UK will move to 'war-fighting readiness' with 12 new attack submarines, Sir Keir Starmer says
The UK will build another 12 nuclear-powered submarines to move to a state of “war-fighting readiness”, Sir Keir Starmer has said ahead of the announcement of the strategic defence review.
The Prime Minister said he was “100 per cent confident” the plans in review to be revealed later today – including the extra attack submarines, £15 billion on nuclear warheads and thousands of new long-range weapons – could be delivered on current funding plans.
The Government will increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product from April 2027 with an ambition – but no firm commitment – to increase it to 3 per cent during the next parliament.
The Prime Minister said all parts of society needed to be involved in dealing with an increasingly dangerous world.
He said the plan would create “a battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances, and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come”.
Launching the review in the shadow of Type 26 frigates being built in BAE Systems’ shipyard in Glasgow this morning, Sir Keir said “three fundamental changes” would be made to the UK’s defence.
“First, we are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces,” he said.
The second change is that the Government will adopt a “Nato-first” stance towards defence so that everything it does adds to the strength of the alliance.
Sir Keir added: “Third, we will innovate and accelerate innovation at a wartime pace, so we can meet the threats of today and of tomorrow, as the fastest innovator in Nato.”
The Government has accepted all 62 recommendations in the review, which will see up to 12 nuclear attack submarines being built as part of the Australia-UK-US security partnership.
These will likely use steel components from Sheffield Forgemasters, as per a previous Aukus agreement, before being finished at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, in Cumbria.
Sir Keir said: “We will now deliver up to 12 attack submarines – protecting Britain’s waters, scaling up the industrial base in Barrow and all along the supply chain to deliver a new sub every 18 months.”
The Prime Minister pledged this would create "thousands of jobs”. Six new munitions factories will also be opened to build at least 7,000 long-range weapons.
More than £1.5bn will be invested into repairing and renewing armed forces housing, which is expected to help more than 6,000 families in Yorkshire and the Humber, including at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire
A recent investigation by MPs found that “shocking” accommodation for personnel and their families was driving people out of the military.
However, opposition parties called on Labour to bring in the funding increases more quickly, and put forward a more detailed plan of how the 3 per cent ambition would be achieved.
The Government has highlighted the “defence dividend” of the extra billions being spent, with claims that “30,000 highly-skilled jobs” will be supported by the measures.
Sir Keir said the shift in the approach to defence would bind together military personnel with civilians in arms factories and tech experts.
Insisting that the plans could be funded within the 2.5 per cent commitment, he said: “I’m 100% confident that this can be delivered because that was baked in from the very start of the review as one of the first conversations we had with the reviewers.
“Because what I wanted was to meet the new threats, the new instability, with a plan that matched our capability with the risk that we face as a nation.”