2 June 2025, 16:46

By Andrew Fox

The upcoming Strategic Defence Review is the most significant in a generation.

Following two decades consumed by wars of choice, from Iraq to Helmand, via the Sahel and Syria, Britain now confronts something it has not faced earnestly since the Cold War: a genuine, large-scale conventional threat on Europe’s eastern flank.

Initial reports suggest the government has, at last, grasped the primary military lesson of Ukraine: firepower matters. Victory on a modern battlefield requires not only courage and professionalism but also mass: artillery, ammunition, drones, logistics, and the industrial strength to sustain them. The SDR appears to recognise this, with new funding for munitions stockpiles and long-term production contracts. That’s welcome. However, it is only a first step.

Early reports suggest that the SDR falls short in addressing a more uncomfortable reality: the post-America world. The United States remains a superpower, yet its reliability as an ally has diminished. Whether under Trump or Biden, American strategic focus has shifted towards the Pacific and inward to domestic dysfunction. Europeans are slowly waking up to this. Britain must........

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