The strategy acts as a consolidation of previous work on UK defence.

The UK will strengthen its industrial base through investment and procurement reforms underscored in a new ‘National Security Strategy 2025’ (NSS 2025), a 24 June announcement from the UK Government has revealed.

Efforts to strengthen the domestic industry include redefining the defence industrial base to include academic institutions, dual-use companies, financial services, technologists, and trade unions.

The National Security Strategic Investment Fund will also be scaled up to support companies which help address UK defence needs.

Although further details regarding how the UK will bolster the industrial base were not provided, the strategy did note that targeted investment and the creation of a wider export market will all be key aspects of the upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy. 

In addition, under the NSS, the government will identify and protect areas of strength in the UK’s industrial, scientific, and technological base, with the goal of improving research and boosting the economy, among other things.

“We can unleash a ‘defence dividend’ that will renew industrial communities the length and breadth of our country”, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer proclaimed.

While the government outlined the actions it will take to support NSS 2025, it noted that this strategy is a consolidation of various other work and policies related to defence, such as the recently unveiled Strategic Defence Review (SDR).

In a bold declaration of the threats facing the UK, NSS 2025 also notably warned of a need to “actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario”.

To counter increasing geopolitical uncertainty, NATO will also be prioritised, along with the delivery of capabilities like AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK and US. 

The NSS 2025 will also see the UK pursue further collaboration with the US and the EU on areas of trade, technology, and security, with a means to go “further than the agreements we have already struck”, the government said.

Speaking to some of the specific threats faced by the UK, NSS 2025 referenced a new ‘China Audit’ announced on the same day by Foreign Secretary David Lammy. In the strategy, the government details the “geostrategic challenge” of China, noting the audit’s role in creating “comprehensive guidance relevant to engagement” with the country.

The government rehashed some previous announcements, mentioning plans to establish the UK Defence Innovation, an organisation designed to support the purchase of innovative products first announced in March 2025. It also committed to delivering the “largest sustained investment” in its armed forces since the cold war, an aim first set out in February 2025.

Also doubling down on a previous announcement made on 1 June, the government reaffirmed plans to create six new munitions and energetics factories, as well as to buy up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons.

DSEI Gateway News is part of DSEI UK and the broader Clarion Defence portfolio. 
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