About The Strategic Defence Review
Released in June 2025, the SDR commits to increasing defence spending to 2.6% of GDP by 2027, with the intention of reaching 3% in the next Parliament[*1]. This investment supports a force-wide transformation: a new hybrid Navy, a more lethal and digitally enabled British Army, next-generation RAF capability, expanded Nuclear Forces, homeland Missile Defence and a new Cyber and Electronic Warfare (CyberEM) Force, all tied together by improved digital integration.
At L3Harris, we share the Government’s vision of rapid delivery, sovereign capability and technology designed for mission adaptability.
The Wartime Mindset: A Change in Mindset for a New Era
At its core, the SDR outlines a wartime mindset for peacetime challenges, acknowledging the realities of sub-threshold conflict, great power competition and accelerated technological change. It demands a permanently connected, agile defence ecosystem.
“To support a move to warfighting, the UK’s defence innovation and industrial base must be able to adapt and surge to meet emerging priorities and demands. A new partnership with industry is essential to ensure the Armed Forces are permanently connected to innovation.”[*2]
Delivering this future requires partners who can bring disruptive technologies with speed and precision, grounded in mission insight and engineered for resilience.
Land Modernisation: Enabling Mission Advantage
The ambition to create a British Army that is “10x more lethal”[*3] is bold, and entirely necessary. For our partners in land forces and in procurement, that means access to technology that doesn’t just meet today’s standard but anticipates tomorrow’s demand.
Open-architecture command and control systems, resilient tactical communications and AI-powered Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) are already enabling faster decisions and stronger deterrence across real operations today.
Nowhere is this clearer than in our recent collaboration with Thales to co-develop a next-generation Short-Range Air Defence (SHORAD) capability for the UK. This solution combines proven effectors with open, digital C2 architecture and counter-drone technology to deliver a rapidly deployable, layered defence system capable of neutralising low, slow and small aerial threats on the modern battlefield.
This programme doesn’t just meet the SDR’s expectations for land lethality, it exemplifies its call for sovereign, modular and interoperable platforms built through industrial partnership. By integrating counter-UAS capability into a mobile SHORAD system, we’re enabling the Army to fight forward with increased survivability and autonomy. Our carriage and release systems, secure datalinks and proven EW solutions are already deployed and making an impact. They’re not just tools; they enable mission success for warfighters.
From Supply Chains to Capability Chains
“By more purposefully using its market power and by prioritising UK-based business, Defence should strive to deliver for the UK economy while delivering for the warfighter.”[*4]
Sovereignty is now strategic. In a world reshaped by the Ukraine war, UK defence resilience must be industrial as well as operational. This means assured access, UK-modifiable tech and the ability to scale fast.
L3Harris is investing accordingly through our UK-domiciled entities, sovereign manufacturing capacity and deep tech partnerships. Our modular systems, agile upgrade paths, and UK-specific configurations are built to support spiral acquisition at speed.
In addition to the five UK-domiciled businesses delivering sovereign capabilities that directly support the UK’s prosperity agenda, L3Harris is underpinned by the trans-Atlantic bridge. We carefully balance the benefits of our UK base while highlighting our wider US capabilities and disruptive technology.
Innovation Under Fire: Ukraine and the Urgency to Deliver
Few conflicts in recent history have redefined the art of warfare as rapidly or as visibly as Ukraine. From autonomous drone strikes and digital targeting webs to cyber offensives launched at the speed of code, the battlefield has changed.
As the UK Secretary of State for Defence John Healey says in the SDR, “Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine, and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their Armed Forces the quickest will win.”[*5]
For the Armed Forces and for the industry partners that support them, success now hinges on one question: how fast can we innovate, deploy and evolve? Technology cycles no longer align with procurement cycles. The capabilities that shape the battlespace must be delivered into the hands of operators early and often. Recent trials such as VANAHEIM, where British soldiers tested counter-drone technologies in realistic scenarios, highlight the urgency of getting innovation into the field quickly and iteratively.
Counter-uncrewed aerial systems, such as Drone Guardian, offer layered, modular protection against the fast-changing drone threat. But innovation isn’t just about platforms, it’s about posture. Our software-defined multi-mode radios, EW systems like CORVUS, and digital C2 solutions are built to adapt rapidly, integrate easily and deliver effect at speed.
In short, Ukraine has shown us that advantage goes to the most agile, and most disruptive. It isn’t a challenge; it’s a necessity.
From Innovation to Integration
Central to the Strategic Defence Review is the vision of an Integrated Force, a digitally fused, all-domain ecosystem that harnesses AI, autonomy and data-led decision-making. At its core lies the Digital Targeting Web. This is a secure network that connects sensors, decision-makers and effectors to compress the sensor-to-shooter cycle from hours to minutes. By enabling commanders to achieve decision superiority in contested environments, it delivers a decisive advantage in modern multi-domain operations.
Through leadership in command-and-control and cloud technologies, L3Harris is helping to build the digital backbone that underpins this Web, ensuring it can operate securely across domains and at the speed of relevance.
We have long embraced this model. Our joint experimentation includes EVEREST, a series of UK and Dutch trials that integrated sensors, C2 systems and effectors in live scenarios. EVEREST demonstrated how innovation can be accelerated into an integrated capability. This approach reflects the SDR’s spiral development strategy and reinforces its central aim of delivering “One Defence.”
From Review to Reality
The review’s sweeping ambition demands partners who can think differently, deliver rapidly and build sovereign solutions without delay.
“Defence must create a new partnership with industry… overhauling acquisition processes from top to bottom… rewarding suppliers for productivity and risk-taking.”[*6]
Combined with UK Defence Reform and revised procurement models, the SDR represents a profound shift in the relationship with industry. The Ministry of Defence seeks faster acquisition, agile delivery and a new approach to review and adopt commercial acquisition models.
The autumn of 2025 marks the shift from strategic blueprint to rolling deployment. A clear Defence Investment Plan, operational stand-up of CyberEM Force, National Security Strategy recalibration, industry engagement and financial trajectory clarity all set the stage for spiral deliveries. L3Harris is ready to lead alongside defence and industry partners, ensuring these plans manifest as operational advantage.
*1 UK Ministry of Defence, The Strategic Defence Review 2025: Making Britain Safer—Secure at Home, Strong Abroad (PDF, 144 pp.), published 2 June 2025, p. 5.
*2 SDR, 2025, p. 40.
*3 SDR, 2025, p. 6.
*4 SDR, 2025, p. 17.
*5 SDR, 2025, p. 3.
*6 SDR, 2025, p. 16.
