Written questions by Cartlidge.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, how many additional Storm Shadow cruise missiles will be (a) ordered and (b) reconditioned in (i) this and (ii) the next Parliament.

The MOD does not routinely provide details of stockpiles for security reasons. Through a combination of continued refurbishment and new production the available stockpiles will be increasing in this Parliament. Production in the next parliament is expected to include new build of the replacement Future Cruise / Anti-Ship Weapon.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, whether the Chief of the Defence Staff was consulted prior to the decision to coordinate the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents.

Appropriate organisations and officials were involved in the consultation process for the Lancaster House treaty refresh, prior to the announcement, on the joint decision to strengthen coordination and deepen cooperation between the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents and nuclear research.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July, whether the 300 MBDA jobs will be newly created jobs.

Storm Shadow is an established programme in the UK, and continued build and processing will sustain 300 jobs.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, how many jobs this announcement will support.

In the UK, 1300 jobs will be sustained and supported by the FC/ASW programme, with 300 jobs sustained and supported by the Storm Shadow programme.

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, what the geographical breakdown is of the 1,300 highly skilled jobs that will be sustained.

The jobs sustained and supported by the FC/ASW programme comprise approximately 900 roles in MBDA, 300 in the complex sub system supplier base with a further 100 in the commodities supply chain. The wider supply base supporting Storm Shadow is located throughout the UK, with MBDA roles spread over their established UK sites.

With reference to his Department's press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, whether the Chief of the General Staff was consulted prior to the decision to deepen nuclear research between the UK and France.

Appropriate organisations and officials were involved in the consultation process for the Lancaster House treaty refresh, prior to the announcement, on the joint decision to strengthen coordination and deepen cooperation between the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents and nuclear research.

With reference to his Department's joint press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, whether the Commander of Strategic Command was consulted prior to the decision to increase UK-French nuclear research.

Appropriate organisations and officials were involved in the consultation process for the Lancaster House treaty refresh, prior to the announcement, on the joint decision to strengthen coordination and deepen cooperation between the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents and nuclear research.

With reference to his Department's joint press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, whether the First Sea Lord was consulted prior to the decision to increase UK-French nuclear research.

Appropriate organisations and officials were involved in the consultation process for the Lancaster House treaty refresh, prior to the announcement, on the joint decision to strengthen coordination and deepen cooperation between the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents and nuclear research.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, whether the First Sea Lord was consulted prior to the decision to coordinate the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents.

Appropriate organisations and officials were involved in the consultation process for the Lancaster House treaty refresh, prior to the announcement, on the joint decision to strengthen coordination and deepen cooperation between the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents and nuclear research.

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 09 July 2025, whether he consulted the Chief of the Air Staff prior to the decision to deepen nuclear research between the UK and France.

Appropriate organisations and officials were involved in the consultation process for the Lancaster House treaty refresh, prior to the announcement, on the joint decision to strengthen coordination and deepen cooperation between the UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents and nuclear research.

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, what assessment he has made of the impact of greater synchronisation of SSBN patrols on the UK sovereign continuous at sea deterrent.

The possibility of coordinating UK and French independent nuclear deterrents adds a further level of strategic ambiguity, complicating the calculations of potential aggressors. Any adversary threatening the vital interests of our nations should know that they could be confronted by the strength of the nuclear forces of both the UK and France.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, what organisation will be responsible for coordinating the operation of the UK-France Nuclear Partnership.

As announced in the Northwood Declaration, a UK-France Nuclear Steering Group will be established to provide political direction for this work. It will be led by the Elysée and the Cabinet Office, and will coordinate across nuclear policy, capabilities and operations.

With reference to the 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 he expects the coordination of UK and France's respective nuclear deterrents to be fully implemented.

We will enhance our readiness to coordinate our respective deterrents through nuclear dialogue and exercises, under the auspices of the new UK-France Nuclear Steering Group. We continually review our nuclear deterrence policy and posture in light of the international security environment and the actions of potential adversaries, to ensure we can meet the threats facing the UK and our NATO allies.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, what discussions he has had with his (a) French and (b) NATO counterparts on France’s potential membership of the NATO Nuclear Planning Group.

France does not participate in NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group. This is a matter for the French Government.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, in what ways cooperation between the UK and France on nuclear research will deepen.

The UK and France work closely together on a range of nuclear research and technology matters, including as part of the 2010 TEUTATES Treaty. Our enhanced cooperation with France will not affect the UK’s sovereign nuclear capability which has always been and continues to be completely operationally independent. There are mechanisms in place to ensure UK and French officials can engage on nuclear research with the appropriate levels of security.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, how many additional Storm Shadow cruise missiles will be (a) ordered and (b) reconditioned.

The MOD does not routinely provide detailed stockpile numbers for security reasons. The stockpile will compromise both new build and freshly reconditioned missiles.

