New RUSI Report: Sophisticated and Expensive UK Military Assets Vulnerable to Inexpensive Weapons and Capabilities of Adversaries
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A new RUSI report reveals that the UK’s potential adversaries have
‘focused on developing relatively inexpensive weapons that can
disable or destroy expensive assets.’ Key Points
UK defence capabilities costing £16 billion a year are
increasingly vulnerable to low-cost, technology-rich weapons from
hostile states. Government has focused more on offensive systems
over protective capabilities. Calls for a...Request free trial
A new RUSI report reveals that the UK’s potential adversaries have ‘focused on developing relatively inexpensive weapons that can disable or destroy expensive assets.’
Key Points
Entitled ‘Defence Innovation and the UK: Responding to the Risks Identified by the US Third Offset Strategy’, the paper examines how the UK responds to the transformative US strategy of addressing vulnerabilities posed by potential and actual adversaries.
It highlights the increasing physical threats to many platforms and systems and proposes responses.
The paper identifies the most notable vulnerability to be ‘the increased peer and near-peer threat from Chinese and Russian long-range precision missiles, which threaten large land, maritime and air platforms, as well as having the potential to make space-borne communications and navigation capabilities susceptible to denial.’
For the adversary ‘it has become much cheaper to destroy major systems and platforms than to develop and build them, making large-scale attacks on a single target more likely.’
It states that ‘missiles costing (much) less than half a million pounds a unit could at least disable a British aircraft carrier that costs more than £3 billion. Indeed, a salvo of ten such missiles would cost less than $5 million. There has been a growing imbalance within the attack–defence military equation, driven by the spread and speed of applicable technologies. For example, Iran has long held anti-ship missiles from Russia and has claimed to have developed its own Hormuz-2 supersonic, ballistic anti-ship missile. These weapons must be seen as a key contextual element of British naval deployments in and near the Gulf. In summary, China and Russia appear to have focused many (but not all) their efforts on being able to put at risk the key Western assets that are large, few in number and expensive.’
Written by RUSI experts John Louth and Trevor Taylor, as well as Andrew Tyler of Northrop Grumman Europe. the authors argue that ‘the advancing capabilities of potential adversaries of the UK should be a genuine concern.’
The paper calls for greater emphasis on protective capabilities for platforms. It claims that ‘so far in twenty-first century defence, R&D, a key enabler of technological innovation for improved protection, has not been a priority for the Ministry of Defence. In real terms, the defence budget as a whole was almost the same size in 2015/16 as it was in 2002/03. In that period, R&D spending was halved, research spending alone fell by 27% and development spending by 56%.’
The authors suggest that the UK government, should:
Professor John Louth, Director, Defence, Industries and Society at RUSI said: ‘this is an important piece of research suggesting that the culture of innovation and learning must be expanded and utilised across the defence enterprise to re-balance the investment between protective and offensive capabilities in a future where Western defence technological advantage will diminish and eventually dissipate.’
Co-author Professor Trevor Taylor, Professorial Fellow at RUSI argued that: ‘UK defence policy prioritises the capability to project force to areas of concern and to deter attacks on British assets and allies. The advancing capabilities of potential adversaries in Northern Europe, the Middle East and even East Asia need to be taken into account in reviews of UK defence policy and military tasks, British and NATO approaches to deterrence strategy, and the priorities for UK capability development.’
Co-author, Andrew Tyler, Chief Executive of Northrop Grumman Europe, commented that: ‘the UK defence process must prioritise and value innovation, agility and long-term partnerships to ensure that critical technologies reach the frontline in an affordable and timely manner. The threat from peer and near-peer rivals is real from a capability perspective and we need to ensure that our defensive posture and potential for recovery and resilience match our offensive capabilities.’
Access at: https://rusi.org/defence-innovation-2017
NOTES TO EDITORS
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