UK unveils £298 billion defence investment plan, boosting spending and jobs

Britain’s new £298 billion Defence Investment Plan was published on 30 June 2026 after months of delay over funding. The plan is meant to renew military power for “the wars of today and tomorrow.”

The package includes £15 billion of additional spending on top of last year’s Spending Review and will lift annual defence funding from about £54 billion under the previous government to almost £80 billion by 2029. Defence spending will rise to 2.7% of GDP, after an earlier commitment to reach 2.5% by April 2027 and to seek 3% in the next Parliament if fiscal and economic conditions allow. In February 2025, the government brought forward the 2.5% target.

The plan directs funding to drones, autonomy and artificial intelligence, alongside the nuclear deterrent, the Global Combat Air Programme and new submarine programmes. It also supports wider economic growth across the United Kingdom.

Defence chiefs wanted roughly £28 billion more, and only £11.6 billion of the £15 billion package is new money, with the rest reallocated from existing resources. Older systems including Storm Shadow cruise missiles and some military helicopters are being phased out, while some road and energy projects will not go ahead as planned.

The plan will create nearly 60,000 extra direct and indirect UK industry jobs by the end of the decade, taking defence-spending-supported employment to more than half a million. Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, warned that Britain was running out of time to strengthen its defences as Russia raises the stakes.