{"id":284043,"date":"2026-06-30T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/u-k-lays-out-future-defence-plan-with-technology-focus-fight-over-money-national\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:25:22","slug":"u-k-lays-out-future-defence-plan-with-technology-focus-fight-over-money-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/u-k-lays-out-future-defence-plan-with-technology-focus-fight-over-money-national\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. lays out future defence plan with technology focus, fight over money – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.K. lays out future defence plan with technology focus, fight over money – National<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11944338\/uk-future-defence-plan-technology-money\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-30 10:07:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: globalnews.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

Self-flying fighter jets, uncrewed submarines\u00a0and\u00a0drones\u00a0will be at the center of Britain\u2019s\u00a0future\u00a0military under\u00a0a\u00a0defence\u00a0plan\u00a0announced Tuesday that reflects\u00a0a\u00a0world of conflicts transformed by technology.<\/p>\n

Like other NATO countries, the U.K. is under pressure to increase\u00a0defence\u00a0spending to counter\u00a0a\u00a0more aggressive Russia\u00a0and\u00a0less reliable United States. But its\u00a0Defense\u00a0Investment\u00a0Plan\u00a0has been repeatedly delayed as military leaders\u00a0and\u00a0Treasury officials\u00a0wrangled\u00a0over\u00a0the cost,\u00a0and critics said its pledge of\u00a0a\u00a015 billion pound ($20 billion) boost to\u00a0defence\u00a0spending won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u00a0said the\u00a0plan\u00a0will keep\u00a0Britain\u00a0safe in \u201ca\u00a0more dangerous\u00a0and\u00a0volatile world than at any time\u00a0for\u00a0decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the world is arming\u00a0and\u00a0aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare\u00a0for\u00a0it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the blueprint does not commit to spending three per cent of U.K. GDP on\u00a0defence\u00a0by 2030, one of the factors that spurred\u00a0John Healey\u00a0to resign as U.K.\u00a0defence\u00a0secretary\u00a0on\u00a0June 11. Healey accused the government of underspending\u00a0on\u00a0the military at\u00a0a\u00a0time of \u201crising threats,\u201d citing\u00a0a\u00a0British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack\u00a0a\u00a0NATO member country by 2030.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Starmer said Healey\u2019s successor,\u00a0Defense\u00a0Secretary Dan Jarvis, had worked to \u201csharpen\u00a0and\u00a0strengthen\u201d the\u00a0plan. Its 15 billion pounds in new spending is more than the 13.5 billion pounds ($18 billion) Healey was offered by the Treasury, but far less than the 28 billion pounds ($37 billion) that\u00a0defence\u00a0officials had called\u00a0for.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tU.K. faces pressure to hit NATO target\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Under the\u00a0plan,\u00a0defence spending will hit 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2029. Starmer said the three per cent target will be reached \u201cin the next Parliament,\u201d a period that could extend to 2034. The U.K. remains committed…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.K. lays out future defence plan with technology focus, fight over money – National https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11944338\/uk-future-defence-plan-technology-money\/…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/keir-starmer-2-e1782828353763.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720&h=379&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284045,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284043\/revisions\/284045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}