How £75 billion defence spending pledge will fire up Britain's forces

Troop numbers should be boosted and Typhoon fighter jets kept flying with the extra defence spending announced by the Prime Minister yesterday, senior defence figures say.

They called for the expansion of the Armed Forces last night after Rishi Sunak promised an additional £75billion in military funds over the next six years.

The Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force will share the desperately needed cash, meaning the services no longer have to cut capabilities.

The money should also fill the £29billion ‘black hole’ in the Ministry of Defence’s ten-year Equipment Plan.

Last night, former defence minister James Heappey called for an increase in troops and for weapons stockpiles to be replenished as immediate priorities.

He suggested that, in a few years, the UK should invest in an integrated air and missile defence system to protect it from enemies.

Rishi Sunak promised an additional £75billion in military funds over the next six years

Mr Heappey, who backed the Mail’s Don’t Leave Britain Defenceless campaign after leaving office, welcomed the opportunities the investment would bring, in the current period of global turbulence.

Russia continues to recapture territory in eastern Ukraine, Iran is masterminding attacks against Western targets in the Middle East and China is rapidly expanding its military.

Mr Heappey said: ‘It was ridiculous that when the threat to the UK was increasing, the Ministry of Defence was having to look for savings. The additional £75billion over the remainder of the decade is an amazing boost. This is a seriously brave move by the Government, in particular in an election year.

‘I would be looking at using the additional investment to replenish stockpiles and for some re-growth in our order of battle. Too many units have been hit by recent headcount restrictions.’

The Army is due to shrink to just 73,000 regular troops by next year. With extra cash, the headcount could push back up towards 83,000. The Mail understands £10billion has already been set aside to pay for weapons to replace those gifted to Ukraine.

The certainty that higher defence spending will continue through the 2020s and beyond should send a signal to defence manufacturers to increase their production lines.

The investment will also underpin big-ticket defence projects such as the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) – a collaboration between the UK, Italy and Japan to create a sixth generation fighter jet.

Troops could be in line for pay rises and should see more resources committed to their accommodation. Poor housing is considered to be one of the main reasons that personnel sign off.

Former defence minister Mark Francois said some of the money should be spent on retaining 30 Tranche 1 Typhoon fighter jets, which are due to be withdrawn from service in 2025.

The RAF has decided to ground the aircraft, five years ahead of schedule, to save money. The jets are expected to be cannibalised for spare parts so the RAF’s remaining 107 Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 Typhoons can continue to fly.

Given the threat to UK and Nato airspace posed by Russian aircraft, Mr Francois has likened the decision to ‘selling off Spitfires before the Battle of Britain’.

He said he ‘warmly welcomes’ the Prime Minister’s announcement, adding: ‘We need to use part of this significant new investment to rebuild our air defences.’

The Royal Navy should now become more potent in the years ahead. The senior service wants to fit missiles that can strike targets inland to its latest generation submarines and surface ships.

The Navy is also investing heavily in drones. Additional expenditure could help the service to address spending deficiencies in the wider submarine development and maintenance programmes.

Biggest boost for defence in a generation

By Jason Groves, Political Editor, in Warsaw

Rishi Sunak yesterday unveiled a £75billion boost to put Britain’s defence industry on a ‘war footing’.

Hailing a ‘turning point’ in national security, he said military spending would rise to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade, securing the UK’s place as ‘by far the largest defence power in Europe’.

It is a major victory for the Mail’s Don’t Leave Britain Defenceless Campaign, which was launched after military spending missed out in last month’s budget. It also draws a potential election dividing line with Labour.

Mr Sunak warned the world faces the most ‘volatile and dangerous’ situation in decades, with an ‘axis’ of adversaries including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea co-operating to undermine the West. Speaking alongside Nato’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference in Warsaw, the PM said: ‘We did not choose this moment, but it falls to us to meet it.

Rishi Sunak yesterday unveiled a £75billion boost to put Britain’s defence industry on a ‘war footing’

‘In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent. As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests, and our values.

‘That is why today I am announcing the biggest strengthening of our national defence for a generation.

‘We will increase defence spending to a new baseline of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030 – a plan that delivers an additional £75billion for defence by the end of the decade and secures our place as by far the largest defence power in Europe.

‘Today is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defence of the United Kingdom.

‘It is a generational investment in British security and British prosperity, which makes us safer at home and stronger abroad.’

The move follows intense criticism from Tory MPs and defence experts who said the UK was moving too slowly to raise spending from its current level of 2.3 per cent of GDP.

Despite the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East, Mr Sunak had refused to set out a timetable for shoring up Britain’s defences.

The commitment will be paid for in part by reducing civil service numbers by 70,000, taking them back to their pre-pandemic level.

Writing in the Mail today, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps (pictured) hails this paper’s ‘brilliant’ campaign on the issue

Writing in the Mail today, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps hails this paper’s ‘brilliant’ campaign on the issue.

‘This fully funded commitment will mean we can defend our values by making sure our Armed Forces are fighting fit, now and in the future,’ he says.

Mr Sunak urged fellow Nato countries to increase their own defence spending, saying that raising the level to 2.5 per cent across the alliance would generate an extra £140billion a year. After Donald Trump’s accusations that European Nato members failed to pay their way while he was in the White House, Mr Sunak said: ‘We cannot keep expecting America to pay any price or bear any burden if we ourselves are unwilling to make greater sacrifices for our own security.’

Government sources said the defence budget would now rise in real terms every year to the end of the decade, increasing from £64.6billion this year to £87.1billion by 2030.

In a phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday, Mr Sunak told the Ukrainian president that Britain would guarantee at least £3billion a year to help his country in its fight for survival against Russia.

The PM and Mr Stoltenberg both argued yesterday that arming Ukraine was a vital part of Western defence.

Mr Sunak said the crisis in the Middle East should not divert attention from the fact that Europe faces war on its own continent.

The new cash will include £10billion to build up Britain’s defence industry in order to increase the supply of munitions and restore stockpiles depleted by shipments to Ukraine. A new Defence Innovation Agency will co-ordinate work on a new generation of weapons, including lasers, hypersonic missiles and military space hardware.

Renewed efforts will also be made to improve the UK’s notoriously wasteful defence procurement systems.

Mr Shapps said: ‘We are living in a much more dangerous world. Between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iran and its proxies seeking to escalate deadly conflict, and China flexing its muscles, there can be no doubt that the era of the peace dividend is clearly over.’

Labour welcomed the announcement of more support for Ukraine but said it wanted to ‘examine the detail’ of the wider spending announcement before deciding whether to match it. The party’s defence spokesman John Healey said: ‘Labour wants to see a fully funded plan to reach 2.5 per cent, but the Tories have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted on defence and we will examine the detail of their announcement closely.’

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