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EXPERT COMMENT

Proposals to improve armed forces integration, harness new technology and boost societal resilience are the right lessons to draw from Ukraine. But much depends on spending, implementation, and a reliable US partner.

The UK government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), published this week, clearly prioritizes the UK’s contribution to NATO and European security, setting out plans to orient the armed forces around deterring a full-scale war in Europe and protecting civilian infrastructure at home. 

The Review is threaded through with lessons from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That is right and inevitable: the war has dramatically reordered European security and provided hard-won battlefield lessons: About the use of technology in warfare; the industrial production needed to sustain a fight against a peer adversary; and the whole-of-society effort required to fend off unconventional warfare including cyberattacks, and attacks on infrastructure. 

The Review also reflects a wider, and longer-running shift away from the assumptions of the US-led ‘war on terror’ to those needed in an era defined by threats from hostile states – specifically Russia – and authoritarian competitors including China. The Review makes new commitments to support those aims, including the use of autonomous and uncrewed systems, ramping up submarine and munitions production, and greater use of digital targeting. 

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.