Tri-Service

We're 'investing like crazy' in British Army, Chief of the Defence Staff says

Watch: The Army now has up to £40bn to spend in next decade on kit, says CDS.

The head of the UK Armed Forces says the UK is "investing like crazy" in the British Army, is taking a new approach to recruitment and retaining personnel, and is learning from Ukraine, after the publication of the Defence Command Paper Refresh (DCP23).

The Defence Command Paper Refresh (DCP23) outlines the investment in stockpiles and a Global Response Force to keep the UK "on track to act as a global heavyweight both now and in the future", according to the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said the paper recognised "some of the [British Army's] vehicles are very old and that's why the British Army is having enormous capital investment".

"It's grown by over 80% since 2021, that's an enormous sum of money," he said. "The Army now has between £35-£40bn to spend over the next 10 years on kit.

"The Army, if you look at it over the last decade, accounted for about 25% of the defence budget. Over the next decade, it starts to grow to 30% of the defence budget.

"So we're investing like crazy, especially in the Army," he added.

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The head of the UK military also drew attention to a change in attitude to military recruitment and, once in, retaining personnel.

"We're in a war for talent. We need to get more people to join their Armed Forces," he said.

"We're looking to have careers that allow you to have a career as a regular soldier, sailor or aviator, then become a reservist or even go into private industry.

"And then you either contribute from those roles or you might even come back and be a regular again."

On retaining personnel, he said: "We need to hold on to our people even better and then we need to make it easier for people to come in sideways or to leave the Armed Forces and then come back in again."

Finally, Admiral Sir Tony said the UK needs to learn from Ukraine's war with Russia and adopt some of the approaches the UK has taken in arming Ukraine and apply it to its own processes.

"The same people that have been delivering and doing a magnificent job in providing kit for Ukraine, are the same people that provide the kit for the UK Armed Forces," he said.

"But we're allowing them, with Ukraine, to operate to slightly different procedures and a slightly different approach – and we're saying we need to adopt that with our own UK domestic market."