Lead, Fight, Win: Reforming the Royal Navy to ensure that it is optimised for Warfighting

Naval power is vital if we are to maintain the free flow of trade, uphold freedom of navigation, deter our adversaries and safeguard Britain’s economy against the kind of global shocks we are now experiencing.

This is why Franklin D Roosevelt observed during the Great War that a nation’s Navy is its “first line of defence” – not just against invasion, but in keeping open “our highways of commerce, across the seas and along our coasts.”

The same is also true if we are to deliver on the core vision set out in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review: A United Kingdom that is secure at home, strong abroad.

And let me be clear, the situation in the Middle East is not a passing storm that we can simply batten down and wait out. The consequences will continue to be felt by the British public, for months if not years to come. We must, and will, be ready to meet this challenge.

The need to transform the Royal Navy was obvious to me long before the first Iranian missiles were launched. If you want peace, prepare for war, so said the Roman writer Vegetius. It is why I announced at DSEI last September, in my first speech as First Sea Lord, that we would develop a new plan, within 100 days, to move us to warfighting readiness over the next four years – a timeline shared by NATO.

It is a plan focussed on the future, while ensuring we are optimised for fighting with what we already have. Meanwhile, our adversaries should be in no doubt that the Navy is ready, today, to conduct advanced operations to protect Britain, our people and our interests. Our warships continue to shadow and deter Russian activity in and around UK waters. And our continuous at sea deterrent protects Britain and NATO every minute of every day.

Warfighting readiness is the overarching objective that underpins every reform, every target, every discussion that I have undertaken since that announcement. Lead, Fight, Win is not a slogan. It is the mission that drives me, and to which the Royal Navy is now fully committed.

I know we have no time to waste. If anything, the past few weeks have shown we must move even faster. That is why the same sense of urgency shown in those first 100 days will continue over the coming year, to ensure we turn words into action, concept into reality.

It will be delivered, perhaps most visibly, through our new Hybrid Navy. What does warfighting ready mean? It means that by the time I finish my four-year tenure, our nuclear deterrent will be more resilient, our submarine maintenance programme and infrastructure markedly improved, to increase SSN and SSBN availability, in turn shortening patrol times, which is a key priority for me. That is why I launched an urgent 100-day drive to tackle these issues, with our submarine maintenance recovery plan already delivering tangible results, and specific measures identified to increase the availability of our Type 45 destroyers.

It means fully exploiting our people’s potential by empowering them, modernising career structures, ensuring we attract the best and the brightest, and equipping them with the tools and skills they need to fight. Modern warfare is fast, integrated, unforgiving, with no respect for chain of command – which is why instilling leadership at every level is critical.

It means prioritising realistic, demanding live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training, so that our people can hone warfighting in complex, multidomain battlespaces, much of which can only be practised through world-leading simulation, and against an effective and realistic peer adversary.

And it means an overhaul of our organisational structures, with a relentless focus on slashing bureaucracy, prioritisation of our warfighting objectives, and new and innovative ways of working. To achieve this, I am injecting a lean, warfighting mentality across the Navy leadership, adopting the latest agile methodologies. This is focussed on breaking down peacetime military hierarchy to improve speed, decision-making and our adaptability – a new approach to leadership within our Royal Navy.

Unlike the lengthy bureaucracy of the past, we are now tackling projects through short, intensive ‘sprints’, typically over one or several weeks, with our priorities set and then managed by empowered, multidisciplinary teams to ensure we constantly identify and remove barriers to achieving our goals. My own priorities are set according to four key areas, all of which overlap with our warfighting readiness. They are Nuclear, Agility, Innovation and Leadership – or ‘NAILs’ for short. As the leader of an organisation of 38,000 people, this ruthless, persistent focus ensures I can cut through the chaff and concentrate on the issues that really matter. This mindset and approach are already delivering real results, and I will have more to say on it when I reflect on my first year in post this summer.

Meanwhile, the Hybrid Navy, the beating heart of our plan, will harness both the power of the traditional fleet and the game-changing capabilities of uncrewed and autonomous systems. This paradigm shift is not about deleting existing capabilities, but rather combining them with the future technologies that will define sea power into the 2030s and beyond. It is only through blending the conventional and the new that we will achieve the mass and scale required to meet our ambition; to increase the fleet’s lethality by 50% in 2027 and then increase it again within two years. This is essential if we are to maintain our advantage over our opponents.

While we must be careful of drawing too many parallels with the Atlantic, the potential of these new technologies has already been demonstrated in the Black Sea, where Ukraine, a country with no warships, has managed to destroy or disable a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It has done so through a combination of maritime drones, uncrewed vessels and long-range strikes. In the 21st century, agility, adaptability and innovation are the decisive factors in conflict.

