Accredited official statistics

Background Quality Report UK armed forces equipment and formations 2025

Published 30 October 2025

UK Armed Forces Equipment and Formations

1. Contact Details

Please contact Analysis Publications Team, Analysis-Publications@mod.gov.uk, if you have any queries about the UK armed forces equipment and formations publication.

2. Introduction and Statistical Presentation

This is an annual publication which provides information on the numbers and types of formations, vessels, aircraft, and selected land equipment of the UK armed forces. Statistics are also provided on the numbers of militarily useful, British-registered vessels.

Equipment and formations statistics were previously published in the Accredited Official Statistics publication Formations, Vessels and Aircraft. Based on consultation feedback and discussions with internal subject matter experts, a number of changes were made to the publication in 2016. Due to these changes, statistics in the UK Armed Forces Equipment and Formations publication may not be directly comparable to those in the Formations, Vessels and Aircraft.

The publication provides a yearly snapshot (at 1 April) of current equipment available to the UK armed forces, except tables 3-4 which provide a yearly snapshot as at 31 December. With the exception of tables 3-5, all the tables in this publication are Accredited Official Statistics. The data in tables 3 and 4, provided by Department for Transport (DfT), are from a commercial source outside their control, and are therefore outside the scope of Accredited Official Statistics. The data in Table 5 (land equipment) have not been assessed as Accredited Official Statistics.

3. Statistical Processing

3.1 – Source data

Data are received annually via data suppliers from Navy Command, Army HQ, Air Command and Joint Helicopter Command (Tables 1-2 and 5-9), and DfT (Tables 3 and 4). The data suppliers complete standard templates for each table using data that are derived from their administrative systems which are sent to and cross-checked by Government Statisticians. 

Data on numbers of Naval ships and submarines, aircraft and formations are provided by associated 1* Divisional areas within Navy Command Headquarters and from across the wider Royal Navy. These numbers are collated and crossed checked internally by each area before submission.

Data on numbers of combat platforms and other land equipment are provided by the Field Army Equipment branch. Data is extracted from the Joint Asset Management and Engineering Solutions (JAMES) database and verified by local desk officers.

Data on Army formations are provided by the Army HQ Organisation Branch, which is responsible for the structure of the Army and the supporting Management Information Systems.  The data held on these systems is cross-checked by Organisation Branch staff with the Army HQ’s Planning and Military Strategy branches.

Data on RAF aircraft numbers are provided by Air Command and are cross-checked against numbers planned in the relevant Annual Budgeting Cycle. Information on RAF squadrons and formations has been incrementally generated from planned force structure changes, which are recognised when they have taken place and cross-checked against details held elsewhere, such as the RAF station as well as Force information held on the RAF website.

Data on the number of Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) aircraft are taken from the annual Command Acquisition Support Plan and cross checked by the JHC Headquarters before submission.

Information on militarily-useful British-registered commercial vessels is provided by the DfT who purchase the data from IHS Global, a commercial supplier, under contract. The figures from 2009 onwards are taken from the DfT’s World Fleet Database and reflect changes in the classification of ships within the underlying data provided by IHS. For further details see the DfT note on their Shipping Fleet Statistics.

The Uncrewed Aircraft System platforms reported are categorised as Certified as well as S2 as per RA 1600. Certified and S2 UAS platforms are technologically complex platforms that operate beyond visual line of sight with high levels of risk. S1 and Open categories cover mini UAS of low complexity, below 25kg operating up to 2 kilometres. These are outside of the scope of this publication and so are not reported here.  

RA1600 can be found here.

4.Quality Management

The MOD’s quality management process for Official Statistics consists of three elements: (1) Regularly monitoring and assessing quality risk via an annual assessment; (2) Providing a mechanism for reporting and reviewing revisions/corrections to Official Statistics; (3) Ensuring BQRs are publishing alongside reports and are updated regularly.

The most recent quality risk assessment assesses the risk as low. Principle sources of risk continue to be related to the need to gather data from a wide range of suppliers, using administrative data sources.

5. Relevance

The information in this publication contributes to the public accountability of the MOD and collates information in one place from the three Services. While internal systems may be adequate for internal use, publication in this format makes this information available publicly, regularly and as a recent time series. It is thought to be the only place in which information on vessels, land equipment, aircraft and formations is brought together systematically in a coherent document.

This publication has a variety of users including academics, politicians, journalists, individuals with professional and business interests and the general public. There is much interest particularly in the media for equipment numbers.

