Britain could exhaust its supply of critical drone capabilities within a week of a major conflict with Russia, according to a stark assessment that calls for a new generation of “oven-ready” defence factories across northern England.
The Adam Smith Institute has warned that Britain’s defence supply chains are “dangerously exposed”, arguing that high energy costs, planning delays and capital requirements are preventing the country from rapidly expanding weapons production.
Its proposal is for low-tax defence enterprise zones on publicly owned land in the North East, with fast-tracked planning rules allowing factories to be built at speed.
The ambition is both strategic and economic: create a domestic industrial base capable of scaling rapidly during a crisis while bringing high-skilled manufacturing employment to some of England’s most deprived areas.
James Hodgkinson of the ASI said the speed of technological change had made lengthy planning processes a national-security risk.
“When new technologies evolve in months rather than decades, taking years to approve a factory is a material threat to Britain’s national security,” he said.
The think tank also highlighted the cost disadvantage facing British manufacturers. It estimates that a major defence producer would spend more than £200mn on electricity in Britain, compared with about £40mn for an equivalent operation in the US.
That gap, it argues, makes any serious attempt to rebuild Britain’s industrial capacity impossible without addressing energy costs.
The proposed enterprise zones would each have a major multinational defence contractor as an “anchor tenant”, around which smaller suppliers could establish operations and build regional manufacturing networks.
Local political leaders have welcomed the proposal. Sunderland council leader Chris Eynon described it as an opportunity to “supercharge” manufacturing, while Gateshead has begun an initial assessment of how the scheme could work.
Durham County Council said the plan could restore the region as a centre of British industrial strength.
The proposal has also attracted Conservative support. Sir Desmond Swayne, a former Territorial Army major, said Britain could not credibly discuss rearmament while planning restrictions and energy prices constrained the factories needed to deliver it.
The government says it is already expanding sovereign production through its Defence Industrial Strategy, including six new energetics and munitions factories and a new uncrewed systems centre.
But the ASI’s warning exposes the gap between announcing rearmament and possessing the industrial capacity to sustain it.
Modern warfare consumes equipment at extraordinary speed. Britain may have sophisticated weapons, advanced armed forces and ambitious spending plans.
The harder question is whether it can build enough of them before the stockpiles run out.
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