Key points
- Britain will build up to 12 new nuclear-powered attack submarines under the AUKUS alliance
- PM Keir Starmer announced the most significant UK defence overhaul since the Cold War
- Starmer emphasises rising threats from Russia as key driver
ISLAMABAD: The UK will build up to 12 nuclear-powered attack submarines and spend 15 billion pounds ($20.18 billion) on its nuclear-warhead programme, as part of a decade-long defence strategy, according to Wall Street Journal.
According to NBC News, the United Kingdom will build new nuclear-powered attack submarines and create an army ready to fight a war in Europe as part of a boost to military spending designed to send a message to Moscow — and Washington.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain “cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses” as he pledged to undertake the most sweeping changes to Britain’s defences since the end of the Cold War more than three decades ago.
“World has changed”
“We have to recognise the world has changed,” Starmer said. “With greater instability than there has been for many, many years, and greater threats.”
The government is to respond to a strategic defence review commissioned by Starmer and led by George Robertson, a former UK defence secretary and NATO secretary general. It is the first such review since 2021, and lands in a world shaken and transformed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and by the re-election of President Donald Trump last year.
Months after Britain’s last major defence review was published in 2021, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said with confidence that the era of “fighting big tank battles on European landmass” are over. Three months later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
All recommendations
Starmer’s centre-left Labour Party government says it will accept all 62 recommendations made in the review, aiming to help the UK confront growing threats on land, air sea and in cyberspace.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the changes would send “a message to Moscow, and transform the country’s military following decades of retrenchment, though he said he does not expect the number of soldiers — currently at a historic low — to rise until the early 2030s.
Healey said plans for defence spending to hit 2.5 per cent of national income by 2027 a year are “on track” and that there’s “no doubt” it will hit 3 per cent before 2034.
Starmer said the 3 per cent goal is an “ambition,” rather than a firm promise, and it’s unclear where the cash-strapped Treasury will find the money. The government has already, contentiously, cut international aid spending to reach the 2.5 per cent target.
Starmer said he would not make a firm pledge until he knew “precisely where the money is coming from.”
Spending on defence
Even 3 per cent falls short of what some leaders in NATO think is needed to deter Russia from future attacks on its neighbours. NATO chief Mark Rutte says leaders of the 32 member countries will debate a commitment to spend at least 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence when they meet in the Netherlands this month.
Monday’s announcements include building “up to 12” nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines under the AUKUS partnership with Australia and the United States. The government also says it will invest 15 billion in Britain’s nuclear arsenal, which consists of missiles carried on a handful of submarines. Details of those plans are likely to be scarce.
The government will also increase conventional Britain’s weapons stockpiles with up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons.
“Defence dividend”
Starmer said rearming would create a “defence dividend” of well-paid jobs — a contrast to the post-Cold War “peace dividend” that saw Western nations channel money away from defence into other areas.
Like other NATO members, the UK has been reassessing its defence spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Healey said Russia is “attacking the UK daily,” with 90,000 cyberattacks from state-linked sources directed at the UK’s defence over the last two years. A cyber command to counter such threats is expected to be set up as part of the review.
“This is a message to Moscow,” Healey told the BBC.
Heeding Trump’s demand
It is also a message to Trump that Europe is heeding his demand for NATO members to spend more on their own defence.
European countries, led by the UK and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defence posture as Trump transforms American foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the US provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.
James Cartlidge, defence spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party, welcomed more money for defence but was sceptical of the government’s 3 per cent pledge. “All of Labour’s strategic defence review promises will be taken with a pinch of salt unless they can show there will actually be enough money to pay for them,” he said.
