The UK will scale back permanent military deployments in the Indo-Pacific and concentrate its defence posture on NATO, according to evidence heard at the Defence Committee this month, UK Defence Journal reports.
General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the lead reviewers behind the recent Strategic Defence Review (SDR), told MPs on Wednesday that the UK is “too thinly spread” and must refocus its Armed Forces on their core NATO deterrence role, especially in Europe.
“The review is really clear in resolving this under the umbrella of NATO First,” said Barrons. “We looked very carefully at what NATO asks the UK to do in making its contribution to the alliance… the Royal Navy is going to focus on the Atlantic bastion: the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap.”
Pressed by Labour MP Derek Twigg on whether this shift would mean “much less in Asia-Pacific”, General Barrons confirmed it would.
“For the Navy, that is the Atlantic bastion,” he said. “For the Army, it is a SACEUR strategic reserve corps — one of only two, France being the provider of the other; and for the Air Force it is its role in the NATO air component.”
“If you commit to that, and accept that deterrence is a 24/7 activity, you are not going to regularly station force elements — ships, tanks, aircraft — in the Indo-Pacific.”
While the UK has increasingly focused on the Indo-Pacific in recent years, sending HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021 and HMS Prince of Wales this year, Barrons said this engagement would rely more on “strategic communications” than permanent military presence.
Citing a conversation with the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, Barrons told MPs that the United States does not see much value in UK forces being based in the region.
“In conversation with the officer who runs Indo-Pacific command for the US, he said it does not really help to have UK forces permanently stationed in the Indo-Pacific region, because he has a lot of stuff,” Barrons explained. “But it is really helpful if, as we are seeing now, the carrier group makes a sortie there about every four years. It sends a really important signal to opponents and friends.”
Instead, the UK will prioritise contributions through “diplomacy, technology and training” rather than a sustained physical footprint.
Pressed further by Twigg on whether this meant focusing on Europe and not trying “to do lots of things in different parts of the world”, Barrons replied: “In terms of what we do with our forces, absolutely.”
The UK’s Future Force posture under the SDR includes expanded stockpiles, new drones, deeper NATO integration, and an emphasis on rebuilding homeland resilience. The review’s shift away from global force projection toward collective deterrence marks a significant realignment of British military priorities. The Defence Committee’s hearing formed part of ongoing scrutiny of the SDR, with further sessions scheduled in the weeks ahead.
