Defence preparedness troubles were years in the making

The issues Britain is facing in getting HMS Dragon to sea, and more broadly in responding militarily to the Iran crisis, can be traced back many years.

Prospect has been highlighting the issues caused by a recent contract for in-port services between the MOD and Serco Marine, which has reduced capacity at Portsmouth. However this is part of a much bigger story about underinvestment in private and public defence capacity over many years.

Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said:

“Our members are working as hard as possible to get HMS Dragon to sea, and no one should be criticising their commitment to supporting our armed forces.

“The roots of the problems with the Serco contract go back to a decade of underinvestment in our military capacity.

“We warned the previous government of the implications their decisions would have for the Royal Navy in the 2020s. Ultimately they left our defences in such a state that they will take years to rebuild.

“There isn’t enough kit. What we have often isn’t in a fit state to deploy rapidly. And both public sector and private sector capacity, for example in ports, has been eroded by years of cuts and kicking the can down the road on vital procurement decisions.

“Defence has always been delivered by the public sector and private sector working together. The rebuilding that needs to happen will rightly involve investment in both.”

Prospect has repeatedly warned that lack of investment and failure to take decisions under the previous government was storing up problems for the future. For example back in 2018, we warned that delays to ordering new ships would have “a significant impact on the Royal Navy’s capability as we move into the 2020s”, something we are now seeing in the size of the surface escort fleet.