As the subjects of the next SDSR and Defence spending continue to receive media interest and attract commentary, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon blogs about this year’s review which is now under way.
Five years ago, the then coalition Conservative-led Government conducted the first truly comprehensive defence and security review, SDSR 2010. It recognised that in a more complex, uncertain world the UK needed to take a more agile, adaptable approach to meeting the challenges posed to our national security. We established the National Security Council to ensure that strategic decisions are taken properly at the top of government.
We also recognised that to be deliverable defence has to be affordable. Tough but necessary choices were made to balance the defence budget and to invest in the capabilities we needed for the future. Those decisions have enabled us to invest now in a ten year £160 billion equipment plan to deliver what our armed forces need: new strike fighters, attack helicopters, frigates, hunter killer submarines and our new aircraft carriers.
Much of that 2010 analysis holds good. We were right to identify counter-terrorism and cyber as key areas for investment; right to start reshaping the Army for a post-Afghanistan future; right to reform our defence structures. But the rules-based international order on which our security and prosperity depend, faces new, multiple and concurrent threats. Russia attempts to change European borders by force. ISIL seeks to create a brutal regime across Syria and Iraq. Failing states in Africa are prey to insurgency, triggering famine and large-scale migration. Terrorism has come to the streets of Europe. We see a growing cyber threat.
The overall security threats to the UK, to our people and to our values, at home and overseas are more challenging than in 2010. So we have to respond. That means taking a long-term view of how to tackle the causes of instability, not just to treat the symptoms.
SDSR 2015, led by the Cabinet Office, is now under way. It rightly involves the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office, DFID and other departments as well as the MOD. It will review the full range of threats that we face; it will examine the capabilities we need to handle them; and help us judge how to resource those capabilities, aligned with the Spending Review. It will be a hard-headed review of how we can deliver our national security strategy most effectively and efficiently. It will seek out the best of innovation from the private sector. It will be positive and assertive about Britain's role in the world.
No one should be in any doubt of this government’s determination to do everything we can to protect Britain. That’s why we maintain the second largest defence budget in NATO after the United States, the biggest in Europe.
The range of threats to national security and international stability mean we will be undertaking a full SDSR. In doing so we will engage with our key allies, Parliament, the devolved administrations, industry, academics, and the public.
Our aim over the coming months is to build on the 2010 review to reinforce our role in the world, to contribute to international security, and above all to keep this country safe, now and for the future.