When our Hybrid Navy is fully operational, it will be optimised for the North Atlantic and High North, reflecting not just the priorities of the SDR and our commitments to NATO, but more fundamentally, our geography. This is where our long-term focus must remain, where the spectre of Russian surface and sub-surface activity continues to pose a persistent challenge, both for the protection of our critical national infrastructure (CNI) and the continuous at sea deterrent (CASD). Aggressive maritime activity is becoming more brazen and more routine.

To put this threat into perspective, consider this: we have seen Russian incursions into our waters jump by almost a third in the last two years. In 2025 alone, the Royal Navy was required to respond dozens of times in support of homeland defence against Russian Navy vessels. And just a few weeks ago, the Defence Secretary revealed a month-long operation by our Royal Navy to track and expose secret underwater capabilities from Russia’s Underwater Research Programme (RURP/GUGI) operating in and around UK wider waters. We know GUGI will continue to probe our defences, with the spy ship Yantar spending a total of 20 days operating in our waters last year, during which it was constantly shadowed and monitored by our vessels.

As the Defence Secretary said, while all eyes may have been on the Middle East in recent weeks, this activity, and the response of our personnel, is a reminder that Russia remains the primary threat to our nation. And it is Russia’s reinvestment in, and development of, its submarine programmes that poses the most acute threat, underlined by the fact that last year our submarines spent more than a third of the year at sea responding to Russian submarine activity.

That is why we need a Hybrid Navy – because it is only through autonomous and uncrewed capability that we will be able to meet this growing threat, securing the UK homeland and the High North, our open border with Russia.

Our Hybrid Navy is being built around three overlapping concepts. The first is Atlantic Bastion, our programme for defending the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent and the critical undersea infrastructure – the energy pipelines, interconnectors, data cables – that our nation, our economy, and our NATO Allies are utterly dependent on. Once operational, Bastion will encompass a comprehensive and layered sensor network across the North Atlantic, a defensive net through which we will detect and deter underwater surveillance and potential sabotage by our adversaries. When threats are detected, data will be seamlessly fed back to us and our crewed platforms, with existing and new offensive capabilities then deployed to neutralise them.

What does that look like in reality? Imagine, in future, a Russian uncrewed underwater vessel (UUV) is detected close to the proximity of sensitive seabed cables. A Type 26 frigate, the world’s most advanced ASW frigate, goes into the North Atlantic – not alone, but sailing in company with two uncrewed escorts, using AI to work in tandem with the warship. They would protect the parent ship, adding sensors, weapons and decoy capabilities. Meanwhile, sub-surface, new advanced submarine drones would also help seek out the enemy. Crewed and uncrewed, sub-surface, surface and air platforms working together. This is the power a Hybrid Navy gives us.

Atlantic Shield, our second programme, constitutes our contribution to Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD), protecting the homeland, UK CNI, the fleet and our European Allies against the increasingly sophisticated hypersonic and ballistic threats we face. It will build on existing anti-air warfare (AAW) capabilities, principally through our Type 45 destroyers, which will soon be equipped with upgraded Sea Viper systems and able to tackle a wider range of threats. Work is also underway to increase Type 45 availability and missile stockpiles. And then there is our uncrewed platforms, working in tandem with our traditional AAW fleet to provide added mass and lower-cost interceptors to deal with less sophisticated, but equally lethal threats. Taken in combination with DragonFire, a laser directed-energy weapon system able to take out drones and cruise missiles at £10 per shot, which will be fitted on the first of our T45s from next year, these new capabilities will ensure that a sledgehammer (a £2 million Aster missile) is no longer required to crack a nut (a £4,000 kamikaze drone).

Our third, Atlantic Strike, is about enhancing our conventional deterrence and ensuring that, if an adversary attacks us, we have the capabilities to hit back decisively – at or from the sea. That means hybrid Carrier Strike Groups deploying with traditional and uncrewed escorts, with the aircraft carriers themselves carrying not just our fleet of F35Bs but aerial drones – our ‘hybrid wings’. Precision long-range strike capability is also integral, which is why we are focussed on measures to bolster stockpiles and the readiness of our existing capabilities, such as the submarine-launched Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) and ship-launched Naval Strike Missile (NSM).

