UK Strategic Defense Review 2025

And the band played on…

For the very few people who care about such things, the UK’s latest Strategic Defense Review (henceforth SDR for the sake of brevity) was issued several days ago amid the usual boosterism and claims that the UK is finally, a mere eleven years after Russia began its multiple invasions of Ukraine, going to produce a British military capable of more than just waving a white flag at the first sign of danger. Many column inches and commentator YouTube channels have detailed the supposed major changes the UK government has supposedly committed to.

Alas, it’s all just empty words.

As per tradition, the UK SDR promises far too little, far too late — and even that is purely fantasy. There is precisely zero probability of any meaningful change to the UK’s defense posture which today comprises pretending Russia isn’t already at war with the West. Remember, the UK is a nation which when one of its naval vessels was strafed by a Russian jet in the Black Sea pretended nothing had happened. Unfortunately for the UK government, a BBC film crew happened to be aboard the vessel at the time and so eventually the UK government had to admit something happened but it wasn’t anything to worry about. Really. And when a Russian jet fired a live Fox-2 at a UK fighter jet, the UK government again pretended nothing had…