Britain is set to announce one of the biggest shake-ups of its armed forces in decades, copying the playbook of Ukraine’s war against Russia, as the Kremlin reiterated on Monday that its conditions for a peace deal remain unchanged since 2024.
The Defence Investment Plan, to be published on Tuesday by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in one of his last acts before stepping down, shifts the UK’s military focus from large, expensive warships to cheap drones, autonomous systems and rapid innovation cycles, the Ministry of Defence said on Monday.
“Britain unveils defence plan modelled on Ukraine's war, while Kremlin insists peace terms unchanged since 2024.”
The move follows last year’s Strategic Defence Review, which warned that “state conflict has returned to Europe,” after a funding crunch that prompted former Defence Secretary John Healey to quit earlier this month.
Under the new plan, there will be no new money for up to eight Type 83 guided missile destroyers and Type 32 frigates—projects once central to rebuilding the Royal Navy in the 2030s. Instead, Britain will invest in at least six new Common Combat Vessels designed to act as control ships for uncrewed systems, including Type 93 underwater anti-submarine vessels, Type 91 uncrewed missile platforms and Type 92 and Type 94 unmanned sensor platforms. The shift draws directly on Ukraine’s success in defeating Russia’s Black Sea Fleet with sea and air drones and missiles.
The unmanned revolution extends to the Royal Air Force, with officials teasing investment in a “national Collaborative Combat Air program” to produce autonomous jets that fly alongside crewed counterparts, part of the British-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme developing a sixth-generation fighter.
“The UK is learning from Ukraine’s war against Russia to build its own armed forces to prepare for a similar conflict this decade,” the MoD said, describing a focus on “cheap systems destroying high-value targets and innovation cycles measured in weeks, not years.”
Tim Willasey-Wilsey, a senior associate fellow at the RUSI defence think tank, noted that while Britain needs to retain a large navy as a global trading power, the shift reflects lessons from the battlefield.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin signalled no softening of its war aims. President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Russia would press ahead with fully controlling the four regions it claims—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia—rejecting what he described as a Ukrainian proposal to rein in hostilities by halting long-range strikes and limiting fighting to those territories. Ukraine rejects the claim as an illegal land grab.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday: “Our position is well known. In fact, our position has not changed. It was set out two years ago by our Head of State in a speech at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Peskov also said Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had discussed the war in a weekend meeting, before Lukashenko flew to China for talks.
The Ukrainian president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Putin’s remarks.
As Britain retools its forces for a new era of drone warfare, the political path to ending the conflict that inspired the overhaul appears as distant as ever.