With reference to the press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, what the in-service date is for the additional Storm Shadow cruise missiles that will be ordered.

Storm Shadow is in service today. Further refurbishment and new procurement of Storm Shadow missiles will augment the existing stockpile.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled New Storm Shadow and missile cooperation to boost jobs as UK and France reboot defence relationship, published on 9 July 2025, whether the National Armaments Director was consulted on the UK and France's agreement to jointly develop air-to-air missiles for the RAF's fighter jets.

The National Armaments Director is involved in key weapons decisions including those relating to the development of new air-to-air missiles.

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, what proportion of the 50,000 strong combined joint force will be from the UK armed forces.

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. Any future basing will be subject to bilateral agreement between the UK and France and announced in due course when negotiated.The UK-France Lancaster House 2.0 declaration of 10 July 2025 committed to launch the Combined Joint Force – overhauling the existing Combined Joint Expeditionary Force to refocus it on the Euro-Atlantic and warfighting at scale to deter, placing it on an operational footing for the first time by endeavouring to significantly increase the declared Combined Joint Force (CJF) capacity, up to fivefold, ensuring the ability to plan and command Combined Corps Capability (the highest level of fielded forces in our armies). This Corps can provide the Land component of a broader joint force combining all military functions, as part of NATO or bilaterally. The CJF will facilitate the deployment of a force fully interoperable with NATO and available as the Alliance’s Strategic Reserve; this is a critical step towards the UK and France providing two fully interoperable Strategic Reserve Corps to NATO, enabled by the CJF.For the CJF Corps, our working assumption is a broadly equal split of force contributions. It will be constituted of UK and French forces held at readiness in their usual national basing arrangements. Existing UK and French exchange officers currently embedded in each other’s structures will act as operational coordination and support for the CJF at times when it is not being actively deployed.Like the CJEF, the CJF Force will be designed to meet the task at hand. The exact proportion of each nation’s contribution can only be defined with a specific task. The forces required would be selected from the UK and France according to a number of factors, including roles and availability.We anticipate that the CJF will operate as an integrated force in multi-domain operations and could include, as required, elements from the Maritime, Land, Air, Space and Cyber domains. The CJF is intended to be drawn from existing forces.The current structure of the CJEF under its Concept of Employment (CONEMP) is that there are no permanently assigned or standing forces, combined headquarters, nor planning teams. The CJEF draws on whichever national high readiness forces are declared as available, including lead elements at very short notice, if required for the operation. These are taken from the UK and France following bilateral agreement as appropriate. No UK Armed Forces units are permanently assigned to form the CJEF.The CJEF is not intended to be a standing force and thus is not planned to be permanently based anywhere.

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, which UK Armed Forces units will form the 50,000 strong combined joint force.

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. Any future basing will be subject to bilateral agreement between the UK and France and announced in due course when negotiated.The UK-France Lancaster House 2.0 declaration of 10 July 2025 committed to launch the Combined Joint Force – overhauling the existing Combined Joint Expeditionary Force to refocus it on the Euro-Atlantic and warfighting at scale to deter, placing it on an operational footing for the first time by endeavouring to significantly increase the declared Combined Joint Force (CJF) capacity, up to fivefold, ensuring the ability to plan and command Combined Corps Capability (the highest level of fielded forces in our armies). This Corps can provide the Land component of a broader joint force combining all military functions, as part of NATO or bilaterally. The CJF will facilitate the deployment of a force fully interoperable with NATO and available as the Alliance’s Strategic Reserve; this is a critical step towards the UK and France providing two fully interoperable Strategic Reserve Corps to NATO, enabled by the CJF.For the CJF Corps, our working assumption is a broadly equal split of force contributions. It will be constituted of UK and French forces held at readiness in their usual national basing arrangements. Existing UK and French exchange officers currently embedded in each other’s structures will act as operational coordination and support for the CJF at times when it is not being actively deployed.Like the CJEF, the CJF Force will be designed to meet the task at hand. The exact proportion of each nation’s contribution can only be defined with a specific task. The forces required would be selected from the UK and France according to a number of factors, including roles and availability.We anticipate that the CJF will operate as an integrated force in multi-domain operations and could include, as required, elements from the Maritime, Land, Air, Space and Cyber domains. The CJF is intended to be drawn from existing forces.The current structure of the CJEF under its Concept of Employment (CONEMP) is that there are no permanently assigned or standing forces, combined headquarters, nor planning teams. The CJEF draws on whichever national high readiness forces are declared as available, including lead elements at very short notice, if required for the operation. These are taken from the UK and France following bilateral agreement as appropriate. No UK Armed Forces units are permanently assigned to form the CJEF.The CJEF is not intended to be a standing force and thus is not planned to be permanently based anywhere.