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IN VIEW Special Report by Ged Henderson
ON THE FRONTLINE: THE BATTLE FOR BRITAIN’S DEFENCE INDUSTRY
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A bitter war has been raging along Whitehall and Westminster’s corridors of power and the casualties have been heavy.
The battleground has been the much-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP) – the main combatants, The Treasury, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Downing Street.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has left the field, seriously injured politically by the fall-out. It also led to the resignations of his defence secretary John Healey and Armed Forces minister Al Carns.
As well as further loosening Starmer’s grip on power, Healey’s bombshell resignation over the amount of money being allocated to the nation’s defence needs raised worrying questions over the future of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
However, in one of his last acts as PM, Starmer announced that the UK would invest £8.6bn into the programme over the next four years.
The commitment to the £24bn sixth generation stealth jet project, made during the publication of the DIP on the last day of June, was welcome news for Lancashire and its defence sector.
Some 4,500 workers across defence giants BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Leonardo are currently working on the project in Britain, many of them in the county.
Much of the early work has been taking place at BAE Systems’ plants at Warton and Samlesbury. The design of the UK’s flagship Combat Air Flying Demonstrator (CAFD) – a crucial part of the project - was unveiled last summer and it is now in final assembly in Lancashire.
Designed to test a wide range of new technologies, including the integration
of stealth compatible features, CAFD is a crucial part of the work to develop manufacturing processes and de-risk the GCAP programme.
The demonstrator is expected to fly by the end of 2027 with the GCAP programme targeting a 2035 entry into service.
Delays in publishing the DIP, it was first expected last year, and the political fight around defence spending, had sparked the concerns over the future of the new warplane. There were media reports that the axe was poised to help fill a MoD £28bn ‘black hole’.
The project is a tri-nation initiative involving Japan and Italy and it was also suggested in some quarters that officials in Japan were growing impatient with the British government over funding delays.
He said: “They will be hoping that Japan, who cannot tolerate an extended time line, will pull out and blame can be avoided.”
Other reports claimed the Treasury had plans to take control of spending on GCAP from the MoD - to prevent cost overruns and to improve financial oversight on the programme.
Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, spoke of the wider strategic importance of GCAP following the funding announcement. He said: “The work is deepening our defence, industrial, and technology collaboration with our partners in both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions.”
Alongside the GCAP investment, the DIP includes a commitment to upgrade the Typhoon fighter into the 2040s, another boost for BAE workers in the county.
We welcome the publication of the UK government’s Defence Investment Plan
and the clarity it provides for our people, supply chain and partners
The announcement that France and Germany had scrapped their sixth-generation Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme, only increased the pressure on the UK to move GCAP forward.
Former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace, who represented Wyre and Preston North in the Commons, added to the fears, claiming in early June that the UK government secretly wanted to bail out of the project.
Simon Barnes, group managing director of BAE Systems’ Air business, said: “We welcome the publication of the UK government’s Defence Investment Plan and the clarity it provides for our people, supply chain and partners.
“Continued investment in onshore skills and advanced technologies across crewed and uncrewed combat air systems is essential to preserving the specialist expertise required for national defence in an increasingly uncertain world.
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