UK launches defence plan after bitter budget delays
Self-flying fighter jets, uncrewed submarines and drones will be at the center of Britain’s future military under a defence plan being announced on Tuesday that reflects a world of conflicts transformed by technology.
The Defense Investment Plan has been repeatedly delayed as military leaders and Treasury officials wrangled over the cost of equipping the UK military for an increasingly dangerous world.
Like other NATO countries, the UK is under pressure to increase defence spending to counter a more aggressive Russia and less reliable United States. John Healey resigned as defence secretary on June 11, accusing the Government of being unwilling to spend enough on the military at a time of “rising threats.”
Healey argued that UK defence spending must reach 3 per cent of GDP by 2030, citing a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country by then. He said that the plan put forward by the Treasury would see spending rise to just 2.68 per cent in 2030, after hitting 2.6 per cent next year.
The Government says the spending plan has been “refocused” in the past few weeks under Healey’s successor, Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis.
That includes a bit more money than the 13.5 billion pounds ($18 billion) Healey was offered, but likely far less than the 28 billion pounds ($37 billion) that defence officials called for.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the plan will ensure “our servicemen and women have the cutting-edge capabilities they need to deter evolving threats and keep the British people safe.” The full document is due to be published later on Tuesday. The plan is a road map for how the UK will increase military spending to NATO’s target of 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035.
The UK military is seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbour Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defences of European nations with overt and covert activity.
The UK has watched how drones have transformed war in Ukraine, which uses 200,000 of them a month to defend against Russian forces. Britain plans to invest billions in drone systems across all branches of the military.
