In recent days, the United Kingdom announced a further unprecedented increase in its defense budget totaling £75 billion over the next six years. To date this has been the largest increase in the budget since the Cold War which will increase progressively until reaching £87,000 billion by the end of 2030, reaching 2.5% of GDP. Therefore, by the end of the decade, around 22 billion pounds per year will be spent on defense and more than double what was spent in 2010.
This important step, which was announced by the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunat, within the framework of his visit to Poland, takes into consideration the current threats and wars that have been developing on the world stage. But above all, the Prime Minister has established three areas of focus, the reinforced defense budget:
Defense industry
As a first step in this push, the UK will seek to invest at least an additional £10 billion over the next decade in ammunition production, which in turn seeks to create new jobs and high-quality investment across the UK. On the other hand, we will seek to guarantee rapid production capacity and reserves of new generation ammunition.
In that sense, the Secretary of Defense, Grant Shapps, stressed: “The war in Ukraine has taught us that success on the battlefield depends on the ability to increase defense production and move to “always on” production to replenish key equipment“
“The investment will focus on key high-tech capabilities such as air defense missiles and anti-armor munitions, in addition to continued investment in UK-made 155mm artillery munitions.”
Modernization of the Armed Forces
In this second point, the government will reform public defense contracts and create a new Defense Innovation Agency to ensure that the United Kingdom is at the forefront of modern warfare technology, allocating at least 5% of the defense budget to I +D.
Support the defense of Ukraine
Finally, following the latest developments between the United Kingdom and Ukraine, the Government will allocate an additional £500 million this year for the ammunition, air defense and drones that Ukraine requires. He also adds that the greatest delivery will be made to the fronts with a commitment to maintain support levels for an indefinite period of time.
On the other hand, the minister emphasized: “This sets a new standard for other major European NATO economies to follow. “If all NATO countries spent at least 2.5% of their GDP on defence, our collective budget would increase by more than £140bn.”
Finally, along the same lines, the official statement from the British government points out how much Russia, Iran and China are increasingly collaborating to weaken democracies and reshape the world order. And he adds, finally, that these countries have been investing heavily in their armed forces, and cyber capabilities and low-cost technologies, such as the Shahed attack drones that Iran launched towards Israel weeks ago.
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