The UK is expanding defence industrial cooperation with NATO allies and international partners, including the United States, as part of a wider effort to strengthen production capacity, supply chains and military readiness, the Ministry of Defence has said.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard set out the position in response to a written parliamentary question from Labour MP Callum Anderson, who asked what discussions the Government had held with allies on increasing defence industrial cooperation.
Pollard said work had accelerated since publication of the Defence Industrial Strategy in September 2025, with greater emphasis on exports, strategic partnerships, information sharing and what the department describes as a NATO-first approach to industrial cooperation.
He said: “Since publication of the Defence Industrial Strategy on 8 September 2025, the Department has strengthened collaboration with industry, NATO Allies and international partners, including the United States, to support UK defence exports, deepen strategic partnerships, improve information sharing and promote a NATO-first approach to industrial co-operation.”
The MOD also pointed to the role of National Armaments International in helping British defence companies compete for overseas contracts.
Pollard said: “National Armaments International is supporting UK companies to compete overseas, with record successes in 2025 including the UK’s biggest ever warship deal to Norway and the largest fighter jet exports agreement in a generation, promoting global security while boosting growth at home.”
The department is linking that international activity with efforts to expand industrial capacity inside the UK. This includes giving companies clearer indications of future demand, investing in priority capabilities and strengthening supply chains in sectors considered important to military readiness.
A further element is expected to come through the planned Defence Readiness Bill, which Pollard said is due later in the current Parliament. At alliance level, the UK is continuing work on NATO initiatives intended to increase defence production and make supply chains more resilient across member states.
The UK also backed a new NATO strategy for cooperation with industry at the recent Ankara summit.
Pollard said: “The UK also joined Allies in endorsing the new Strategy for Industry NATO Cooperation at the recent Ankara summit and maintains a strong partnership with the UK delegation to the NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG), enabling senior industrialists to offer expertise and strategic insight on a wide range of security policy, defence planning, and capability issues.”
The NATO Industrial Advisory Group provides a route for defence companies and industrial specialists to feed expertise into alliance planning and capability discussions. Britain hosted the NIAG plenary in June 2026, an event the MOD said demonstrated a shared government and industry commitment to NATO capability development and further cooperation between allied defence sectors.
Slightly off topic, but of defence interest
Much guff in the right-wing press recently about alleged “vulnerabilities” in Britain’s N Sea windfarms, including concerns over Chinese components allegedly used in building our renewable infrastructure
Traditional N Sea oil and gas infrastructure is defined by concentrated, high-volume single points of failure. The UK relies on more than 200 high-visibility platforms and a handful of massive trunklines, such as the Langeled pipeline supplying the bulk of UK gas imports (90%) from Norway. A targeted kinetic attack or underwater explosive sabotage—as demonstrated by the Nord Stream bombings—instantly triggers a severe national energy crisis and catastrophic ecological fallout. Furthermore, these rigs carry highly volatile hydrocarbons, making them acutely vulnerable to airborne drones and explosive chain reactions.
Conversely, Britain’s onshore and offshore wind and solar networks benefit from massive structural redundancy. The thousands of individual turbines manufactured across Humberside and Lincolnshire are highly dispersed; destroying a handful of wind towers has negligible impact on the wider grid. However, wind infrastructure does suffer from consolidation at it’s transmission chokepoints.
The primary vulnerability lies in the substations and subsea high-voltage export cables that funnel gigawatts of power to the mainland. These subsea cables are physically thinner and less armoured than concrete-encased gas pipelines, making them soft targets for covert subsea interference, underwater drones, or “accidental” anchor-dragging.
Ultimately, while an oil rig attack threatens immediate resource depletion and an environmental disaster, a wind farm attack presents a purely electrical disruption mitigated by massive system redundancies.
The net stupid Reform UK Limited company wants to remove windfarms, alleging “exccesive curtailment costs” and replace them with oil rigs. Tricky Dicky Tice was claiming ealier this year that £450m has been spent on windfarm output curtailment in H2 last year. This figure is a gross exaggeration. Unfortunately, this is frequently the case with Reform pro-fossil fuel propaganda. Looking at the facts is informative. The total value of the electricity produced in this country in 2024 – from all sources – was nearly £172bn. It fluctuates according to the market price of gas. £450m is 0.26% of the total electricity output of the UK. About 7p/month on your electricity bill.
The fossil fuel cartel likes to divert attention from the truth about their subsidies. During the winter 2022/2023 the government gave the fossil fuel majors operating in the UK a direct subsidy of £44bn (the £66/month winter fuel payment) This allowed Shell, BP etc to treble their dividend payouts to shareholders in 2024. The cost went on the national debt
Here ends a pointless political rant on behalf of the Green Party 🙄