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Bloomberg
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Alex Wickham and Kitty Donaldson

UK Military Set For Billions to Upgrade Drone Tech, Air Defenses

A CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the UK's Royal Air Force 27 Squadron, during a joint military helicopter training exercise hosted by the Finnish Army's Utti Jaeger Regiment in Pirkkala, Finland, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. NATO leaders prepared to overhaul and boost the alliance’s defences in the face of Russian aggression in Europe, including establishing a new force model that would put about 300,000 troops on high alert to deal with any future threats. (Bloomberg)

The UK will increase defense spending at next week’s budget in a bid to address vulnerabilities exposed by the war in Ukraine, including in drones, air defense and electronic warfare, according to people familiar with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans.

The money — likely to be in the single figure billions of pounds — is also needed to restock weapons that Britain supplied to Ukraine over the last year and to secure improvements on existing stocks, they added.

A post-Ukraine update to the UK’s 2021 “Integrated Review” of defense, security and foreign policy will be published in the coming days, the people said. It is likely to take a less hawkish tone on China than one planned by Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss and addresses what one source called the elephant in the room: an unexpected war in Europe.

Sunak is expected to visit the US soon with an announcement due shortly about Australia’s nuclear submarine project, a joint initiative between the three nations. 

A year of war in Ukraine highlighted the need for an immediate cash injection in the March 15 budget, but more will be needed at the next spending review after 2024-25 — and over the next decade — the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity discussing unannounced plans. 

The Ministry of Defence is in part battling inflation and the relative weakness of the pound against the US dollar in its equipment procurement and maintenance programs, they added.

The Ministry of Defence and the Treasury declined to comment.

Ben Wallace, U.K. defense secretary, speaks to members of the media during an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministers of defense at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. NATO allies are discussing whether to scale up troops in the east and how to minimize the risk of spillover, dramatized recently by a stray drone crashing in Croatia. (Bloomberg)

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday that he was negotiating with Sunak and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt about how to “bring forward” plans to improve equipment used by the army. “We have to modernize,” Wallace told a conference hosted by the Conservative Home website, comparing some of Britain’s military equipment to a fine wine that had gone bad.

The UK announced a £16.5 billion ($19.6 billion) increase in defense spending in 2021, a funding decision which Wallace said carried some risk. Russia’s war in Ukraine means that plans to begin some modernizations in the middle of this decade must now be accelerated, he suggested.

Future Fight

The MoD will aim to prepare Britain for modern warfare with better provision of and defense against drone technology — which has emerged as a key weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine —  as well as investment in electronic warfare capabilities, the people added. 

The integrated review is expected to include a focus on key themes already identified by Major General Charles Collins, assistant chief of the general staff, writing in the latest edition of British Army Review magazine. Collins said the war in Ukraine had shown the British army to be “deficient” in four areas: air defense; long-range weapons; uncrewed aerial systems [UAVs]; and electronic warfare.

The use of UAVs or drones in Ukraine had “created a transparent battlefield where there is no sanctuary,” Collins wrote. Electronic warfare “is the great leveller,” he added. “By depriving forces of connectivity, it drives armies back to the 20th century.”

Collins also explained how ground-based air defense was essential to “dislocate” enemy forces, and argued that the UK needed to massively expand its weapon stockpiles. “We have been resting on the assumption that we would not be required to fight at scale,” Collins said.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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