Britain at present spends round 2.3 p.c of its GDP on protection and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged earlier this 12 months to extend this to 2.5 p.c by 2030.
This could equate to round £87 billion a 12 months by the top of the last decade, up from £52 billion in 2024-25, making certain the U.Ok. remained Europe’s largest navy spender alongside Germany.
NATO’s present spending goal is 2 p.c of GDP.
New Protection Secretary John Healey, who will host a roundtable in Washington on Wednesday morning, mentioned the assessment would additionally “set out protection reforms to safe sooner procurement and higher worth for cash.”
A transatlantic debate
There may be an ongoing transatlantic debate about how ready NATO’s European flank is to defend itself with out the complete assist of the U.S. sooner or later. The dialogue will develop louder and extra urgent if Trump wins one other time period and runs an much more isolationist overseas coverage than throughout his first time period.
Nonetheless, some British protection coverage consultants say Europe must turn into extra self-sufficient whoever is president, because the U.S. is probably going underneath each Democrat or Republican administrations to redirect extra assets to the Asia-Pacific area.
Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director normal at London’s RUSI protection suppose tank, wrote in March: “Given the overstretch dealing with U.S. armed forces, the years forward might see a larger division of labour amongst Western allies, during which European states do extra for their very own protection, and the U.S. focuses extra of its effort in East Asia.
