John Healey refuses to rule out tax rises to fund £12bn drive to make Britain ‘war-ready’ as he says he is ‘100% confident’ money will be found

John Healey refused to rule out tax rises to fund the drive to make Britain ‘war-ready’ today.

The Defence Secretary insisted he was ‘100 per cent confident’ that the government will be able to ramp up spending to 3 per cent of GDP.

That would be around £12billion more than the current 2.5 per cent target. 

But Mr Healey was unable to give a timetable for when the ‘ambition’ will be reached, or how the money will be found.

Economists have been warning that ‘chunky’ tax hikes will almost certainly be needed, potentially smashing the Labour manifesto.   

The Strategic Defence Review published yesterday painted a grim picture of the UK’s capabilities, recommending sweeping changes including a greater focus on new technology such as drones and AI.

The authors suggested reaching the 3 per cent target is vital to delivering their recommendations. Donald Trump has pushed for Nato allies to spend 5 per cent – significantly more than the US does.

Defence Secretary John Healey insisted he was ‘100 per cent confident’ that the government will be able to ramp up spending to 3 per cent of GDP

Missiles on display at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage

The Government has committed to increase spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product from April 2027.

But it only has an ‘ambition’ to reach 3 per cent during the next parliament, due to end by around 2034.

Touring broadcast studios this morning, Mr Healey denied the government is gambling on economic growth to meet the goal.

‘I’m 100 per cent confident that we’ll hit that 3 per cent,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

‘The important thing for now is what we can do, and we can do now more than we’ve been able to do before, because of an extra £5billion the Chancellor has put in to the defence budget this year and the 2.5 per cent that we will deliver three years earlier than anyone expected.

‘It means that a £60billion budget this year will rise throughout this parliament and beyond.’

Pressed on Times Radio whether tax rises would be part of the solution, Mr Healey said: ‘We’ll set out how, just as we’ve done with our 2.5 per cent commitment where we have made that tough decision to switch money out of overseas development aid into defence… 

‘We’ll set out how we’ll pay for future increases in the future.’ 

The Ministry of Defence announced a £5billion investment in the ‘kit of the future’ following the publication of the review on Monday.

The funding includes £4billion for drones and autonomous systems, and an extra £1billion for lasers to protect British ships and soldiers.

Mr Healey said the investment would provide ‘the most significant advance in UK defence technology in decades’ and ‘ensure our armed forces have the cutting-edge capabilities they need to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world’.

Part of the investment will see the establishment of a new ‘drone centre’ to accelerate the deployment of the technology by all three branches of the armed forces.

The focus on drones comes as the technology has proved increasingly lethal on the battlefield in Ukraine, where it now kills more people than traditional artillery.

Keir Starmer insisted the UK had to become ‘war-ready’ to take on growing threats

At a meeting of allied defence ministers in April, Mr Healey said the UK estimated drones were inflicting 70-80 per cent of battlefield casualties, while on Sunday Ukraine launched a major attack on Russian airfields deep behind the front line using a fleet of small drones.

In addition to investment in drones and AI, the Government has announced an additional £1billion for the development of ‘directed energy weapons’ (DEWs) during the current parliament.

This includes the DragonFire laser scheduled to be fitted to the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers from 2027, with a similar system provided for the Army by the end of the decade.

DragonFire and other DEWs are intended to provide a lower-cost form of air defence against targets including drones, costing just £10 per shot compared with the thousands of pounds it costs to fire existing weapons.

These are the key ambitions outlined in the SDR:

Army to be ‘ten times more lethal’

This ambition relies on the harnessing of new technologies and weapon systems, particularly drones. Lethality is difficult to measure and the claim is strong on political rhetoric. 

Only a couple of months ago, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said the ambition was to double lethality by 2027 and triple it by 2030. 

The new Archer artillery system, the belated introduction of the Ajax vehicle and Challenger 3 tanks will increase lethality… but to what extent?

British soldiers walk back to their vehicles at the end of an exercise on February 17, 2025 in Smardan, Romania 

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin attending a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London on the 80th anniversary of VE Day on May 8, 2025

Three forces to be integrated into one

The Integrated Force, unveiled as part of the SDR, is not a merger of the Armed Forces, but they will lose much of the traditional

independence as they are moulded into a centralised Integrated Force. The SDR suggested the services were ‘siloed’. The need for them to train together and prepare for war shoulder to shoulder was essential in the months and years ahead.

