UK Parliament Defence Committee says country's use of AI in defence underdeveloped, MoD must adapt rapidly

UAVs used in a successful test of AI interoperability between AUKUS countries in 2024. (MoD/Crown Copyright)

The UK's defence artificial intelligence (AI) sector is seen as “underdeveloped” and requiring “cultivation” by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the parliamentary House of Commons Defence Committee said in its report Developing AI capacity and expertise in UK defence , published on 10 January 2025.

The committee said that government spending on AI by China and the US each is four times that of the UK. As a result, the report recommended the UK not try and match the scale of their AI sectors but should capitalise on its existing strengths in the field.

AI sector

The UK does have the “right conditions” to become a leader in defence AI development, said the committee. It has the third largest number of AI firms worldwide, according to a January 2024 RAND Europe paper cited in the report. The UK's military AI sector could be growing to GBP1.2 billion (USD1.5 billion) by 2028, said evidence from KBR and Frazer-Nash Consultancy. New defence AI institutions have been created in recent years. They include the Defence AI and Autonomy Unit (DAU) in 2018 and the Defence AI Centre (DAIC) in 2020. The MoD's Defence AI Strategy, published in June 2022, describes DAU as setting strategic policy frameworks for the development, adoption, and use of AI. DAIC is seen as the focal point of AI research and development. The Defence AI Strategy is the “core document setting out the MoD's approach to defence AI”, said the report.