Nuclear booster as Britain goes for multi-billion dollar defence overhaul amidst Russia Ukraine war after Donald Trump nudge
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Britain Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase to UK defence spending since the end of the Cold War. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump's insistence that Europe take more responsibility for its own security amidst Russia-Ukraine war. Despite cuts to the military budget in recent years, Britain still ranks alongside France as one of Europe's leading military powers, with its army helping to protect NATO's eastern flank and its navy maintaining a presence in the Indo-Pacific. But the army, with 70,860 full-time trained soldiers, is the smallest since the Napoleonic era and the government has said it needs to be reformed given the growing strategic threats, as per a report.But with limited finances, the government's plan envisages making the army more lethal, not larger, by learning from Ukraine where drones and technology have transformed the battlefield.Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain's adversaries were working more in alliance and technology was changing how war was fought: "Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their armed forces the quickest will win."Under the plan accepted by the government, Britain will expand its fleet of attack submarines which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional weapons, and will spend 15 billion pounds ($20.3 billion) before the next election due in 2029 on the replacement of the nuclear warheads for its main nuclear fleet.It will build at least six new munitions plants, procure up to 7,000 British-made long-range weapons, and launch new communication systems for the battlefield.A Cyber and Electromagnetic Command will lead defensive and offensive cyber capabilities, after UK military networks faced more than 90,000 "sub-threshold" attacks in the last two years.But on the size of the armed forces, the review said it would not reduce numbers, even as a greater emphasis is put on technology, but increasing the total number of regular personnel should be prioritised when funding allows, likely after 2029.Starmer has already said defence spending will increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, from 2.3 per cent, but critics and political opponents urged the government to put a date on when it would move to 3 per cent of GDP.A1. Britain's Prime Minister is Keir Starmer.A2. Under the plan accepted by the government, Britain will expand its fleet of attack submarines which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional weapons, and will spend 15 billion pounds ($20.3 billion) before the next election due in 2029 on the replacement of the nuclear warheads for its main nuclear fleet.
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