U.K.'s defence review has lessons for Canada, says former NATO chief

Britain intends to expand its submarine fleet and refresh its nuclear deterrent capability as part of a wide-ranging defence review that one of its authors says Canada should read and take to heart.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who ordered the review, unveiled the plan, saying it is meant to prepare the country to fight a modern war and counter the threat from Russia.

"We face war in Europe, new nuclear risks, daily cyberattacks, growing Russian aggression in our waters, menacing our skies," Starmer said during a media availability at the Govan Shipbuilders Ltd. yard in Scotland.

He praised Lord George Robertson, the former secretary general of NATO who led the defence review. Robertson also spoke last week at CANSEC, the Ottawa defence arms exposition.

On Monday, Starmer said Robertson's review team delivered "a blueprint to make Britain safer and stronger: A battle-ready, armour-clad nation, with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities."

At the centre of the review is a plan to replace the U.K.'s existing Vanguard-class nuclear submarines and to expand the fleet to 12 boats, including both nuclear and conventional attack variants.

Significantly, the review pledges to update the U.K.'s nuclear weapons deterrent, known as the sovereign warhead programme, a £15-billion ($27.8-billion Cdn) investment.

There are growing questions in Europe about whether it can rely on the nuclear umbrella of the United States.

Unlike other nuclear military powers, the U.K.'s deterrent is deployed exclusively on ballistic missile submarines, not on land, nor in the air. Britain has at least one ballistic missile boat at sea at all times.

The defence plan also calls for the construction of six munitions factories in the U.K. and for closer co-operation between government and the defence industry in order to accelerate innovation to a "wartime pace."

In total, the review makes 62 recommendations, which the U.K. government is expected to accept in full.

Starmer, as part of his statement Monday, pledged a hefty increase to U.K. defence spending, bringing it to 2.5 per cent of the gross domestic product by 2027, with "the ambition to hit three per cent in the next Parliament." He added, however, the goals are subject to economic and fiscal conditions.

Robertson, speaking at CANSEC last week, said there's a lot in the U.K. review for Canadians to consider — a message he conveyed privately to Canadian ministers, including Mélanie Joly, the newly appointed industry minister.

In a later interview with CBC News on the margins of CANSEC, Robertson said in order to meet ambitious defence plans, bottlenecks in procurement are going to have to be removed.

"We are actually seeing on the battlefield in Ukraine that we can duplicate that. How can we speed up decision-making?" he said.

He said there needs to be "a much closer and more intimate relationship between the defence industry and the politicians in charge of defence" so that the decision-makers understand what's needed and what's possible from a company perspective.

Robertson met with several defence contractors at the conference.

"I get from a lot of the companies here, the Canadian companies here, a degree of frustration about the procurement process," he said.

"I think [the ministers] are beginning to see, that if they are going to spend more money on defence, they can only spend it if there is a a more streamlined form of procurement."

He said both the U.K. and Canada need to "much more to protect themselves, rather relying endlessly on the Americans, for ammunition and for equipment."

Canada updated its own policy in the spring of 2024, under the government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau. The re-elected Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney is promising to increase defence spending, as well as buy a fleet of new conventionally powered submarines.

Carney has promised Canada will reach the NATO benchmark of two per cent of GDP defence spending by 2030 — or sooner.

Robertson, in his interview with CBC News, said it's been frustrating to watch a nation for which he has so much affection "not living up to the obligations" originally set out by the Western military alliance in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea.

He said he's encouraged by Carney's pledge.