The UK Ministry of Defence could be poised to publish the findings of its eagerly awaited Strategic Defence Review (SDR) activity by early June, according to one of the report’s key contributors.

“It will published I think within the next fortnight,” Lord Robertson told delegates at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s FCAS Summit event in London on 21 May.

“The prime minister has endorsed it and its recommendations, and it will be made public as quickly as we can get it out of the Treasury,” he says.

UK F-35B

Source: Crown Copyright

Review is likely to address further UK purchases of Lockheed Martin’s F-35

“It will be genuinely transformative in the way that it deals with all of the issues that are related to the defence of the United Kingdom,” says Robertson, who previously held the roles of UK defence secretary and NATO secretary general, and acted as lead external reviewer for the new report.

“Two months ago we submitted the final draft,” he says. Describing this as running to “100-odd pages”, he states: “I believe it will inspire our friends and intimidate our enemies, involve industry in a new way, and make the country much safer as well.

“We had a degree of independence that allowed us to be bolder and more radical, and perhaps less respectful than if we had been doing an inside-department review,” he notes.

Robertson says the UK government’s confirmation earlier this year of plans to boost defence spending from around 2.3% of gross domestic product currently to 2.5% by 2027 and then 3% at the end of this decade “allowed us much more flexibility in the recommendations that we were going to make”.

Major aviation-related subjects to be contained within the review are likely to include the UK’s continued purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35s, and its involvement in the Global Combat Air Programme with joint partners Italy and Japan.

Also speaking at the FCAS-focused conference, Andrew Kinniburgh, director general of Make UK Defence – a body representing around 600 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – welcomed the suggestion of the SDR’s near-term release.

“We need the brakes letting off desperately,” he says, noting that contract awards for member companies have been delayed during the wait for the report’s release. The UK government had originally pledged to publish it earlier this year.

Kinniburgh also describes as “totally unacceptable” a situation where only around 4% of its equipment spending is routed to SMEs, noting that the figure is around 25% in the USA.