Head of British Armed Forces Says Ukraine Conflict Proves UK Needs 10,000 Drones by 2030

Admiral Tony Radakin denies 'tilt to Indo-Pacific' has gone too far

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, London, following the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on May 6, 2023. (PA)

The head of Britain’s armed forces has said the conflict in Ukraine has emphasised the need for the UK to equip itself with more drones, and he said he hoped to have up to 10,000 by 2030.

Speaking at the second day of the London Defence Conference at King’s College London (KCL), on Wednesday, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, said drones were now “ubiquitous” in modern warfare.

He said the lessons of the Ukraine conflict would have an impact on the UK and there needed to be an “open conversation” about what that meant for the structure of the British armed forces.

Radakin, in conversation with KCL’s Prof. John Grearson, said: “We’re trying to challenge ourselves around the need for more drones, and be honest about what that might mean to some of the existing force structures. What does it mean in the future?”

He said: “We talk about a 500-ship navy, where it won’t be 500 ships, but it might be 400 drones, a 1,000-aircraft air Force but it might be eight 800 drones, the equivalent of a couple of hundred thousand people in the army, but with that level of lethality and that level of firepower.”

Grearson said he had heard Radakin mention before there were aspirations to have 10,000 drones by 2030 and the admiral replied: “I think those kinds of things that’s what we should be contemplating.”

10,000 Drones a ‘Relatively Small’ Number

Radakin said: “So 10,000 by 2030, at one level it’s gosh, that’s a big number. It’s not. These are relatively small numbers between now and the end of the decade. And that’s what we need to get into.”

Radakin also referred to the strategic “tilt to the Indo-Pacific” but said Britain remained focused on the “Euro-Atlantic” theatre.

He listed all the places where the British armed forces were deployed or had training bases, east of Suez—Bahrain, Duqm (Oman), Kenya, Diego Garcia, Singapore, Brunei, and—following the signing of the Hiroshima Accord—Japan, but he denied the “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific had gone too far.

The British Army, which is being reduced from 82,000 to 72,500 troops, is smaller than it ever has been and last year the former head of the army, Gen. Lord Dannatt described it as “madness.”

But Radakin said he had recently had an upbeat chat with the army’s head, Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders.

Radakin said: “He’s got a slightly smaller army, but he’s doing a lot more, and that’s what we should be looking at, the actual lethality deployability.”

He said the important thing for Britain was getting its ships, aircraft, troops, and cyber defence working together against the threats which exist in the 2020s.

(L to R) Britain's Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and Russia's Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, at the Russian Ministry of Defence in Moscow on Feb. 11, 2022. (Ministry of Defence/PA)

Asked about the growing threat posed by the CCP regime in Beijing, Radakin said he was pleased to hear some of the “geopolitical messaging” that western leaders had been using recently.

He said: “The strengthening of the language in IR23 [the UK’s integrated defence review], the clarity of the G-7 language, the clarity of the prime minister’s statement in the House [of Commons] on Monday, the response by Keir Starmer and his elevation of language around China, you should take some reassurance that you have got the major powers in the world seeing the issues in a very similar way, and they’re starting that journey.”

Radakin accompanied Defence Secretary Ben Wallace when they went to Moscow on February 11, 2022, and were told there were no plans to invade Ukraine. A few days later the Russians invaded.

Sunak: Ukraine Stands ‘Every Chance of Success’

On the first day of the conference, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Ukraine stood “every chance of success” against the Russian army if it chose to launch an offensive.

Sunak—who had just returned from Japan—said the image of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy standing shoulder to shoulder with the G-7 leaders “sent a pretty strong message” to the Kremlin.

Sunak said: “What Ukraine has been doing for the past year is a counter-offensive. Many people thought that would not be possible. We should take a moment to pay tribute to that. Ukraine has held their ground through a hard winter and is rebuilding.”

Speaking of a possible Ukrainian offensive, Sunak said: “They have every chance of success because we worked hard with them to develop a plan that we think can make a difference and we led the charge on making sure they have the resources and capabilities to deliver that plan. We’ve played a leading role, we should be proud of that.”

Shadow defence secretary John Healey, speaking at the same conference, said Labour would carry out a defence spending review within 12 months of coming into office and he said they would, “spend what’s required on defence.”

Healey also emphasised a Labour government would support the Ukrainians in their war against Russian aggression.

He also said there was a need for a long-term commitment to Kyiv and said that would “signal to Putin that things will get worse and not better in the long run.”