UK Chief of General Staff pitches British Army Growth through Transformation

The UK's Strategic Defence Review published on 2 June sees the likelihood of a 20-40-40 mix of platforms – 20% crewed platforms, 40% reusable platforms, and 40% consumables (pictured). (UK MoD/Crown Copyright)

UK Chief of General Staff General Roly Walker pitched the British Army Growth through Transformation model in the keynote address opening the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Land Warfare Conference 2025 held in London on 17 and 18 June.

To achieve a 20-40-40 mix of platforms, he said he wanted 50% of spending to be devoted to the 20% of survivable (crewed) and 50% on both attritable and consumable (uncrewed) systems. As an example, he said, “We could double the fighting power of [an attack helicopter] mission from 16 stowed kills from 16 km stand-off to 32 kills from the same distance by buying two more attack helicopters and making it a four-ship mission, or for the same amount of money the two new [helicopters] cost us, we could layer attritable mule drones and consumable OWEs [one-way effectors] to make that over 200 kills from over 50 km stand-off. That starts to look a lot more lethal than two times or three times, is more survivable, and on the right side of the cost curve.”