Last month the Ministry of Defence (MoD) unexpectedly issued a “call for submissions to shape the next Defence Command Paper due out in June or July”. It aimed to “generate fresh thinking to shape the way that Defence thinks, operates, conducts business, and fights”, promising to seek solutions for “every problem identified” across “all aspects of Defence”.
Suggestions offered should be “in line with the national strategy laid out in the Integrated Review Refresh of 2023”, the MoD said. Set up primarily because of the war in Ukraine, the Integrated Review Refresh updates government policy priorities ahead of a more comprehensive defence review due later this year.
The call for submissions – put out by the Secretary of State’s Office of New Assessment and Challenge (SONAC), a department established last year to provide a challenge to MoD thinking – is new and, on paper at least, very welcome.
