News

Britain is increasing its defense spending by $6.8 billion (£3.7 billion) over the next three years to a total of $65.1 billion (£35.2 billion), the longest period of sustained real growth in planned defence spending for over 20 years. Additional resources are being made available to modernise the UK Armed Forces to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Modernisation of UK Armed Forces will mean:

• a Future Army Structure better suited to concurrent medium and small scale operations;
• a Royal Navy expeditionary capability centred around new larger aircraft carriers, new amphibious shipping and new Type 45 destroyers;
• a Royal Air Force equipped with modern, highly capable multi-role aircraft, increasingly able to exploit networked capabilities and equipped with a range of modern stand-off, precision weapons.

Britain's new plans 'Delivering Security in a Changing World: Future Capabilities' will continue the shift in emphasis away from measuring capability in terms of numbers of ships, tanks and aircraft and towards the effective delivery of military assets. Overall, the planned developments will mean that the already impressive capability of UK Armed Forces will continue to improve. The British military will be better organized, equipped and trained to deal successfully with the threats they are likely to face in the future. These changes are a concrete example of the capabilities-led restructuring Britain has proposed for NATO and the EU.