Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has been picked as Britain’s most senior military official, in a sign of the Royal Navy’s growing importance to the prime minister as he seeks to project UK influence around the world.
Radakin, a former barrister who was involved in setting up the new trilateral UK/US/Australia security partnership, known as Aukus, is the first Navy officer to be appointed chief of defence staff for almost 20 years.
Boris Johnson appointed Radakin to the post, replacing General Sir Nick Carter, in spite of a rearguard action by some in the defence establishment who regard Radakin as a spendthrift radical.
However Johnson respected the way Radakin cut costs in the Navy, including shedding one-third of its admirals, and focused on putting warships to sea.
The 55-year-old was also involved in the early stages of negotiations between Canberra, London and Washington over the Aukus pact, which offers Australia access to nuclear-powered submarines and has been denounced by China for intensifying the arms race in the region.
The prime minister, in his speech to the annual Conservative party conference in Manchester on Wednesday, suggested that Radakin, who will become his leading uniformed adviser on military matters, shares his world view.
“Aukus is simply a recognition of the reality that the world is tilting on its economic axis and our trade and relations with the Indo-Pacific region are becoming ever more vital than ever before,” he said.
“That is why we have sent the amazing carrier strike group to the Far East,” he said, referring to the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.
Radakin has a high media profile for a military officer and last month was pictured alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig, whom he made an honorary commander in the Royal Navy.
Sir Stephen Lovegrove, national security adviser and former permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, is said to have had reservations about Radakin’s appointment, as had senior army officials.
“The first sea lord is a brilliant man and excitingly disruptive but he overspends as a habit and the MoD can’t afford that right now,” said one defence official last week. “Lovegrove was scarred by Radakin’s serial overspending while he was permanent secretary.”
But Johnson said of Radakin: “Under his command we have more Royal Navy sailors on the frontline, more warships at sea — including our two world-class aircraft carriers — and we are leading a shipbuilding renaissance which is creating jobs and protecting lives around the UK.”
Radakin suggested he believed the armed forces could work within existing budgets: “The government has given us clarity and additional resource to counter the threats we face as a nation,” he said. “It is now time to get on and deliver.”
Ben Wallace, defence secretary, took a neutral position on the appointment and said: “We are modernising to address the challenges posed by an increasingly unstable world and I know he will lead the armed forces with distinction in his new post.”
Navy chief Radakin to be UK’s top military official
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