Peers have warned the Government must go “further and faster” to prepare Britain for possible war within 1,000 days, saying defence procurement rules are too slow to keep pace with new technology.

The warning comes in a report published on Wednesday by the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, chaired by Baroness Hayter, which examined the relationship between the Government and the defence industry.

The committee said the Ministry of Defence must become more comfortable taking risks when it buys new equipment, rather than relying on detailed specifications that slow everything down.

Peers call for flexibility and risk-taking

In its report, the committee said: “The Ministry of Defence must become more comfortable with greater flexibility and risk in its procurement of new capabilities, accepting that the finished product might not be as initially envisaged, that failure can be instructive, and that speed can be more important than cost management.”

It warned that if ministers stick to the current approach, industry will not be able to respond quickly enough. “If the Government continues its arms-length, buyer-seller relationship with industry delivering against detailed and prescriptive technical specifications, industry will not be able to move quickly enough to exploit fast-developing technology or to protect the UK in the event of war,” the committee said.

The peers said red tape had slowed procurement without clearly reducing waste, and urged the MoD to cut overly prescriptive requirements, learn from failed projects and give smaller firms more support.

More support urged for smaller defence firms

The committee called for further support for small and medium-sized enterprises, stressing that the firms provide “much innovation and experimentation, and who support larger, prime contractors in delivering broader capabilities”.

It welcomed the Strategic Defence Review’s call for a new, collaborative partnership between the Government and industry, adding that its recommendations focus on “where the Government must go further and faster”.

The peers also urged the Government to use the Defence Investment Summit on 1 December to give businesses greater certainty about future orders and funding.

The 1,000-day readiness target

The 1,000-day target traces back to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who wrote in The Telegraph in late October that adversaries could be in a position to attack by 2030, giving Britain “a little over 1,000 days to complete our mission: to be ready with our allies to fight and win”.

The Government’s stated aim is to be ready for conflict by 2030. The peers’ warning comes as ministers face questions over how defence ambitions, including spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030, will be funded.

Giving evidence to the committee in October, Mr Streeting said just under £300 billion would be spent on defence over the next four years, and the National Armaments Director, Rupert Pearce, confirmed the investment summit would take place on 1 December.

The committee’s report now puts the question to ministers: whether procurement can change fast enough to match the pace of the threats the Government itself has described. Its central message is that readiness is not only about how much money is spent, but about how quickly Britain can turn that money into working equipment.

Sources: British Bulletin and TalkFuse (GB News).