The Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) will say that Royal Navy ships should spend more time at sea, in the first speech in his new role.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin is expected to call for Armed Forces chiefs to be more innovative and efficient in order to get the best out of their services.

In his first speech since taking over the top military job in defence, Adm Radakin is likely to outline how his tenure will be defined by the “Global Britain” concept.

Speaking on Tuesday evening at the Royal United Services Institute for the first time as CDS, Adm Radakin is expected to hold up the Royal Navy’s greater availability of ships as an example of how to achieve better value for the taxpayer.

Under reforms kick-started when he was the head of his service, the Royal Navy is on track to double the number of days each year Britain’s frigates and destroyers are able to be deployed on operations by 2030.

This will partly be achieved by efficiencies and purchasing new ships. There will be a 50 per cent increase in the total tonnage of the Royal Navy between 2015 and 2030.

Adm Radakin is known to be keen to reduce the size of headquarters and senior officer posts.

The Royal Navy has shifted 15 per cent of billets from shore to sea in a bid to make British forces more visible on the world stage.

His comments are likely to echo the views of Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, that the Armed Forces should be “more forward-deployed, deterring Russian activity in Europe, combating terror in the Middle East and the Sahel and countering Chinese activity in the Asia Pacific”.

The Government’s Integrated Review (IR) of foreign, defence, security and development policy, launched earlier this year, will be the blueprint for the future of the Armed Forces.

World returning to ‘classical geopolitics’

The review has been seen by defence chiefs as their marching orders from the Prime Minister for his vision for Global Britain.

Adm Radakin said he saw the review as a timely response to a world returning to classical geopolitics.

Speaking earlier this year Adm Radakin said he wanted the military’s part of the IR to “exploit our distinctive brand as an outward facing, free-trading maritime nation”.

Under his tenure as CDS the armed forces are likely to be designed around “the British way of warfare: one that exploits the benefits of being as brave as lions and as cunning as foxes, in the use of our people, technologies and ideas,” Adm Radakin has said.

The new CDS is known to be a proponent of upskilling the military workforce to be more technically savvy. It is likely he will want to see more secondments and courses with startups from the service chiefs.

Adm Radakin’s speech is expected to detail how he will deliver on the IR and justify the additional £24 billion spending on the MoD over the next four years.

He is on-record as saying that, with the additional funding, the MoD and service chiefs “have no excuses” not to deliver.

“The Secretary of State and the Prime Minister can hold us to account – and there will be no hiding place,” he said in his last speech as First Sea Lord.

“If I’m honest, that is both welcome and daunting at the same time.”