The United Kingdom’s much-awaited Defence Investment Plan is finally published, detailing the Ministry of Defence’s spending commitments for the coming years.
The first of this series of two articles, entitled ‘Buy in the DIP – Part One’, examined the implications for the United Kingdom’s electronic warfare posture following the publication of the country’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP). This article will discuss the plans articulated in the DIP concerning UK military communications.
The DIP has been the subject of controversy. In initial publication date of 2025 slipped to early 2026 and thence to the summer with the document finally seeing the light of day at the end of June. Delays were blamed on wranglings between the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Treasury, the UK’s economic and financial ministry, over funding. Specifically, the Treasury and the MOD were at loggerheads on how to address a $23 billion gap in the country’s defence funding plans. The disagreement resulted in the resignation of John Heeley, the UK defence secretary, and armed forces minister Al Carns on 11th June. The UK MOD had been offered a $15.3 billion by the Treasury, over $7 billion less that what it said was needed, to address funding shortfalls. To further complicate matters, the British government has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2027 to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035. Writ large, the Defence Investment Plan has promised to invest $383 billion over the coming years into UK defence.
The DIP sets out what capabilities the UK will acquire to meet the goals the country articulated in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR). The SDR outlined the country’s strategic priorities in the coming years and how these will be addressed. As Armada reported in the past, the SDR pledged to develop a Digital Targeting Web (DTW).
The DTW’s advent will have significant implications for the trajectory of UK military communications modernisation. The MOD’s vision for the Digital Targeting Web is for a network of sensors, effectors and Command and Control (C2) assets to shorten the Observe, Orient, Decide Act (OODA) loop for British forces at operational and tactical levels. In turn, the Digital Targeting Web is an important manifestation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO’s) Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) doctrine. The DIP specifies that up to $2.4 billion will be spent on the Digital Targeting Web.
To be fair, the MOD has already taken an important step in overhauling UK land forces tactical communications via the announcement of the Tactical Communications Systems Framework in January 2026. The framework is an important step forward in finally replacing the UK land forces’ Bowman combined tactical communications and C2 system originally scheduled to be retired from 2026. Bowman is now set to soldier on (pun intended) to 2035 at the latest. The Digital Backbone forms the DTW’s communications element and will absorb $7.2 billion of investment on top of the $2.4 billion earmarked for the DTW. The spending breakdown for the Digital Backbone will see an initial expenditure of $556 million over the coming four years to “replace fragmented services and networks (with) an enterprise platform that accelerates decision-making, enables integration across domains, and supports operational advantage in a data-driven battlespace”, in the DIP’s own words.
Expanding capability
Beyond these words, the DIP is vague on exactly what will be acquired to support the Digital Backbone. Undoubtedly, the Tactical Communications Framework will provide much of the capability the backbone will depend on. Beyond this, UK land forces are benefitting from tactical/operational trunk communications enhancement via Project Trinity while operational/strategic communications will be enhanced via the modernisation of the UK’s Satellite Communications (SATCOM) capabilities: Efforts include the extension of the existing Skynet-5 constellation’s life span and its eventual replacement by Skynet-6. The first Skynet-6 spacecraft, Skynet-6A, is planned for launch in 2027. SATCOM modernisation will see $3 billion spent to this end between 2026 and 2030. To be fair, the DIP does state that the exact capabilities that will fill MOD aspirations writ large over the next five to ten years can be difficult gauge. Ultimately, these may currently either be at relatively low technology readiness levels or are yet to be invented.
The DIP is saying the right words regarding UK military communications modernisation. However, the hard work is implementing the desire. The country’s land forces cannot afford anymore disappointments like the Bowman replacement debacle. If visions like the DTW and Digital Backbone are to become a reality, then the links they depend on must materialise. The future of the UK’s application of military force may well depend on it.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
