The UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030 and put its arms industry on a “war-footing”, the prime minister has said.
The rise is less ambitious than some insiders say is needed – but it will mean tens of billions of additional pounds for the armed forces over the next six years.
The defence budget will increase immediately and and rise to reach £87bn by the end of the decade.
Rishi Sunak had previously said any extra investment would only happen when economic conditions allow. That caveat has been removed.
In a speech in Poland he said the plan: “Delivers an additional £75 billion 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,” he added.
The UK move comes at a time of escalating threats to global security posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East and an ever-more assertive China.
The “world is less safe than it has been in decades”, the prime minister said, speaking earlier in the day on a trip to Poland, where he also revealed a new package of weapons, ammunition and £500m in funds for the Ukrainian armed forces.
Rishi Sunak with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Poland
The UK currently spends just over 2% of GDP on defence, but it has recently started to include the money used to support Ukraine against Russia’s full-scale invasion to boost – critics say artificially – this figure.
The expectation is that the plan for a rise in defence spending over the next six years would only be dedicated to the core Ministry of Defence budget – amounting to a total of tens of billions of pounds of additional money in total.
Vladimir Putin meets military pilots in the Tver region of Russia. Pic: Reuters
Read more from Sky News:
Israeli intelligence chief quits
What are Iran’s military capabilities?
Defence insiders have long warned that new investment is urgently required to fill yawning gaps in capability across the army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force after decades of cost-saving cuts made by successive governments since the end of the Cold War.
Listen above then tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
There is also a need to revamp the ability to defend the homeland.
Sky News revealed earlier this month that the UK also has no plan for its own defences in the event of a war.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Officials have started to work on a cross-government “national defence plan”.
But any shift back to a Cold War-style, ready-for-war-footing would require political leaders to make defence a genuinely national effort once again – rather than something that is just delivered by the armed forces.