Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress he has made on making improvements to NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence via the DIAMOND initiative.

Since the signing of the ‘Delivering Integrated Air and Missile Operational Networked Defences’ (DIAMOND) Letter of Intent in Autumn 2024, the UK has led work with the participating nations to agree the focus of the initiative. To complement related NATO-led activity, such as the Modular Ground Based Air Defence High Visibility Project, DIAMOND will consider procedural solutions to enable Day ‘Zero’ air defence integration and interoperability amongst NATO Allied forces.

Through this initiative, the UK seeks to draw on and deepen our long existing partnerships with allies and industry to improve the Surface Based Integrated Air and Missile Defence of Europe. At the beginning of October, we met with participating nations and agreed plans to explore the development of joint synthetic exercise opportunities and a shared understanding of command and control links. The workshops are set to take place before the end of 2025.