The Ministry of Defence (MOD) will benefit from an extra £800 million in the next financial year, the Chancellor and Defence Secretary have confirmed.
This includes access to £600 million from the Dreadnought contingency, announced in 2015, and will ensure that the UK’s new world-class nuclear submarines are delivered on time and within the £31 billion budget agreed at the Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2015.
A Royal Navy submarine has always been on patrol, providing the continuous at sea deterrent for almost 50 years. And the next generation of submarines will ensure this can continue into the future, deterring conflict and protecting the nation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
This money funds a key government priority that has been the bedrock of defence policy for nearly 50 years.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, said:
Our commitment to defence and national security is unwavering. The UK’s defence budget is the highest in Europe and the second highest in NATO and ensures Britain can continue to respond effectively to the ever-changing threats we face.
We will continue to invest in our world-class Armed Forces and this additional investment of £600 million will ensure the UK is protected by the nuclear deterrent provided by the new Dreadnought fleet into the 2030s and beyond.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
This is a welcome boost to our Armed Forces, ensuring we can continue to back-up our national security with the ultimate capability. In a world of intensifying and evolving threats, we must strengthen and maintain our ability to seize opportunities and counter challenges as they emerge. I have launched the Modernising Defence Programme to ensure we have the capabilities we need to keep Britain safe in an increasingly dangerous world.
So that’s more money to be absorbed and a cry later of we haven’t got enough money and cuts need to be made.
If we have the highest defence budget in Europe, do other countries “MODs” cry not enough money?
If we have the highest defence budget in Europe, where the bloody hell does it go? Where is the financial accountability?
£800 Million. Thats an awful lot of money but in defence procurement terms small beer.At current prices it would buy you a squadron of Typhoons.Reduce the bloated foreign aid budget and the vanity projects like HS2 which will cost £52 billion!(thats before the costs run out of control).
It’s not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.
The systems I work on have been awarded a new £15m contract over 5 years.
That £15m is split over three separate systems with each system having at least two subsystems within them. Parts within them are more expensive than the parent body. For example, one system costs approximately £100k to buy brand new yet a duplexer that is installed into it costs >£150k. Five items require a new duplexer.
It is absolute small fry where it actually matters.
£800 Million? As other people have allready said in terms of defence/Warfare its nothing. You could spend ALL of that on one thing. But sadly to people who dont know about this sort of stuff £800M looks good on paper
While it may already been announced and not a lot in terms of budgets for govt depts, without transparency it will disappear and in a couple of years, the people running the areas specified will say they need more, get given it without being asked to account for it. If this money was ringfenced for the areas specified and only used for that, it would be interesting to see how long it lasted.
£600 million is bought forward contingency from HMT for the Dreadnought programme (successor deterrent submarines). £200 million is new money from HMT.
It’s all new money for this year, ahead of the Modernising Defence Programme.