Ministry of Defence (MOD)
Role
Responsible for UK defence and military capability. Under the Defence Industrial Strategy (2025), MOD takes an explicit economic mission — “making defence an engine for UK economic growth.” Largest departmental portfolio in GMPP (47 projects).
Strategies owned
- industrial-strategy-2025 — Defence sector plan (September 2025); one of IS-8 sectors
Outcomes accountable for
- Defence capability delivery (Strategic Defence Review)
- economic-growth-gdp — 460,000+ jobs; defence as growth sector
Key commitments
- mod-defence-spending-2-6pct-gdp-2027 — 2.6% GDP by 2027 (upgraded from 2.5% in Spending Review 2025); 3% next Parliament; 5% national security with NATO allies by 2035
- £250m Defence Growth Deals
- £182m future skills investment
- National Armaments Director created (biggest MoD procurement shakeup in 50+ years)
- Office of Defence Exports established (goal: Europe’s leading defence exporter)
Key figures
- 460,000+ jobs supported by MOD in the UK
- 24,000+ MOD apprentices
- £28.8bn spent with UK-based businesses
- Nearly 70% of defence jobs outside London/South-East
- Defence Nuclear Enterprise: 3,000+ supply chain businesses; workforce 48,000 now → ~65,000 by 2030
- 47 GMPP projects (largest departmental portfolio)
Relationships
- NISTA oversight of MOD’s GMPP portfolio (largest)
- Defence Growth Deals with industry, devolved government, workers
- UKDI (UK Defence Innovation) — rapid capability development
- New National Armaments Director — procurement reform
- New Office of Defence Exports — export strategy
Tensions
- defence-oda-funding — Defence spending uplift funded by ODA reduction (0.5% → 0.3% GNI)
- skills-shortage-cross-sector — Defence workforce expansion (Nuclear Enterprise: 48k → 65k by 2030) competes with clean energy and construction sectors
- delivery-confidence-fiscal-ambition — MOD has largest GMPP portfolio; delivery confidence data not broken down by department in available sources