Strike will also comprise our Royal Marine Commandos, who have spent years focusing on developing small, resourceful, independent teams, equipped with the best technology and able to operate over extended ranges. They are perfectly suited for fighting in the High North and Arctic, with 1,500 marines currently deployed to northern Norway as part of Operation COLD RESPONSE, where they have been conducting covert raids, submarine inserts and Arctic reconnaissance to bolster NATO’s northern flank. A recent patrol, codenamed Arctic Fox, saw 45 Commando cover more than 1,500km across Norway, Sweden and Finland, giving the unit real-world experience in some of the most challenging conditions on earth. Project Beehive, a partnership with the UK firm Kraken, will soon deliver 20 uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) for use by the Commando Force. They will be used for a wide range of maritime security operations to counter nefarious activity in British and European waters. That includes escorting Russian shadow fleet vessels, carrying out surveillance on Yantar and other GUGI assets, assisting with the protection of offshore wind turbines, pipelines, and power and data cables, through to littoral strike options.

Together, these programmes, our Atlantic Series, will prove transformational.

Of course, there will undoubtedly be sceptics, those who dismiss all this talk of uncrewed as a distant pipedream. Thankfully, the time for talking is now over; we are about to show them why they are wrong. In recent weeks, we have stepped up our mine hunting capabilities, with cutting-edge uncrewed equipment currently being added to RFA Lyme Bay in Gibraltar. Together with our Type 45 destroyer, HMS Dragon, they will help bolster our defences. This is just the start of a multiphase process, one which gives us rapidly deployable and easily scalable solutions to the current situation in the Middle East – all whilst minimising cost to the taxpayer and the risk to life of our sailors and marines. By the time this article is published, I know that our Navy will have played a key role in helping secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to international trade.

However, this is not the end to our ambition. We see the Hybrid Navy as part of something far greater: a partnership of Northern Navies, a multinational maritime force to defend Northwest Europe and the High North, with the UK at the helm. Built on the existing Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) framework, and our leadership of it, it would be a permanent force that trains, exercises and prepares together, that generates the maritime power, air power and littoral strike capabilities that will provide meaningful deterrence on our northern border with Russia. It would be a force that complements and reinforces NATO, rather than drawing resources away from it. A force with interoperability baked in. A force in which interchangeability – the ability to substitute, swap, or mix equipment, parts, ammunition, or personnel – is made possible because member nations would be operating common UK based systems and platforms, shared digital networks, logistics and stockpiles.

The imperative for doing this is obvious, how we get there equally so. With European Allies needing to do more to ensure our security, and do so quickly, we are uniquely placed to enhance and exploit the power of our existing relationships. Already, we are exporting our most advanced warships – the Type 26 – to Norway and Canada, and we are working flat out on further opportunities – not just export deals but serious strategic partnerships.

We have already shown glimpses of what is possible via our Lunna House Agreement with Norway, through which our two navies are working together to counter Russian activity in the North Atlantic. If future JEF navies, with UK-built ships, are trained through Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST), supported through UK doctrine and integration standards, and commanded from Northwood in our Maritime Operations Centre, we will have moved beyond individual export deals and the boost to our defence industry that they deliver. For the first time in decades, we will have also created a family of Allied fleets, wielding a decisive increase in combat power. A force that is stronger, collectively, than the sum of its parts.

Again, this is not blue sky thinking, it is a real, deliverable, plan – one that I began developing soon after I arrived and discussed with my counterparts at our recent JEF naval chiefs’ summit in London in April, and which we will continue to develop as the year progresses.

A plan for Hybrid. A plan for the High North and North Atlantic. A plan for the current crisis in the Middle East. These are the prerequisites for warfighting success.

And then there is our shipbuilding programme. And this is where the rising resources for defence will soon be visible. Luckily for me, by the time my tenure ends in 2029, we will have a new warship coming off the production line approximately every nine months. That is a story of success that we should also celebrate.

However, bright though the future is, we must never lose track of the here and now. And right now, I know that there are some asking questions of the Royal Navy: whether we were prepared enough for events now unfolding, whether we can fight today, and if so, with what.

I am not going to deny that we face challenges, not least around availability. Nor am I here to point the finger or make excuses. What I hope this article demonstrates is that we have a credible plan, we know what must be done to succeed, and we are now working at pace to deliver it.

If we get this right, it is not just the Royal Navy, but the United Kingdom as a whole, that will reap the rewards. We know this from our island’s proud history, from one of my great predecessors, Admiral Sir John ‘Jacky’ Fisher. At the start of the 20th century, he foresaw the looming contest with Germany for supremacy of the seas, and responded by delivering the Dreadnought programme, ensuring that Britain’s Navy maintained an unassailable advantage heading into the First World War.

The mindset that drove Fisher drives me today: “I am not for war. I am for peace. That is why I am for a supreme Navy.”