With a £12 billion ($18 billion) uptick in the country’s defense equipment spending to £178 billion over the next 10 years, ministers have pledged to boost the number of Royal Air Force (RAF) frontline fighter squadrons and to deliver a long-awaited commitment to buy every one of its planned 138 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
Yet while the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) published on Nov. 23 appears to be good news, the government’s pledges appear to do little more than paper over gaping cracks in military aircraft capabilities left by previous reviews.
Britain will buy nine Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to close the gap left by the cancellation of the BAE Nimrod in 2010. Credit: Tony Osborne/AW&ST

While the purchase of nine Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will help to protect its new aircraft carriers and the new-generation submarine-based nuclear deterrent, that still merely fills the gap left by the retirement of the Nimrod MR2 and cancellation of its replacement, the Nimrod MRA4, during the last SDSR in 2010.
“The outcome of this SDSR is much better than the armed forces were expecting only six months ago,” said Malcolm Chalmers, director of U.K. defense policy studies at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “But it does not add up to a step change in U.K. defense capabilities compared with current levels. It is therefore best described as being a ‘steady as she goes’ review, providing a welcome element of stability in defense planning after five years of substantial reductions.”
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Britain’s combat airpower has been decimated since the end of the Cold War, with the number of frontline units falling from 30 in the 1991 Gulf War to just eight today—three Tornado GR4 squadrons and five Typhoon units—the lowest number of fast-jet squadrons in decades. In July, Gen. Nicholas Houghton, chief of the U.K. Defense Staff, told an airpower conference in London that cuts in the combat air fleets had put the U.K. at the “very limits of fast-jet availability and capacity.”
Over the past 10 years alone, the U.K. has bade farewell to the Royal Navy’s Sea Harriers (2006), the Sepecat Jaguar (2007) and the Harrier (2010). Arguably, if not for Britain’s participation in the U.S.-led coalition against the self-proclaimed Islamic State group in Iraq, the U.K.’s Panavia Tornado strike aircraft fleet would now be made up of just two squadrons rather than the current three.
By retaining 24-36 of the 53 Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoons manufactured, the U.K. will be able to create two additional frontline squadrons dedicated to U.K. air defense, training and the red air aggressor role. The Tranche 2 and 3 aircraft will be fitted with the active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar under development. The retirement date for the Typhoon has also been pushed back from 2030 to 2040. Without this extension, the U.K. would have had its AESA-radar-equipped jets for just nine years before the type was retired. The Typhoon, along with upcoming enhancements to carry air-to-ground weapons, will still replace the Tornado GR4 in 2019, although now the Tornado fleet will not begin to shrink until 2018.
There is skepticism in some quarters about whether the P-8 Poseidon is the right aircraft for the job and whether the U.K. will be able to afford to integrate British-made weapons and sonobuoys onto it; if it cannot, the U.K. will become even more dependent on the U.S. While the SDSR states that the P-8s will improve interoperability with U.S. forces, it adds yet another aircraft to the inventory that the U.K. will be unable to refuel in the air with its Voyager tankers, as the U.K. continues to refuse to invest in a boom refueling capability. Furthermore, it is unclear if the U.K. will able to access future ground-surveillance capabilities being developed for the P-8.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that the U.K. P-8s would have “a major British component” but did not say what that would be. “Sometimes it is right to choose what is available rather than to start all over again from scratch,” he said in response to a question about the aircraft.
While the SDSR has not brought significant capability step change, there is an argument that with additional assets the U.K. is likely to become a more reliable defense partner again, with increased personnel and equipment becoming available to support coalition operations overseas.
“Over the last five years, the U.K. has increasingly been seen by its allies—both in the U.S. and in Europe—as a power in retreat,” said Chalmers. The U.K., he says, has been too focused on domestic political and economic crises. “This SDSR, and the stability it provides, should help to reverse this perception,” he said.
