New defence secretary wins another £1.5bn to boost drone spending | Military

The new defense secretary has allocated an extra £1.5bn to Britain’s long-delayed defense investment plan, with much of it to be spent on drones to deter Russia and Iran.

Discussions over plugging an £18bn funding gap had led to the resignation of John Healey and raised questions about Britain’s commitments to NATO; but on Monday the alliance’s president told the Guardian he believed Britain would honor its commitments.

Two sources said the budget deficit was reduced by £15bn after Dan Jarvis persuaded chancellor Rachel Reeves to give the Ministry of Defense slightly more than the £13.5bn she had promised to her predecessor, who resigned in protest at the package.

The cash has allowed Jarvis to increase his previously promised £4bn spend on drones to £5bn over the next four years, as part of a deal Keir Starmer is desperately trying to finalize before leaving office.

Some of the extra money for defense was obtained by asking other government departments to cut at least 1% from their capital budgets in one of the bitterest Whitehall fights in recent memory.

Jarvis’ allies said he wanted to “look people in the eye” when the plan was published, while those close to Reeves said Jarvis found him easier to deal with than Healey, who was frustrated in his final weeks as defense secretary.

A person close to the chancellor added that unlike Healey, Jarvis negotiated directly with Reeves rather than negotiating through the prime minister, which made it easier to reach a deal. A week earlier Jarvis had secured an extra £1bn and was seeking more in the final round of negotiations.

Healey has followed developments closely since his departure and is expected to speak in the House of Commons on Tuesday as MPs are presented with an 80-page document covering dozens of defense projects from frigates to nuclear submarines.

Royal Marine commandos will be provided with additional uncrewed speedboats manufactured by Kraken Technology, of Fareham in Hampshire, under one of the extra commitments Jarvis has secured from the Treasury.

If a permanent peace deal is reached between the United States and Iran, they would be deployed as part of a peacekeeping mission in the Strait of Hormuz to help detect hostile incoming drones, military sources said.

Starmer will unveil the plan at a defense firm on Tuesday morning, claiming it will create jobs as well as strengthen national security. The outgoing prime minister says it will “help drive growth across the UK, providing our industrial base with the confidence, certainty and support it needs”.

A similar argument was made by Andy Burnham, who is likely to be the next prime minister, in a speech in Manchester on Monday. He said future UK public procurement would be based on “helping our own British-based suppliers become more stable and competitive” and that this would be “fully implemented into the defense investment plan”.

Allies of the former Greater Manchester mayor have said they want the dispute over the plan to be resolved before he takes office. But they added that they would reserve the right to reopen the door if necessary, amid warnings from former service chiefs that the UK had not committed enough.

At the weekend, the previous commander of the armed forces, Tony Radakin, warned that Britain risked “falling short” of spending enough to deter future Russian aggression and called on Burnham to introduce a “Moscow test”, asking how decisions on Britain’s defense spending would be perceived by the Kremlin.

Starmer had pledged for the UK to spend 3.5% of GDP on defense by 2035; This represented an increase of around £30 billion from the 2.6% spending predicted in 2027. Healey had wanted Starmer to increase to 3% by 2030 on the way to the final target, but the prime minister was only willing to offer a modest increase of 2.68%.

NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte said on Monday he was confident Britain would eventually meet its spending commitments but acknowledged he did not expect it to reach the plan’s 3.5% target by “a big step forward”.

Rutte, who is visiting the UK where he met Starmer ahead of next week’s NATO summit, said Burnham believed there would be greater value in increasing Britain’s defense spending by around £30bn a year and that “historically” Labor prime ministers had shown a “consistent commitment to NATO”.

Rutte also put forward an economic argument, referring to Burnham: “I can imagine that the new prime minister will be extremely interested in economic growth and more jobs.

“Defense spending does two things at once. First, your first priority as a government: Keeping the country safe, number one, of course. But also second.” [is the] The impact of your defense investments. In addition to keeping the country safe and strong, [the fact] “It will create employment.”

The Royal Navy will also build six “hybrid” air defense frigates, joint warships that can coordinate with air, sea and underwater drones. These are intended to replace the navy’s existing Type 45 destroyers by the mid-2030s and become the main source of UK naval air defence.