Defence Committee Launches Inquiry Into Navy And Naval Procurement

The Defence Select Committee has launched an inquiry into the Navy and naval procurement, examining the UK's ambition for the Royal Navy's role over the next 20 years.

It will look into what naval threats the UK is likely to face and what standing commitments, including for NATO and UK Overseas Territories, the Government intends the Navy to undertake.

The inquiry will also ask whether naval procurement and support plans are fully delivering the capabilities required.

The committee said there are several expected pinch-points in equipment that could pose a risk to the service's ability to deliver planned capabilities.

The inquiry will also examine where risks to specific programmes could threaten the Navy's overall effectiveness.

The panel said concerns have been raised over some core equipment and enabling capabilities for the Carrier Strike programme.

It also said delays to the Astute-class submarine programme have long been an area of concern.

Conservative MP and committee chair Tobias Ellwood said: "With the Integrated Review complete, the committee will consider its impact on each of the individual services, starting first with the Royal Navy.

"As has been widely reported, the decision to advance our cyber and space resilience has come at a cost to our conventional capabilities. 

"Yet the review still sets ambitious targets to help project 'Global Britain' and the international order of the future through our hard power.

"These include simultaneously playing a lead role in NATO, being active in the Gulf and East Africa, and executing a tilt to the Indo-Pacific."

Mr Ellwood said the committee witnessed the Armed Forces' "exceptional surface and sub-surface capabilities in the pipeline" when it visited Portsmouth and aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.

"However, the current size of our entire naval force is already tested in meeting today's commitments, let alone the additional ambitions set out in the Integrated Review," he added

"This inquiry will take a broad look at the Navy's ambitions for the next 20 years, as well as focusing in on procurement, asking whether the current programme is sufficient enough to respond to immediate threats and to futureproof our maritime forces in a world of rapid geopolitical and technological change."

Cover image: MOD.