From the 2025 edition the accompanying data tables (excluding table 2 & 5) have been changed to present the most recent 5 years. This is to allow the tables to remain focused on  the most recent equipment and formation landscape, removing any historic equipment. Simplifying the tables also increases readability, with historic data still available in previous editions of this publication.

Data on land equipment (Worksheet 5) for 2025 has been expanded to a comprehensive list which includes the following equipment that was previously not reported on:

Protected Mobility Vehicles:

• Panther

Armoured Personnel Carrier:

• Bv-206

Artillery:

• Stormer (Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD))

Combat Engineering Equipment:

• Fuchs CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) Recce

• General Support Bridges (GSB) (TB, TBT, TBL (ABLE))

  Combat Support Equipment:

• Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle (CRARRV)

• Falcon

• Hippo Beach Recovery Vehicle (BRV)           

• Pinzguaer

• Quad

• Reacher

These additions mean that totals are not comparable to previous years, therefore data on land equipment is presented for 1 April 2025 only, historic data will continue to be available via previous editions.

6. Accuracy and reliability

The figures in this publication have been verified and checked for accuracy by subject matter experts in the relevant branches in Navy Command, Army HQ, Air Command and Joint Helicopter Command. The figures have also been subjected to checks by Government Statisticians.

Data revisions are handled in accordance with the MOD’s Official Statistics Revisions and Corrections Policy

A number of minor revisions have been made, these are described below:

Worksheet 5:

Wheeled Support Vehicles was incorrectly labelled as Wheeled Support Vehicles (6T, 8T, 15T) in previous editions when it should be (6T, 9T, 15T).

Worksheet 6:

• Several units were previously double counted in the Royal Marine statistics in worksheet 2 as well as worksheet 6, this effected the following…

• The number of regular Royal Engineer units have been revised for 2021 to 2024. This also effects the Royal Engineer and Combat support totals.

• The number of regular Royal Logistic Corps units has been revised for 2023 to 2024. This also effects Royal logistic corps and combat service support totals.

Worksheet 7:

• Fixed wing platform totals for 2021 to 2024 have been revised, due to the removal of the Tutor (RN Flying Grading), as these platforms were included in the Tutor (Tri Service) figures therefore previously double counted.

• Labelling for C-17 Globemaster was incorrectly labelled as C017 Globemaster, this has been corrected.

• The C-17 Globemaster in service figure for 2024 has been revised due to a manual error in the previous edition. This effects the in service total for 2024.

7. Timeliness and Punctuality

As an Accredited Official Statistic, the release date for this publication was pre-announced on MOD’s Calendar of Upcoming Releases section of GOV.UK.

Statistics are usually released within six months of the reporting date (1 April), except for Department for Transport statistics which are reported approximately nine months after the reporting date (31 December).

8. Coherence and Comparability

The publication provides a yearly snapshot (at 1 April) of current equipment available to the UK armed forces, except tables 3-4 which provide a yearly snapshot as at 31 December.

9. Accessibility and Clarity

This report is published on the UK Armed Forces Equipment and Formations page on GOV.UK as an accessible HTML document. The tables are available in an Excel file to allow the figures to be reused.

The introduction, commentary and footnotes within the tables assist with the accessibility and clarity of this publication by setting out contextual information, and by providing definitions and explanations of the terms used.

10. Trade-offs between Output Quality Components

Collation of this data from multiple sources takes considerable time and there are often delays due to operational commitments and the need to discuss information with subject matter experts, thus reducing the timeliness of these statistics. Although the data are requested early, they are often not finalised until close to the publication date and therefore could not be published earlier.

11. Cost and Respondent Burden

The outputs are produced from the administrative data provided by the MOD and the DfT.  The benefit of the MOD publishing these statistics is that outputs from these administrative data are placed in the public domain and as Official Statistics, in a way that ensures their independence from political interference and adherence to quality standards. The small burden that this places on the data suppliers is considered to be worthwhile to achieve this and the consequent public accountability provided by their publication.

12. Confidentiality and Security

In producing these statistics, we adhere to the Analysis Directorate: confidentiality policy. We follow principles and protocols laid out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and comply with the pre-release access arrangements. The MOD statistics pre-release access list is published on the GOV.UK website.

The files are all stored on a secure MOD network, with access to files limited to individuals in Analysis-Publications. All MOD, Civil Service and data protection regulations are adhered to.