£15billion boost for nuclear warheads

Britain’s nuclear deterrent has long been in need of recapitalisation. The £15billion will pay for these weapons to be upgraded or replaced. 

It will also see the significant modernisation of infrastructure at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, supporting more than 9,000 jobs at the Berkshire site.

Sir Keir Starmer delivering a speech at a facility in Glasgow as the government unveiled its defence spending on June 2

Up to 12 new nuclear attack submarines

The as yet uncosted pledge to develop ‘up to’ 12 new attack submarines has been welcomed by military observers but the first boat is not expected to enter service before the late 2030s. 

The submarines will support the AUKUS security alliance between the UK, Australia and the United States and will be used to protect the Pacific from Chinese aggression. 

Over the decades ahead, the boats will replace the Royal Navy’s current fleet of seven Astute-class submarines. They will be built at key sites such as BAE in Barrow-in-Furness.

Six new factories to make munitions

The SDR proposes at least six factories making munitions and energetics such as explosives and propellants for weapons.

The SDR recommends creating an ‘always on’ munitions production capacity in the UK, allowing production to be scaled up at speed if needed. 

Britain’s military warehouses are bare after £5billion in weaponry and munitions was provided for Ukraine since the start of the conflict in 2022. The programme will create more than 1,000 skilled jobs, according to the SDR.

Defence Secretary John Healy visits the production line for long-range cruise missile, Storm Shadow, on May 31

Robotics, cyber warfare and AI

The review says AI will improve the quality and speed of decision-making and operational effectiveness for Britain’s military, its allies… and its enemies.

It should be an immediate priority to ‘shift towards greater use of autonomy and AI within the UK’s conventional forces’. This has shown to be transformational in Ukraine. Chiefs will launch a Defence AI Investment Fund by February 2026.

The report warns cyber threats will become harder to mitigate as technology evolves, with government departments, military hardware, communications, increasingly vulnerable. 

Hardening critical defence functions to cyber-attack is crucial. Directed Energy Weapon systems, such as the UK’s DragonFire, a world-leading laser ground to air system being developed at Porton Down, Wiltshire, can save millions of pounds in expenditure on ordnance systems.

The review also calls for the MoD to seize the opportunities presented by technologies such as robots and lasers.

£4billion expansion of the drone force

The Government unveiled a £4billion investment package for drones and autonomous systems. Drones are dominating the conflict in Ukraine and in Russia, following the audacious Ukrainian attack on Russian airfields in Siberia just days ago.

They provide proved lethality at minimal financial cost and would spare the lives of British troops because they are not required to engage with the enemy at close proximity. 

Cheap to produce drones can be effective against ‘legacy’ military systems worth billions of pounds and are necessary to protect and augment the UK’s manned military systems, such as aircraft, helicopters and armoured vehicles.

A F-35A Lighting II fighter jet (pictured in the Netherlands being used by the Finnish Air Force)

Fighter jets to carry nuclear bombs

Britain is exploring the potential return of air-delivered nuclear weapons in collaboration with the United States. America’s F-35A Lightning II aircraft is capable of carrying tactical gravity nuclear bombs.

The proposal marks the most significant shift in UK nuclear posture since the Cold War. Currently, this country’s nuclear deterrent is carried by the Royal Navy’s ‘bomber’ submarines. 

The air-launched nuclear weapons would carry a much smaller payload. The lower yield B61 munitions are already integrated into US aircraft stationed on continental Europe and could be brought to Britain.

Thousands of new long-range weapons

At least 7,000 long-range weapons will be made to restock UK military warehouses and to prepare for an extended conflict against an adversary such as Russia.

Children taught value of the military

Defence chiefs will work with the Department for Education to develop understanding of the Armed Forces among young people in schools, by means of a two-year series of public outreach events across the UK, explaining current threats and future trends.

Schools and community-based cadet forces will also be expanded, with an ambition of a 30 per cent rise by 2030 with a view to the UK having 250,000 cadets, many of whom will then go on to join the armed forces.

HMS Artful an Astute-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine is manoeuvred in Clyde in March 2025

More reservists and investment in them

To meet the challenge of engaging in a lengthy conflict, the report identified the need to boost the number of reservists.

These part-time personnel, many of whom are former regulars with operational experience, would join full-time troops on the frontline. 

The report identified the need to increase the size of the UK’s Active Reserve forces by at least 20 per cent ‘when funding allows, most likely in the 2030s’. 

The UK has around 25,000 Army reservists, 3,500 Royal Navy and Royal Marines reservists and 3,200 RAF reservists.