The following papers are relevant for this debate:

House of Commons Library briefings

Defence Command Paper 2021: Equipment cuts, Commons Briefing Paper (CBP) 9188, 30 March 2021
What equipment will be cut from the UK armed forces in the 2020s?

Integrated Review 2021: emerging defence technologies, CBP 9184, 25 March 2021
The Government’s Integrated Review and Defence Command Paper both placed an emphasis on new and emerging technologies, what have been referred to as “sunrise” capabilities. But will they come at the expense of more traditional warfighting capability?

UK Army to be reduced to 72,500, Commons Library Insight, 23 March 2021
The existing target of 82,000 personnel, set in 2015, has been scrapped.

Nuclear weapons at a glance: United Kingdom, CBP 9077, 22 March 2021
This paper briefly examines the UK’s nuclear weapons policies, capabilities and programmes. It is one paper in a larger series on the nuclear weapon states.

UK Defence Personnel Statistics, CBP 7930, 8 March 2021
This note provides details on how UK military service personnel statistics are measured and discusses current and historic strength levels. The Army, Naval and RAF Services are examined, as well as the reserve elements of these services. Statistics on the diversity of the military, inflow and outflow rates, and surplus/deficits of strength against targets are discussed. Detailed tables and charts are available in the downloadable PDF.

Command Papers

Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, Cabinet Office, 16 March 2021
Global Britain in a Competitive Age, the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, describes the government’s vision for the UK’s role in the world over the next decade and the action it will take to 2025.

Defence in a Competitive Age, Ministry of Defence, March 2021
Defence in a Competitive Age outlines defence’s contribution to the overarching objectives set out in the government’s Integrated Review. This includes detail on how defence will deliver the multi-year settlement it received in 2020 and how it will transform its armed forces to meet the threats of the future.

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