Navigating the Skies: What the SDR 2025 means for the Air Domain

The Strategic Defence Review 2025 (“SDR”), published last month, sets out the UK’s vision for defence in an increasingly challenging global environment. We’ve already analysed the key takeaways from the SDR for defence contractors and customers here, and looked at the golden thread of AI and novel technologies that runs throughout here. Now it’s time for us to take a more in-depth look at what the SDR means for each of the defence domains, starting with Air.

The SDR describes a clear and ambitious view for the future of the Air Domain, with big plans to improve resilience, acquire new high-tech capabilities, and invest in people and training. In this short blog post, we summarise the key themes and impacts for those involved in the military aviation sector.

Embracing Technology and New Capabilities

The SDR directs a comprehensive upgrade of the Eurofighter Typhoon, mandating enhancements to radar, defensive aids, avionics and weapons that will boost its combat effectiveness. In parallel, it underlines Britain’s commitment to the Future Combat Air System and Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), which tasks industry with delivering a sixth-generation fighter by 2035. 

Whilst these crewed platforms will remain key to the domain’s approach, the SDR also recommends investment in autonomous collaborative platforms used to augment crewed systems, whilst leaving the door open to move towards increasingly AI-enabled and autonomous assets as the technology matures.

This focus on advanced technologies clearly recognises the key role that technological superiority plays in outpacing emerging threats, opening the door for dual-use and technology innovators to play a greater part in the development and supply of new capabilities, and challenging the current acquisition models used in defence.

Ensuring conflict readiness

In today’s fraught geopolitical environment, the SDR highlights the need to build greater warfighting readiness in the air-domain, mandating investment in existing and new capabilities to match this ambition. As well as staying at the “leading edge of combat air’s evolution” through the Future Combat Air System and Typhoon upgrades, the SDR also recognises that more F-35s will be required over the next decade to meet military requirements – a plan that is already starting to be implemented, including through the UK’s recently announced decision to acquire nuclear-capable F-35s.  

The SDR also recommends focusing on the enhancement of surveillance capabilities through investment in the UK’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence Network, as well as expanding the procurement of E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft. However, it is recognised that affordability needs be considered, something that may potentially be addressed by exploring shared funding arrangements with NATO Allies.

Building Resilience

The SDR recognises that the RAF’s ability to project and sustain operations overseas hinges on a robust and flexible logistics network. Currently, Brize Norton serves as the UK’s sole strategic lift hub, handling everything from heavy equipment to humanitarian relief flights. A number of measures are recommended by the SDR to ensure that the facility is able to serve these crucial functions in the most efficient and effective way, including: 

• investment in and improvement in the infrastructure in partnership with private finance;
• ensuring that the facility does not become a single point of failure by establishing viable alternatives where needed through shared use of commercial facilities; and
• growing the transport fleet beyond the current Atlas squadrons, whether by ordering additional A400Ms, leveraging sponsored-service contracts or contracting civilian heavy-lift providers, to reduce demand on military aircraft for routine tasks.

This dual approach of optimising existing infrastructure through private-sector collaboration while expanding lift capacity via mixed military–commercial solutions ensures that the RAF can surge rapidly when needed, without excessive capital outlay on duplicate bases or under-utilised airframes.

People, Skills and Training

The SDR emphasises that skilled RAF personnel are the bedrock to realise the ambitions it sets out, and that the RAF needs to focus retaining unique experience to build leaders and specialists to ensure that it can keep up with the tech-driven approach mandated for the sector. The issues that can be faced in this area were highlighted in the recent NAO report on the UK’s F-35 programme, with one of the biggest challenges experienced by the programme being identified as the recruitment of specialist engineers, cyber professionals, pilots and instructors to support the programme in the UK.

Another challenge is training, with the SDR labelling current fast-jet training arrangements as “inadequate”, in part due to the well-publicised limitations with the existing Hawk trainers. To resolve this issue, it mandates replacing legacy Hawk trainers with advanced and cost-effective training systems, as well as urgently revising current training arrangements to optimise capacity.

Final Thoughts

The SDR sets out a holistic vision for the Air Domain’s future - one built on skilled people, resilient logistics, and cutting-edge technology. Coupled with the boost to defence spending, the upcoming defence industrial strategy, and the plans for sweeping reforms to revolutionise MOD’s acquisition processes, these pillars have the potential to unlock extensive opportunities for industry. Although the SDR is only the starting point, with funding and implementation strategies being fundamental to ensuring that the SDR can achieve its ambitions, for now it is clear that the direction of travel for the Air Domain has been set.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this article or any other legal or commercial issues with our sector leading team of defence experts, please get in touch. 

This article was written by Lucy Owens and Will Flaim