Thank you for that introduction, and I’m sure you will all understand why perhaps the Prime Minister couldn’t be here this particular week.
I’ve no doubt we’ll be seeing him here in future years, though I hope you’ve just got a glimpse there from that video message what an opportunity we have with this Prime Minister and this Chancellor. They both understand defence. They understand the immediate pressures and priorities that defence is facing.
But they also understand the enormous contribution that Defence can make to the Prime Minister’s vision for this country in terms of jobs, growth in every postcode, and re-industrialisation.
I’m going to touch on much of that in my speech to you today. Of course, in most jobs on day two, you’ve been given your password logins, you found the bathrooms, you know your way around the building. You’re not normally delivering keynote speeches, or indeed taking questions from the media, as I’ll be doing shortly after.
But this is a job like no other, and it is an enormous privilege for me to serve as Secretary of State for Defence.
It’s been almost a decade since I first came to Farnborough. Things were quite different back then. Theresa May was Prime Minister. Nobody really knew what AI was, and I didn’t have a single grey hair.
Some things have not changed since then. That palpable sense of being at the cutting edge of innovation is just as strong today as it was then. To look back on the history of Farnborough is to trace some of the most profound advances in engineering. It reminds us that making aircraft is something Britain has done for a very long time, and still does exceptionally well today.
For more than a century, our nation has fused the ingenuity of industry with the courage of those who serve. It has powered our economy, redefined technology, and in our darkest hours, kept our nation secure and free. That partnership has been the foundation of British air power. In the conflicts of the past, no enemy we faced could even hope to challenge us in the sky.
That is a privilege we no longer enjoy. State-on-state competition has returned on a scale not seen for a generation. Technology has advanced at a rate unlike anything seen by any generation. In Ukraine, we see the consequences of neither side achieving air supremacy, north of 1 million casualties, on a front line that has barely shifted in years. In the Middle East, we see that even where air supremacy is achieved, it is still relatively easy and cheap for the other side to wreak havoc across an entire region with consequences felt across the globe.
The skies today are increasingly contested, complex and lethal. Air dominance is not a given, it is not a right. But our Defence Investment Plan will ensure that we earn it once again.
I know that the months leading up to the DIP weren’t easy for many of you in this room and beyond. I thank you on behalf of the Government for persevering. With a plan now published, I’m relying on all of you to make it a success.
The first duty of any government is to keep our country safe. That is a duty the Prime Minister and I treat with the utmost seriousness.
My job, as Secretary of State, is to maximise our deterrence, and ensure that should deterrence fail, we have the capability to fight and to win. That means investment.
President Trump has called on Europe to carry a greater share of the burden for our own defence, and he is right to do so. The UK has always been a leading light on defence spending, but the world is changing, and in these dangerous, uncertain times, it is clear that we have needed to go further.
That’s why we’ve committed £298 billion over the next four years, including an additional £15 billion on top of last year’s Spending Review settlement. At the recent NATO summit, all members reaffirmed our commitment to 3.5% by 35.
I’m acutely conscious of the impact these numbers have on your investment decisions, and I’m committed to providing you with clarity and confidence. For now, I’m pleased to say that in the 10 days after the publication of the DIP, we agreed more than £11.8 billion worth of contracts. Defence is up and flying again.
But investment is only one side of the coin. Because while we will always back our brave men and women who serve, ensuring they have the resources and the kit that they need, we also owe it to them and to the whole country to ensure that every penny is spent wisely. Modernisation without investment is impractical, but investment without modernisation is irresponsible.
When I was Health Secretary, we secured billions of pounds more in investment for our NHS. But we also embarked on a bold programme of reform and modernisation to ensure that we were maximising value for money and cutting waste. The results we achieved in a relatively short space of time – the biggest reduction in waiting times in 17 years, 5 million additional appointments in the first year alone – only happened because we’ve brought these two things together.
This is the mantra I will now follow as Defence Secretary. This is how we make ourselves fit to face the future, how we will continue to be a strong, dependable ally to our friends abroad, and how we will be an engine of growth and jobs here at home.
And today I want to speak about what that looks like. Typhoon remains an indispensable instrument of our national security. The more than £1 billion we’re investing to upgrade the fleet will ensure that remains the case into the 2040s. But long gone are the days of crewed platforms holding their own in the sky. That process of transformation is now well underway.
