{"id":149514,"date":"2025-06-01T13:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149514\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T13:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:11:09","slug":"uk-plans-2bn-weapons-upgrade-as-starmer-calls-for-war-readiness-weapons-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149514\/","title":{"rendered":"UK plans $2bn weapons upgrade as Starmer calls for \u2018war readiness\u2019 | Weapons News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day before his government\u2019s publication of a defence strategy review, PM Keir Starmer says he will \u2018restore Britain\u2019s war-fighting readiness\u2019.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned the United Kingdom must be prepared to confront and defeat hostile states with modern military capabilities, as his government unveils a 1.5-billion-pound (about $2bn) plan to build at least six new weapons and explosives factories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, so we must be ready to fight and win,\u201d Starmer wrote in The Sun newspaper on Sunday. \u201cWe will restore Britain\u2019s war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement came in advance of a Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which Starmer is set to publish on Monday. The review will assess threats facing the UK amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war<\/a> and pressure from United States President Donald Trump for NATO allies<\/a> to bolster their defences.<\/p>\n

European nations have rushed to strengthen their armed forces<\/a> in recent months, following Trump\u2019s comments that Europe must shoulder more responsibility for its security.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary John Healey, speaking to the BBC network, said the planned investment signals a clear warning to Moscow and would also help revive the UK\u2019s sluggish economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a world that is changing now \u2026 and it is a world of growing threats,\u201d Healey told the BBC on Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s growing Russian aggression. It\u2019s those daily cyberattacks, it\u2019s new nuclear risks, and it\u2019s increasing tension in other parts of the world as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Ministry of Defence confirmed the funds would support the domestic production of up to 7,000 long-range missiles. With this package, its total munitions spending will reach approximately 6 billion pounds (nearly $8bn) during the current parliamentary term.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times reported that the government is eyeing US-built jets capable of launching tactical nuclear weapons, although the UK\u2019s Defence Ministry has yet to comment.<\/p>\n

The forthcoming SDR, ordered after the Labour Party\u2019s election win in July 2024, will outline emerging threats and the military capabilities required to address them. Starmer has pledged to raise defence spending to 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027, with an eventual aim of reaching 3 percent.<\/p>\n

The arms initiative follows earlier government pledges to invest 1 billion pounds ($1.3bn) in artificial intelligence technology for battlefield decision-making and an additional 1.5 billion pounds (about $2bn) to improve housing conditions for armed forces personnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day before his government\u2019s publication of a defence strategy review, PM Keir Starmer says he will \u2018restore Britain\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,299,4884,2597,2821,12,1144,332,7661,712,16,15,1764,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-149514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-nato","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wales","23":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114608280924605203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}