The release of the Ministry of Defence’s annual statistics on UK armed forces equipment and formations has been delayed.

Initially scheduled for publication on 31 October 2024, the data is now expected to be released in January 2025.

These statistics typically provide details on the number and types of vessels, land equipment, aircraft, and military formations available to the UK armed forces.

The delay, according to the Ministry of Defence, is due to a data quality review, with no further explanation provided about the specific issues under scrutiny.

This postponement pushes back the release of information used by analysts, policymakers, and the public to assess the UK’s military assets and capabilities. The Ministry of Defence has not indicated whether the delay will affect any other scheduled publications or reviews. Further updates are anticipated closer to the new release date.

Describing the publication, the MOD say on its website:

“This is an annual publication which provides information on the numbers and types of equipment and formations of the UK armed forces. Equipment and formations statistics have been presented based on the UK armed forces areas: land, maritime and air. Also provided are data sourced from the Department for Transport (DfT) on militarily-useful British-registered vessels.”

Here are the main points from last year’s publication.

Maritime

At 1 April 2023, there were 10 submarines and 72 vessels in the UK armed forces (59 vessels in the Royal Navy Surface Fleet; 13 vessels in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary).

Land

Due to an ongoing process to improve the quality of field army equipment data, the currently published numbers are provisional. This publication will be amended once the process is complete and the numbers are finalised. In the UK armed forces, there were 3,207 pieces of Combat Equipment at 1 April 2023, consisting of:

  • 845 Armoured Personnel Carriers
  • 1,480 Protected Mobility Vehicles
  • 882 Armoured Fighting Vehicles

At 1 April 2023, there were 32 Regular Army Battalions in the Infantry and 16 Army Reserves Battalions.

Air

At 1 April 2023, there were 564 Fixed-wing aircraft and 294[r] Rotary-wing aircraft in the UK armed forces. In addition, there were 194 Unmanned Aircraft Systems as at 1 April 2023. The platforms reported are those categorised as Certified as well as S2 as per Regulatory Article (RA) 1600: Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS).

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

18 COMMENTS

  2. Guess a load of kit has been retired and replacements not ready, so the statistics would cause a huge amount of negative publicity.

    • Yep.

      Still pootling along in Bulldogs.

      No more than a couple dozen Ajaxes ready and a handful of Boxers.

      They know what the reaction will be.

    • Mark, The army has been ordered by politicians to give equipment to Ukraine at pace and before replacement equipment is in place. Don’t blame the army for that.

  9. We all know why as there is less than there was. New kit is still not ready and we gave too much away with out replacing it. Its to hide the real numbers and so what crap state every thing is in.

  12. Are they still including Gliders in the Fixed Wing category to inflate the number?
    We all know these numbers will continue to drop like a stone – by design.

  13. Just not a good time to bury bad news. They’ll wait till all the negative stuff comes out when Trump enters the White House and try a sneak it by whilst everyone is watching what Trump is doing.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here