Last week, we announced our new Collaborative Combat Air programme, StormFighter. With the advent of CCA, and their integration with crewed platforms like the Typhoon, we will make the RAF Europe’s first sixth-generation air force. These uncrewed autonomous fighter jets will provide us with eyes and ears, carry missiles and confuse the enemy. Five at a time and 500 miles ahead of the Typhoon pilots controlling them, crucially, at a fifth of the price of that aircraft.
And I can announce today that our ambition is to get a demonstrator CCA flying in the air next year and have StormFighter operational by the end of the decade. This project will support 2,000 jobs when the full production line is up and running.
Globally, the CCA sector is projected to be valued at more than £125 billion to 2050. This is a sector in which I expect the UK to excel.
Just this morning, we saw a British company, BAE, launch their sovereign CCA programme. This signals the enormous opportunity on offer in advantage, jobs and exports. If we’re to meet that potential, then we need to do things differently. We’ve just upgraded our Typhoons with a new precision weapon system that can defeat drones at a fraction of the price of the missiles currently used. From start to finish, the process took just 42 days. This is a mark of where we need to be.
That means changing the way we do business and working with the Defence Industrial Joint Council I will direct my department to take a new approach to risk. Not every decision will come off, but that’s the price of moving at the pace of modern warfare, where delay and inaction pose the greater threat.
All this matters because what we’re building now, an integrated system of crewed and autonomous platforms, provides us with the bridge to our sixth-generation fighter system. The £8.6 billion pledged to GCAP in the Defence Investment Plan is a sure expression of our commitment, as you heard from the Prime Minister just a moment ago.
And in a display of our intent to increase international collaboration, yesterday, alongside our partners from Italy and Japan, I was pleased to welcome Canada as an observer to the programme.
GCAP means air dominance. Our nation needs it. This government is backing it. The wider Future Combat Air System will likewise enjoy our fullest support. Today we have over 4,500 people working across the UK building a fully integrated combat air system, GCAT, uncrewed platforms, advanced weapons, sensors and secure data networks. The FCAS programme is a fantastic source of good jobs and apprenticeships.
We also have some of our finest minds working on the frontier of the most advanced technologies. The potential, not just for our security, but as history shows, for our society and our economy too, is enormous. And today, I’m pleased to confirm we put pen to paper with BAE on a £708 million contract extension to advance their work on critical sovereign technologies.
So what does all of this mean? In one word, jobs. The air sector alone employs 70,000 people in the UK. The Prime Minister has spoken passionately about his ambition to re-industrialise Britain. Defence is, and will be, at the forefront of that mission. We will be unapologetic about backing Britain, British ingenuity, British workers, communities in every corner of this great country. Defence will not just be a recipient of the proceeds of economic growth. It will be a central contributor to building that growth, a driver of prosperity in parts of the country that are crying out for the backing they need to make their contribution to the challenge of our time.
It is not yet clear whether the 21st century will be defined by tyranny or freedom. But we need not let others define the answer to that question. Freedom is hard won and even harder preserved. We in Britain will not be bystanders in this contest. We know which side we are on. And we will give every part of our country the chance to play their part in ensuring that our values – freedom, democracy and peace – not only win out, but endure.
Let me end with what matters most our people. Over recent months, we’ve seen the very best of our RAF. Our pilots protecting the skies above NATO’s Eastern Front and the Middle East. The A400 crew who flew 4,000 miles to save a single life on the most remote inhabited British Overseas Territory on Earth. And I have to say, as the Health Secretary at the time, that made me truly proud to be British and truly proud of what this country is capable of doing.
The RAF Regiment gunners who stood watch engaging hundreds of drones with relentless dedication in the Middle East. The heli crews who helped seize a Russian shadow fleet vessel, and the P-8 crews who tracked Russian spy subs with precision and determination. Every time, without exception, When members of our RAF are called to act, they have not merely met the moment, they have risen far beyond it.
We are now in the midst of one of the most profound changes in the history of air power. Never before have we been asked to travel so far in so little time. But we can. In times of our greatest peril, this country has shown itself capable of doing big things. We still can. We have stood tall on the world stage, steadfast in support of our allies. We still can. We have matched the courage of those who serve with the ingenuity of those who build. We still can. And together, we will do so again. Thank you very much. And together, we will do so.