Outgoing UK leader pitches drone-heavy modernisation as his “legacy,” even as critics call the £15bn uplift too little and defence chiefs quit in protest.
Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that the United Kingdom will spend almost £300bn ($397bn) over the next four years to overhaul its armed forces, unveiling a long-delayed Defence Investment Plan just weeks before he is expected to leave office.
Starmer said the government would add £15bn to the defence budget through 2030, pushing total spending to nearly £300bn as Britain responds to what he described as a fundamentally changing nature of warfare. “This record investment puts the security of the British public first, transforming our armed forces and giving them the funding and equipment they need to fight and defend our nation,” he said.
Starmer's Defence Legacy Faces Criticism:
The announcement lands at a turbulent moment for Starmer, who is expected to leave office next month after losing the support of Labour MPs. He has openly framed the plan as his defining achievement in office. “By any measure, this is a huge historic shift for our nation and a legacy in which I take pride,” he told reporters, urging his likely successor, Andy Burnham, to build on the framework rather than discard it. “I am absolutely certain that this is the platform on which whoever comes after me can build,” he added.
The plan has not been without cost inside his own government. Two defence ministers quit this month in a row over the spending proposals, including Defence Secretary John Healey, who said the plans risked making Britain “less safe.” His successor at the Ministry of Defence, Dan Jarvis, has since reworked the package, reportedly securing extra money for the plan, taking the settlement to around £14.5 billion.
Drones, hybrid warships and a nuclear upgrade:
At the heart of the strategy is a decisive shift toward autonomous and unmanned systems, informed by lessons from Ukraine’s war with Russia and the recent conflict in the Middle East. Starmer pointed to Ukrainian forces, which he said had used cutting-edge drone technology to strike deep into Russian territory and destroy much of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
The plan earmarks more than £5 billion for drones and autonomous systems over the next four years, covering everything from complex autonomous mine-hunting drones to small tactical quadcopters and low-cost “kamikaze” one-way attack drones. The scale of modern drone warfare informed the decision: the Ministry of Defence noted that Ukraine uses roughly 200,000 drones a month to defend itself, while at the height of the US-Israel-Iran conflict, 700 offensive drones were being launched each day.
The Royal Navy will also be reshaped. Rather than building a planned fleet of new destroyers, six ageing destroyers will be replaced by smaller autonomous vessels operating alongside crewed ships-hybrid command hubs designed to coordinate drone operations at sea. Elsewhere, the plan allocates more than £8 billion to develop next-generation stealth fighter jets jointly with Italy and Japan, alongside a roughly $64 billion upgrade to Britain’s nuclear deterrent. A further £500 million has been set aside to equip Britain’s commandos and special forces with advanced technologies, alongside £150 million to strengthen defences against emerging threats posed by artificial intelligence.
Starmer said the investment would help make the British Army dramatically more lethal, framing the pivot toward cheaper, tech-driven capability as a lesson drawn directly from recent conflicts. “We’ve learnt a lot from Ukraine, actually from Iran as well, about the capability that is needed to confront countries like Russia,” he said.
Falling short of military demands:
Despite the scale of the headline figure, the plan has drawn criticism for falling short of what defence chiefs say is needed. The £15 billion uplift is well below the £28 billion that military leaders had previously said was necessary, and will bring overall spending-including wider security and resilience budgets-to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product, though core defence spending rises more modestly, from 2.3 percent of GDP in 2024 to 2.7 percent, with an ambition to reach 3 percent in the next Parliament.
Opposition politicians were sharply critical. Conservative defence spokesperson James Cartlidge dismissed the plan as “too little, too late,” adding it was “almost a year overdue and only being rushed through because Keir Starmer is desperate for a legacy.” Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called the plan “late and underfunded,” warning it represented “a political choice that makes us all less safe, puts jobs at risk and threatens businesses across the country in supply chains.”
To help finance the programme, Starmer acknowledged that some planned road and energy infrastructure projects would be delayed or cancelled to prioritise national security, arguing that “the first duty of any Prime Minister is the defence and security of the country.”
UK Boosts Defence Ahead of NATO Summit:
The plan comes as NATO allies face sustained pressure from Washington to shoulder more of their own defence burden. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged NATO allies to spend more on defence and become less reliant on Washington for security, while the alliance has separately pushed member states toward a long-term target of 3.5 percent of national economic output on core defence spending by 2035.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte welcomed the UK announcement, writing on social media that “stronger UK defence makes us all safer,” and noted that military spending and production would be a key focus at next month’s NATO summit in Ankara. Starmer is expected to present the plan in Ankara at the NATO summit on July 7-8, using the moment to signal that Britain remains on track toward its longer-term spending commitments-even as he prepares to hand the file, and its unresolved funding gaps, to his successor.