Sea Power: The Defence of an Island Nation
Britain is an island whose trade, energy and data arrive by sea or under it, and whose territories and closest allies lie across oceans. Its defence is rebuilt around that fact. The government publishes the tasks of the armed forces in priority order, beginning with the deterrent, the home waters and the seabed and the North Atlantic, and a force plan costed against each. Britain keeps its NATO commitment of 3.5 per cent of national income on core defence as a ceiling rather than a target. The plan rather than the percentage sets the budget, which on present estimates is around 3 per cent, and every programme follows rules for the lowest cost, from forward basing and common hulls to proven designs and continuous orders.
The Type 26 and Type 31 frigates are completed and a second batch of Type 31 frigates is ordered for the distant stations. The Type 45 destroyers are replaced by the air defence system that best meets the task, after a comparison of the planned distributed system with a Type 26 derivative. Both carriers are kept and properly equipped, with a standing role in the Atlantic, and up to twelve SSN-AUKUS submarines are built alongside an uncrewed fleet that guards the approaches and the seabed. A thirty-year shipbuilding plan gives British yards a steady drumbeat of orders, a strategic reserve of British merchant ships and seafarers is created and a new Undersea Infrastructure Act protects cables and pipelines. The Falklands garrison is made able to hold the islands alone, with a frigate based there, and the navy supports the programme in Antarctica. AUKUS becomes a permanent alliance, the Type 26 family is shared with Australia, Canada and Norway, Britain leads in the North Atlantic while its allies lead in the Pacific and each charter city's founding charter sets out how it is defended.
The army keeps its NATO division and its battlegroup in Estonia without expansion, holds heavy armour only for that division and takes on the defence of the home islands and missiles that strike ships. The air force continues GCAP, moving to fewer crewed aircraft each leading uncrewed ones as the uncrewed aircraft prove themselves, and expands maritime patrol. Every combat unit is equipped with drones bought as munitions, with orders that sustain the British production built through the autonomy mission, and a national counter-drone shield protects bases, ports and critical sites. Military support for Ukraine is brought to an end and the presence in the Middle East reduced, with the money returned to Britain's own tasks.