Britain is getting a defense boost aimed at sending a message to Moscow,
and to Trump
[June 02, 2025]
By JILL LAWLESS and PAN PYLAS
LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom will build new nuclear-powered attack
submarines, get its army ready to fight a war in Europe and become “a
battle-ready, armor-clad nation,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said
Monday, part of a boost to military spending designed to send a message
to Moscow — and Washington.
Starmer said Britain “cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses” as he
pledged to undertake the most sweeping changes to Britain's defenses
since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.
“The threat we face is more serious, more immediate and more
unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War," Starmer told workers
and journalists at a navy shipyard in Scotland.
A new era of threats
Like other NATO members, the U.K. has been reassessing its defense
spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The government announced military plans in response to a strategic
defense review commissioned by Starmer and led by George Robertson, a
former U.K. defense secretary and NATO secretary general. It's the first
such review since 2021, and lands in a world shaken and transformed by
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and by the re-election
of President Donald Trump last year.
Months after Britain's last major defense review was published in 2021,
then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said with confidence that the era of
“fighting big tank battles on European landmass” are over. Three months
later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
Starmer's center-left Labour Party government says it will accept all 62
recommendations made in the review, aiming to help the U.K. confront
growing threats on land, air sea and in cyberspace.
Submarines and weapons
The measures include increasing production of submarines and weapons and
“learning the lessons of Ukraine," which has rapidly developed its drone
technology to counter Moscow's forces and even hit targets deep inside
Russia.
The government said the U.K, will also establish a cyber command to
counter “daily” Russia-linked attacks on Britain's defenses.
Monday’s announcements include building “up to 12” nuclear-powered,
conventionally armed submarines under the AUKUS partnership with
Australia and the United States. The government also says it will invest
15 billion pounds in Britain’s nuclear arsenal, which consists of
missiles carried on a handful of submarines. Details of those plans are
likely to be kept secret.
The government will also increase conventional Britain’s weapons
stockpiles with up to 7,000 U.K.-built long-range weapons.
Starmer said rearming would create a “defense dividend” of thousands of
well-paid manufacturing jobs — a contrast to the post-Cold War “peace
dividend” that saw Western nations channel money away from defense into
other areas.
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, speaks to a member of
staff during a visit to the BAE Systems'Govan facility, in Glasgow,
Scotland, Monday June 2, 2025. (Andy Buchanan, Pool Photo via AP)
Deterring Russia comes at a cost
Defense Secretary John Healey said the changes would send “a message
to Moscow,” and transform the country’s military following decades
of retrenchment, though he said he does not expect the number of
soldiers — currently at a two-century low — to rise until the early
2030s.
Healey said plans for defense spending to hit 2.5% of national
income by 2027 a year are “on track” and that there’s “no doubt” it
will hit 3% before 2034.
Starmer said the 3% goal is an “ambition,” rather than a firm
promise, and it’s unclear where the cash-strapped Treasury will find
the money. The government has already, contentiously, cut
international aid spending to reach the 2.5% target.
Starmer said he wouldn’t make a firm pledge until he knew “precisely
where the money is coming from.”
Even 3% falls short of what some leaders in NATO think is needed to
deter Russia from future attacks on its neighbors. NATO chief Mark
Rutte says leaders of the 32 member countries will debate a
commitment to spend at least 3.5% of GDP on defense when they meet
in the Netherlands this month.
Bolstering Europe's defenses
It's also a message to Trump that Europe is heeding his demand for
NATO members to spend more on their own defense.
European countries, led by the U.K. and France, have scrambled to
coordinate their defense posture as Trump transforms American
foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the
war in Ukraine. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and
complained that the U.S. provides security to European countries
that don’t pull their weight.
Starmer said his government would make “Britain's biggest
contribution to NATO since its creation.”
“We will never fight alone,” he said. “Our defense policy will
always be NATO-first.”
James Cartlidge, defense spokesman for the main opposition
Conservative Party, welcomed more money for defense but was
skeptical of the government's 3% pledge,
“All of Labour’s strategic defence review promises will be taken
with a pinch of salt unless they can show there will actually be
enough money to pay for them,” he said.
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