The UK is currently below the level required by NATO’s latest capability targets and does not yet have the full heavy force mass sought for high-intensity operations, Ministry of Defence officials told MPs, while stressing that the targets are deliberately set above current force levels and apply across the alliance.
The exchange took place during an oral evidence session of the Defence Committee on 17 March 2026, examining the MoD Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, where senior officials were questioned on readiness, capability and delivery alongside wider concerns over delays to the Defence Investment Plan.
Derek Twigg asked how many of the capabilities the UK is committed to provide to NATO it is currently failing to deliver, pressing officials on whether there is a present shortfall. Air Marshal Tim Jones, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff for Force Development, said “by definition we are” not meeting the targets, but explained this reflected how they are set, adding that “the nature of the targets is that they are higher than where we are now.”
He linked this to NATO’s shift towards higher-end warfighting requirements, describing a “pivoting to a war fighting head mark, which is not where we are now,” and emphasised that “this is the same for all allies.”
Twigg continued to press on whether this represented a current capability gap rather than a future planning issue. Jones maintained that the targets are designed to drive long-term force development, with delivery dependent on future investment decisions.
Further questioning from Ian Roome focused on what the UK could deploy in practice, particularly in the land domain. Asked whether the Army could field a heavy division, brigade or battle group, Jones did not give a direct confirmation at any level, instead stating “we know that we are shorter where we want to be in terms of heavy capabilities.”
He added more broadly that “we are not where I know we need to be in terms of meeting those future NATO capability targets,” while stressing that plans are in place to address this through ongoing modernisation and investment.
Jones pointed to the Defence Investment Plan and Integrated Force Plan as the mechanisms intended to close the gap, stating that capability development is “designed to get us there as quickly as possible.” Jones then explained that capability decisions are “rooted in what the NATO operational demand signal is,” with targets intentionally set at a higher level to push allies towards greater readiness and warfighting capacity over time.
The evidence highlights that the UK, like other NATO members, is operating below newly elevated capability benchmarks, particularly in heavy land forces, while the MoD maintains that these gaps reflect a planned transition towards higher standards rather than a failure against fixed present-day obligations.
The problem the government is creating for itself is that if you publicly dump every important decision into the DIP, and then keep delaying that DIP, unless it’s a humdinger when it eventually comes they are in the deep political do da. Especially when there’s two big wars going on and even the BBC are taking the mickey out of the RN.
The really scary thing for me is that Starmer doesn’t seem understand that, or if he does he doesn’t care.
This seems like great headline for the Daily Mail tomorrow, clearly all 73,000 people in the army are sitting on their asses making TikTok videos today and we can’t even deploy an armoured battle group despite the fact we have a permanent armoured battle group deployed in Estonia.
We all know we short of heavy kit, the real point is if and when that might change? 2031 seems a very busy year everything will be fine by then so we are told. Lets wait and see what really happens and what excuses are dreamed up when its still all a shambles then and numbers have not gone up much.
The DIP will not fix all of this but it might make things better, there is no real will to sort the Army out its just about looking busy while going through the motions knowing its too big a job and will costing to much to fix 30 years of neglect.