The UK will make investments £1.5 billion ($2 billion) in new weapons factories as a part of a sweeping rearmament technique, Protection Secretary John Healey has introduced.
The transfer comes forward of the publication of the federal government’s Strategic Protection Assessment on Monday. The plan contains the development of at the least six new munitions and explosives factories and the procurement of greater than 7,000 domestically produced long-range weapons, together with drones and missiles. Healey has additionally pledged to lift defence spending to three% of GDP by 2034.
“The hard-fought classes from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine present a army is just as robust because the trade that stands behind it,” Healey stated in an announcement on Saturday.
“We’re strengthening the UK’s industrial base to raised deter our adversaries and make the UK safe at house and robust overseas.”
The battle in Ukraine has highlighted important shortfalls in Western arms manufacturing. Senior British officers have warned for months about depleted stockpiles, in line with the BBC.
Opposition politicians questioned the timing of the announcement, declaring that procurement had stalled over the previous yr.
“We welcome funding in new munitions factories, however we don’t know when they are going to be prepared – solely that these orders ought to have been positioned months in the past,” stated Conservative shadow protection secretary James Cartlidge.
The UK has been one among Ukraine’s staunchest backers in its battle with Russia, as NATO members in Europe search to spice up army help amid considerations that the US underneath President Donald Trump could cut back assist to Kiev.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that international army help would solely escalate the battle with out altering its eventual final result. Russian officers have additionally accused former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson of encouraging Ukraine to desert peace negotiations within the spring of 2022 – a declare Johnson has denied. Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed his denial as a “blatant lie.”
