UK boosts weapons production capacity in new defence strategy

LONDON: Britain will invest £1.5 billion ($2 billion) in new weapons factories to ramp up defence production capacity, the government said on Sunday, ahead of a major review of its armed forces and military strategy.

The Strategic Defence Review, due to be published on Monday, will assess the threats facing the UK amid Russia´s ongoing war in Ukraine and pressure from US President Donald Trump for Nato allies to bolster their own defences.

In February, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027, up from its current 2.3 percent.

The Labour leader also aimed to hike spending to three percent by the next parliament, due around 2029. The review will recommend “creating an ´always on´ munitions production capacity in the UK” which would allow weapons production to be “scaled up at speed if needed”.

It also urges the government to “lay the industrial foundations for an uplift in munitions stockpiles to meet the demand of high-tempo warfare”, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The government has said it would procure 7,000 domestically built long-rang weapons and build “at least six munitions and energetics factories”. This investment -- which will see £6 billion spent on munitions this Parliamentary term -- will also create and support 1,800 jobs, the ministry said.