New UK armed forces minister frames High North defence as vital to “homeland security”

The UK’s operations in the High North and Arctic regions are key to the country’s homeland defence, supported by future funding plans and joint operations, according to Louise Sandher-Jones, the UK’s new Minister for the Armed Forces.

Sandher-Jones, a former British Army intelligence officer who took up the ministerial position last month, was speaking in the role before the House of Commons Defence Committee for the first time on 15 July.

She pointed to the importance of operations in the region, particularly through cooperation with Norway in the naval theatre, as an important element of the UK’s approach. The UK is also adding its own capability in terms of land operations, led by Royal Marine units and the use of maritime patrol aircraft.

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Norway and the UK are both purchasing Type 26 frigates. Under December 2025’s Lunna House Agreement, the two countries agreed that the fleet of 13 Type 26 vessels (eight for the UK and five for Norway) would be interoperable. The agreement also covers the UK Royal Navy’s adoption of Norway’s Naval Strike Missile.

As well as highlighting these issues before the committee, Sandher-Jones said that protecting the High North was a “homeland and European security” issue, particularly when it comes to “making sure that we are able to maintain our sea lines of communication”.

“Russia is obviously an Arctic nation and they have significant capability up there but it’s also important to recognise as well that as the High North [and Arctic region] becomes more accessible there will be increasing economic interest there,” Sandher-Jones said.

“We will see other actors, such as China, increasingly contest and compete in that space.

“The UK has always been a leader within Europe, within the North Atlantic and the High North in playing our role, but I think it’s clear that we do need to increase that.”

Spending plan targets High North operations

Last month’s UK Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which underpins the Strategic Defence Review of a year earlier, laid out future spending, including for the Type 26s and also for Royal Marine operations in the High North.

The DIP commits a “further £100 million [US$135 million] of new investment to progress the transformation of the UK Commando Force into a Warfighting Formation focused on the High North including aiming to increase the number of Royal Marines regularly deployed in the region”.

The plan also outlines the procurement of Arctic-capable vehicles to replace BAE Systems Hägglunds Viking BvS10 vehicles under the Collaborative All-Terrain Vehicle (CATV) programme, which is a joint effort with Sweden and Germany. Trials and testing of the new BvS10 vehicles for the UK are complete, with platforms arriving this year, and CATV is on contract to deliver 60 vehicles to the UK by March 2028.

“I think it’s really important to note that we have an aircraft carrier [HMS Prince of Wales] currently conducting exercises in the north, through Operation Firecrest. That was a really key priority,” Sandher-Jones said.

“There’s some significant capability there to demonstrate what we’re capable of when we look at our presence in the air as well, we have P8 [maritime patrol aircraft]. It’s about stepping up and saying that we are recognising the threat and making sure that we are rising to meet that.”

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