Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that “the threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War,“ as he launched the review in Glasgow.
The Strategic Defence Review, which assesses threats facing the UK and makes recommendations, said that Britain is entering “a new era of threat”.
“First, we are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces,“ he said.
Secondly, the prime minister insisted that UK defence policy will “always be NATO first”, and finally that the UK “will innovate and accelerate innovation at a wartime pace so we can meet the threats of today and of tomorrow.”
The UK has been racing to rearm in the face of the threat from Russia and fears that US President Donald Trump will no longer help protect Europe.
His government pledged in February to lift defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027 in the “largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War”.
The Labour government has said it will cut UK overseas aid to help fund the spending.
This includes £1.5 billion ($2 billion) for building “at least six munitions and energetics factories”, procuring 7,000 domestically built long-range weapons, and spending £6 billion on munitions over the current parliamentary term.
Currently the UK is set to operate seven nuclear-powered Astute Class attack submarines, which will be replaced by the 12 AUKUS submarines from the late 2030s.
China ‘challenge’
While launching the new review, Robertson said it would tackle threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, calling them a “deadly quartet”.
The softer rhetoric on China is in line with the Labour government’s efforts to thaw relations with Beijing, which reached new lows under former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.
At a time when Washington is demanding that its NATO allies bolster their own defences, Britain is considering strengthening its deterrent by buying nuclear-missile capable aircraft from the United States, The Sunday Times reported.
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