UK defence spending

The UK government has committed to spending more on defence

NATO figures show that the UK spent 2.3% of GDP on defence in 2024; this is above the 2% baseline that NATO countries commit to. In February 2025, Starmer set out ambitions to increase defence spending further – to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, and 3% in the next parliament. These commitments were seen by many as a response to the changing international outlook, particularly Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

On 2 June 2025, the Strategic Defence Review was published which set out the defence capabilities the UK needs to meet current and future challenges. Nine days later, the announcement of the 2025 spending review included defence spending increasing to 2.6% of GDP in 2027/28.

At the NATO summit in July 2025, Starmer committed – alongside other NATO countries – to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035. The OBR have said this would equivalent to £40bn additional spending per year (in 2025/26 prices). ¹⁸ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69a6d7b62e1f4fbda4252208/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2026-web-accessible.pdf

Since then, the government has been working on a Defence Investment Plan to provide further details on the capabilities the MoD intends to procure and develop in the years ahead. On 11 June 2026, exactly one year after the spending review, the defence secretary John Healey resigned over the lack of funding for this plan – saying the prime minister has been “unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”.

How much does the UK spend on defence? 

There are three definitions of defence spending used by the UK government:

• The figure for the UK’s contribution to NATO’s collective defence
• A ‘defence function’ figure based on UN guidelines
• The Ministry of Defence’s own figures for total expenditure.

The MoD’s figure is the most narrowly defined and so is typically lowest: it was £55bn in 2023/24 (in 2024/25 prices). The defence function is a broader measure that includes spending on other areas such as civil defence, for example stockpiling of food and equipment for emergency use in peacetime: this stood at £58bn in the same period. The NATO figure is the broadest and includes, for example, pensions for retired military personnel and contributions to UN peacekeeping missions: this was £64.5bn for the 2024 calendar year.

What has the UK spent on defence in the past?

The UK’s defence spending has varied in response to international events since joining NATO as a founding member in 1949. During the early 1980s, spending as a percentage of GDP increased as a result of both the Falklands War and increased NATO commitments during the Cold War. There was also a short-lived rise in 1991 caused by the Gulf War and a more sustained, gentle rise as a result of UK involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s. For most of the 2010s, however, defence spending as a percentage of GDP steadily fell, mirroring trends seen across NATO countries. 

The UK’s defence spending has increased in recent years due to ongoing support for Ukraine following Russia’s military invasion in February 2022. The UK government, alongside the EU and other G7 countries, has also committed to using the interest raised from frozen Russian assets to purchase military equipment for Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline. This is done through the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans to Ukraine Scheme, and is set out in the Financial Assistance to Ukraine Act 2025.

How does UK defence spending compare to other NATO members?

International comparisons on defence spending are challenging, not least because countries and international organisations use different definitions of ‘defence’ and because they rely on volatile currency exchange rates. ²² Broadly, the NATO definition includes: Expenditure on armed forces and “other forces” like national police and border guards; Military pensions; Peacekeeping, humanitarians operations, and weapon control; Research and development; Military or financial assistance to support the defence of an ally; Spending on NATO common infrastructure

But it is clear who spends the most as a proportion of the total. From 2020 to 2024, US spending made up over two thirds of the total NATO budget, at 68%; the UK’s contribution was 6%. Average defence spending for Canada and the European NATO countries (or ‘NATO excl. US’) has increased steadily since the middle of the last decade, and by 18% in real terms between 2023 and 2024. ²³ NATO, Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2024), www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2024/6/pdf/240617-def-exp-2024-en.pdf  This has helped more countries meet NATO’s 2% target: in 2014 only three of the 32 members did; this had risen to 23 in 2024.

That target – that NATO members spend 2% as a share of their GDP on defence – was first introduced as a guideline in 2006, to address an overreliance on US financial and military might. NATO members formally pledged to meet this target in 2014. The UK has consistently spent above the 2% target – however, as the Commons Defence Select Committee has noted, at times this has been achieved by governments reclassifying some types of spending as ‘defence’ and making use of NATO’s broad definitions. ²⁴ House of Commons Defence Committee, Shifting the goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge, Second Report of Session 2015–16, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmdfence/494/494.pdf

The 2% target is symbolically important, showing that countries are willing and able to step up to assist other members if attacked. However, it is also a somewhat arbitrary figure and meeting it does not guarantee that countries are spending defence budgets effectively. Higher spending does not automatically ‘buy’ a country the right capability to deal with a specific threat.

For example, nuclear powers have to spend a significant proportion of their defence budgets on maintaining these capabilities, and so less elsewhere. This accounts for the fact that while the UK spends a higher proportion of its GDP on defence than Germany (which was banned from developing nuclear weapons after the second world war) it has fewer troops.

In July 2025, NATO members committed to spending 5% of GDP by 2035 on “core defence requirements and defence- and security-related spending”. This includes a commitment to 3.5% under the agreed NATO definition of defence spending, as well as 1.5% on other related activity, such as protecting “critical infrastructure” and ensuring “civil preparedness”. ²⁶ https://www.nato.int/en/what-we-do/introduction-to-nato/defence-expenditures-and-natos-5-commitment

What is the UK’s defence budget spent on?

Based on NATO definitions, the breakdown of the UK’s defence spending is broadly similar to other members , though as noted it spends less on personnel and more on operations, maintenance and other expenditure than the NATO average. Just over a third of the UK’s total goes on equipment (36%); by comparison none of France, Germany or the US spend over 30%. 

Most additional UK defence funding between 2015/16 and 2023/24 was allocated to capital spending, to acquire or maintain fixed assets like equipment and land. This element of spending increased by 95.5% in real terms over this period. In comparison, day-to-day spending fell by 2.4% (real terms ). Around half of spending is now allocated to the Defence Equipment Plan. ³⁰ House of Commons Library, UK defence spending, 4 December 2024, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8175/CBP-8175.pdf  The single largest cost to the MoD is the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, which is responsible for the procurement, maintenance and disposal of the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet. This was allocated 38% of the 2023-2033 Equipment Plan, or 20% of total defence spending.

The budget for the MoD’s 2023 to 2033 Equipment Plan is estimated to fall over £19bn short of the forecast costs. This is the largest gap between the budget and the expected requirement since equipment plans began to be published in 2012. ³¹ There are no budgets set for departmental spending beyond the current spending review period. The MoD calculates its expected budget by increasing the annual budget by 0.5% in real terms for each year covered by the report.  The largest increases in costs came from the Defence Nuclear Organisation, rising by 62% to nearly £100bn in this period as the DNO works to deliver the replacement nuclear deterrent to schedule, and the Navy, whose costs have risen by 41% to £16.4bn. ³² National Audit Office, The Equipment Plan, 2023, www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/The-Equipment-Plan-20232033.pdf, p.13 para 1.7; p.17, para 1.8.