Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Government press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, when the 50,000 strong combined joint force will reach the initial operational capability.

Detailed planning of the Combined Joint Force (CJF), evolving from the currently existing Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF), is currently under way with French colleagues following the UK-France declaration announcement. We are working to define an ambitious timeline for establishing the CJF and reaching full operational capability. For extant CJEF tasks up to 10,000, which the new CJF inherits, the force reached full operational capability in 2010.

The Lancaster House 2.0: Declaration on Modernising UK-French Defence and Security Cooperation was agreed and published on 10 July 2025.