UK: UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has argued that the British military could expand rather than contract if the new prime minister adopts a policy of spending tens of billions more on the military in response to growing threats. He recalled that the UK currently spends 2.28 per cent of its national income on defence, and that percentage is "falling."
It could be fiscal year 2025-2026 or 2026-2027, but we [UK] are likely to be less than 2 percent in year 2026. We're going down. According to the UK Defense Secretary, we will fall from being the first (largest defense spender) in Europe to eighth and will continue to fall.
Wallace responded that some equipment programs would likely be purchased more quickly when asked how an increase in defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 could affect the size and capabilities of the UK Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force .
Separately, the UK Defense Secretary promised that British military officials would review lessons that could be learned from Russia's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine in the context of vulnerabilities to the UK's defence. He said this review is likely to include the need for more long-range artillery systems. Wallace told Sky News that he was going to "see [what happens in subsequent debates]", despite the fact that he had yet to make public his support for Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race. not explicitly declared.
If she were to become prime minister, the foreign secretary had previously said she would increase UK defense spending to 3% of GDP by the end of the decade. For his part, the ex-chancellor insisted he was against "arbitrary targets" and said British defense spending would increase "over time" by 2.5 percent. The British military will shrink to 72,500 troops by 2025 as a result of the government's defense review, according to Wallace's statement from March 2021, which calls for a shift toward unmanned aerial vehicles and cyber warfare. He emphasized in his Commons speech that "increased deployment and technological advantage" meant that fewer people could have a greater impact.
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