The 2025 UK Strategic Defence Review: Ambitions, Constraints, and Gaps

by Nato Balavadze

In this paper we discuss:

• Recent trends in UK defence spending;
• The UK’s new defence and security policy;
• Army and RAF plans in the SDR;
• UK army size and strategic challenges;
• How to rebuild the UK’s “industrial readiness”; and
• The UK’s “military Keynesianism:” the UK’s defence strategy in the broader geopolitical context.

Download PDF: UK SDR June 2025