Preparing for war: Keir Starmer's battle plan

Keir Starmer vowed this week to make Britain "a battle-ready, armour-clad nation" as he unveiled the long-awaited Strategic Defence Review (SDR). The 144-page report contains 62 recommendations, all of which have been accepted.

They include: building-up to 12 nuclear attack submarines; procuring up to 7,000 UK-built, long-range weapons; opening at least six new munition factories in the UK with the capacity to ramp up production; increasing the size of the Army from 73,000 to 76,000 in the next parliament; and exploring the possible acquisition of US combat aircraft that are capable of firing tactical nuclear weapons. The review also recommends greater use of drones and AI, to help make the Armed Forces "ten times more lethal".

Ministers came under pressure this week to explain how the changes will be funded. The government has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5% by 2027, at a cost of about £6.4 billion a year, and has talked of increasing the percentage to 3% by 2034. Last week, Defence Secretary John Healey said the latter target would definitely be reached, but on Sunday he reverted to calling it an "ambition".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"If political rhetoric were a weapon, the UK would be close to impregnable," said the FT. But the extent to which the SDR will transform Britain's "war-fighting readiness" remains to be seen. While many of the review's recommendations, such as the £15 billion upgrade to the UK's nuclear deterrent, "make eminent sense", they're relatively modest in scale and will take time to materialise. Rather too much time, said The Economist. Germany's top general warned this week that Nato needed to prepare for a possible attack from Russia in the next four years. Yet many of the SDR's recommendations "would yield new capabilities only in the 2030s".

And that's assuming the requisite funding is provided, said The Times. The authors of the SDR – former defence secretary George Robertson, General Sir Richard Barrons and the eminent Russia expert Fiona Hill – based their recommendations on apparent assurances that the UK would raise defence spending to 3% of GDP in the next parliament. But it seems they were spun a line, because ministers are now refusing to guarantee that this spending target will be reached. "Given this central discrepancy, it must be asked if the review, commissioned in July last year, the month of Labour's election victory... is of any value at all."