The RAF has updated its strategy following last year’s Integrated Review, which set out the Government’s ambition for the Armed Forces in the years to come.
Our enduring purpose is global air and space power to protect the nation.
We must:
- Succeed Today
- Innovate for Tomorrow
- Value our People
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OUR VISION
The most operationally successful, agile and innovative Air Force in the world; always there for our nation
"We operate in an era of strategic competition and confrontation, with nations actively destabilising the international order that we rely on for our security, stability and prosperity. This strategy should inspire, inform and cohere everything we do as a Service, so that together we will achieve the Royal Air Force vision to be the most operationally successful, agile and innovative Air Force in the world; always there for our nation."
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston
Chief of the Air Staff
Read the full RAF Strategy
Why do we need a new RAF Strategy?
In 2021, the United Kingdom Government published the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (IR21).
It set out the Government’s ambitions for the UK’s place in the rapidly changing world CAS describes - and the role of the Armed Forces in delivering those ambitions.
We have updated our three core strategic objectives, which were largely unchanged for five years, to: Succeed Today, Innovate for Tomorrow, Value our People because they better reflect the Government’s IR21 intent.
Succeed Today
While the world has changed out of all recognition since our formation in 1918, the RAF’s enduring purpose has not – delivering global air and space power to protect the nation.
Our strategic objective of Succeed Today is focused on successfully maintaining our outstanding operational edge at home and overseas to protect the UK’s security, stability and prosperity.
But faced with the global threat of growing climate change, we must also succeed in terms of resource and environment, which is why we are committed to becoming the world’s first net zero air force by 2040.
Innovate for Tomorrow
Our adversaries will develop and exploit new, rapidly evolving and proliferating technologies to challenge us for any operating advantage. Our systems must remain at the cutting edge of technology.
We must be integrated across all five domains of air, land, sea, space and cyberspace as well as nationally across Government, and engaged internationally with our allies and partners.
Our purpose is enduring but the world around us is changing. To maintain our operational edge, we must constantly evolve and Innovate for Tomorrow through our Astra ways of working.
Value our People
The Royal Air Force is a Whole Force, a blend of aviators, civil servants, contractors and industry partners. We all have a sense of belonging to the Royal Air Force and our shared responsibility and duty binds us together.
Our people must feel proud, confident, empowered and, most importantly, valued; not just for what they do, but for who they are and what they bring to the Royal Air Force.
We are already an inclusive and diverse organisation, but we can always do more; inclusion is key to teamwork, and diversity enhances the Royal Air Force as a problem-solving organisation.
