In his defence speech, General Sir Nick Carter addressed the last year of defence and the sector’s needs for next year. He spoke about the supply chain and the need for a review into defence.
He spoke about campaigns such as British battalions providing training in Africa and for NATO member states. International cooperation was a focus, including officer academies in Jamaica and the Royal International Air Tattoo.
General Sir Nick Carter said: “Do we know what ‘just in time logistics’ has done to our supply chains? Have we assured sovereign capability where we need it? Has our competitive procurement process shared risk with our suppliers as well as it might for our support solutions? And how do we improve the availability of our key platforms?”
“A Defence review needs to do this at the same time as creating adequate headroom for us to modernise. Our modernised force will be framed through the integration of five Domains: Space, Cyber and Information, Maritime, Air and Land. This will change the way we fight and the way we develop capability.”
“Our new UK Strategic Command which formally stands up next week as the successor to Joint Forces Command is charged with driving the essential integration across the modernised force to achieve multi-Domain effect. It will develop and generate the capabilities we need to operate successfully in this sub-threshold context (or grey zone as some call it) – including space, cyber, special operations and information operations. It will also command the strategic base, including the fixed parts of our global footprint, and the support, medical and logistic capability that enables operational deployment and mobilisation.”
The speech also discussed interoperability between domains. He concluded by saying that change will be kick-started by younger defence staff who have digital skills who will need to be empowered to release their knowledge into defence.
If you would like to join our community and read more articles like this then please click here.
Chief of the Defence Staff digital General Sir Nick Carter interoperability NATO RUSI speech