This idea was created by the Scrutinise team as a policy development prompt. It represents a live policy debate with substantial public evidence. Any registered user can contribute to it, and ownership can be transferred to any organisation or individual who wishes to champion it.
A Statutory UK Defence Industrial Mobilisation Reserve
The Ukraine war has demonstrated that modern warfare requires sustained industrial production at scale. The UK has no statutory mechanism to maintain a mobilisation baseline for defence production. This proposal creates one, without requiring increased defence spending in peacetime.
Summary
The Ukraine war has demonstrated that modern warfare requires sustained industrial production at scale. The UK has no statutory mechanism to maintain a mobilisation baseline for defence production. This proposal creates one, without requiring increased defence spending in peacetime.
Challenge (summary)
The UK's defence industrial base has been optimised for efficiency rather than surge capacity. The Ukraine conflict revealed that 155mm artillery shell production, air defence missiles, and drone manufacturing cannot be scaled quickly enough to sustain a peer-adversary conflict.
Approach (summary)
A statutory Defence Industrial Mobilisation Reserve maintained by a new Defence Industrial Resilience Agency, with pre-negotiated surge contracts and a parliamentary accountability mechanism independent of the MoD procurement chain.
First step (summary)
Amend the Defence Reform Act 2014 to establish the Defence Industrial Resilience Agency, with a statutory mandate to maintain mobilisation baselines across Category A defence equipment types.