Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the resilience and readiness of supply chains for critical components used in uncrewed systems, including whether it maintains strategic reserves of key parts, and the criteria used to designate components as critical.

The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) sets out steps to develop a more resilient UK industrial base and policies capable of adapting and surging to address emerging priorities and demands. It details steps to enhance the resilience of the industrial base and improve the readiness of supply chains. This includes regularly assessing the scalability and resilience of production for all major procurements and strengthening supply chain data and enhancing resilience of critical and cross-cutting supply chains (page 76, policies 6.2.2.3 and 6.2.3.1). Central to this is the Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP) which is pivotal to ensuring operational readiness and resilience across Defence and has scoped the work required to address critical minerals and component supply within Defence.

The autonomous systems are identified as a priority sub-sector in the DIS which include combat air, complex weapons, directed energy weapons and next-generation land and maritime capabilities.