Defence industry needs to 'move quickly to get on war footing', experts warn

The UK has one of largest defence industries in Europe, and that is “almost as important as having the Armed Forces” in terms of its deterrent effect, Mr Kinniburgh said.

There has been criticism of the state of the country’s military, with Sir Keir Starmer recently announcing that defence spending will increase to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

However, Mr Kinniburgh also admitted that the industrial base is “not yet on a war footing”.

“I think we need to move quickly to try and get to there, where we have spare capacity and surge capacity in the supply chain,” he told MPs.

“I think it’s a huge deterrent and we need to move much more quickly to establish surge capacity.”

There has been a renewed focus on defence, with Donald Trump’s isolationism putting more pressure on Europe to support Ukraine.

Earlier in the week, the Prime Minister announced the Thales plant in Belfast is to supply 5,000 air defence missiles to Ukraine in a deal worth up to £1.6 billion.

While Sheffield Forgemasters was one of the companies which attended a Downing Street meeting with Sir Keir and Defence Secretary John Healey, to emphasise the Government’s backing of the sector.

At the Make UK conference yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to cut red tape to make it easier for the Government to buy military equipment.

Mr Reeves said she wants to “fire up Britain’s industrial base” to step up arms production.

The Chancellor told the conference: “I am proud of our manufacturing sector, and the opportunities that it creates for the future – bringing more jobs and growth to parts of the country that have been ignored.

“For too long politicians of all stripes have ducked and dodged the decisions needed to fire up Britain’s industrial base and unleash its potential to keep the country safe.

“We’re changing that by increasing defence spending and making defence a cornerstone of our industrial strategy to create jobs, drive growth and meet emerging global threats head on.”

As part of this, ministers will review “single source” contract rules that govern the majority of defence deals to incentivise faster delivery, learning lessons from the successful and rapid procurement of arms for Ukraine.

Currently, single source contracts are not open to competition for national security reasons, or because there is only one specialist supplier available.