Tranche 1 Typhoons, due to exit service from 2017, will be kept on for U.K. air defense duties. Credit: Tony Osborne/AW&ST

Ministers have also pledged to expand expeditionary forces. The U.K. wants to be capable of deploying 50,000 personnel by 2025, up from the 30,000 committed to in 2010. The SDSR also has announced plans to create two deployable army strike brigades, each with 5,500 personnel. These brigades will be able to “self-deploy thousands of kilometers and with a much lower logistic footprint,” defense officials say.
Additional investment is being plowed into special forces operations also.
It was widely expected that the U.K. would follow other European nations in the development of a ballistic missile defense capability, with a possible investment in a new missile for the Type 45 anti-air destroyer. However, the SDSR states that Britain will invest in a ballistic missile defense radar—its planned location unknown—and will “investigate further” the potential for using its Type 45 in a ballistic missile defense role.
The report says the U.K. will maintain its plan to purchase 138 Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft over the life of the program, but does not detail whether the U.K. will look at variants beyond the F-35B model planned for use on the U.K.’s two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. This will be decided in the next SDSR planned for 2020.
In the meantime, orders for the F-35B will be accelerated so that as many as 24 of the jets can be based on the carriers. A further 18 aircraft will support training, test and evaluation, and periodic servicing and upgrade activity, defense officials tell Aviation Week.
The U.K. has already signed up to purchase 14 F-35s over the next five years, on top of the three already in service. The fourth is due to be delivered toward the end of this year. Six more F-35Bs were ordered by the U.K. at the beginning of November. Before this SDSR, British ministers had only confirmed plans to purchase 48 F-35s.
The SDSR also contains mixed news for the U.K. defense industry. While there is wide disappointment that the U.K. would not be holding a competition for a maritime patrol aircraft, ministers plan to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to bid for defense and security contracts. Even though the U.K. now plans to purchase and operate all 138 of its F-35s, it does not discount the future development of an unmanned combat air vehicle with France.
Writing in the London Daily Telegraph, Cameron stated that the U.K. would make a “significant joint investment” with France, hinting that the program may progress beyond the current feasibility study, something that could be vital for retaining engineering skills at companies such as BAE Systems. The same company will also likely benefit from increased income from supporting the Typhoon fleet for a longer period. 
Key Aerospace Elements in SDSR 2015
· The U.K. will accelerate its purchase of F-35Bs to have 42 aircraft in service by 2023, 24 of which will be based on the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier.
· The U.K. will commit to its full planned complement of 138 F-35s through the life of the program.
· Around 30 Tranche 1 Typhoons will be retained in service to form an additional two frontline squadrons.
· Nine Boeing P-8 Poseidons will be ordered, to perform maritime patrol, overland surveillance and search and rescue.
· Raytheon’s Sentinel reconnaissance aircraft will remain in service until 2021, extended from the current retirement date of 2018.
· The U.K.’s six Boeing E-3D Sentry airborne early warning platforms will be upgraded, and along with the U.K.’s newly purchased three RC-135 Rivet Joints, will be in service until 2035.
· Fourteen of the 24 Lockheed C-130J Hercules will be retained until 2030, partly to support special forces activities. These are likely to be the “more useful” long-fuselage aircraft.
· One of the RAF’s Airbus A330-200 Multi-Role Tanker Transports (MRTT) will be configured for VIP missions for use by senior government officials and the royal family.
· The Panavia Tornado GR4 fleet will still exit service in 2019, replaced by Typhoons with the majority of Tornado air-to-ground capabilities.
· The Beechcraft Shadow intelligence and special forces support aircraft fleet will be enlarged from the current five to eight and will exit service in 2030.
· The U.K. will invest further to pursue joint development with France of an unmanned combat air vehicle.
· Britain will buy 20 new-build MQ-9 Reapers as part of the Protector program, to replace the existing fleet of 10 MQ-9s. The platform will be based on the certifiable Reaper currently being worked on by General Atomics.
· The U.K. will invest in an unknown number of Airbus Defense and Space Zephyr 8 high-altitude pseudo-satellites capable of monitoring areas for months.