direct impact on not only military flexibility but also civil emergency response. Current wild fire helicopter support and the recent dam and canal failure point to a need for heavy and medium lift capability that only the armed forces would be in a position to facilitate.
And don’t get me started on the recent Spanish C17 trial of airborne fire fighting capability. Probably cheaper than a Bombardier purchase as an upgrade to UK capability.
With the unexpected appointment of John Healey as Chancellor, I’ve suddenly got more hopeful about the defence budget and SDR30. Quite a clever move by Burnham.