UK leaders announce second defense budget boost this week: $7 billion

LONDON — Britain’s defense spending is set to get its second boost in three days after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a further hike in his budget speech Mar 15.

Hunt said representations by his “persuasive defense secretary,” a reference to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, had convinced him to add £6 billion ($7.2 billion) above the £5 billion hike announced on Monday .

Wallace has been engaged in a fight with the Treasury for additional money to rebuild capabilities of an armed forces ,which the defense secretary has previously said had been hollowed out over the last 30 years.

Defense budget problems have been exacerbated by double digit inflation recently, although Hunt had some good news on that front, telling Parliament the cost rise numbers would be below 2.9% by the end of the year.

“I confirm that we will add a total of £11 billion to our defense budget over the next five years and it will be nearly 2.25% of GDP by 2025,” Hunt told lawmakers.

The Treasury said the spending was “recognition of the deteriorating security environment where the UK must be able to deter and defend against increasing threats to our security, as described in the Integrated Review-Refresh.”

The update of that 2021 defense, security and foreign policy review, released on Monday, was sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other fast moving challenges to international order.

The MoD is scheduled to follow up the integrated review later this year with a strategy prioritizing equipment capabilities and possibly a boost to personnel numbers, particularly in the Army.

The announcement of the second part of the defense spending hike follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying March 13 the Conservative Government was to spend £5 billion over the next two years – £2 billion next year and £3 billion the year after.

The government said March 13 the £5 billion increase over the next two years would be spent on Britain’s nuclear submarine building and support activities and replenishing missile and munition stocks depleted by the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

Neither the Treasury or the Ministry of Defence detailed what the new extra funding was earmarked for.

The additional £6 billion announced by Hunt will be equally split across the final three years of a five year period starting 2023/24.

The Chancellor reiterated the statement made earlier in the week saying the government’s ambition was to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP but only once fiscal and economic conditions allowed.

The defense budget this year will amount to more than £48 billion – just above the 2% level sought by NATO.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

伦敦——英国财政大臣杰里米·亨特在3月15日的预算演讲中宣布进一步增加国防开支，这意味着英国国防开支将在三天内第二次获得增长。

亨特表示，他“极具说服力的国防大臣”（指国防大臣本·华莱士）的游说让他相信，除了周一宣布的 50 亿英镑增幅之外，还要再增加 60 亿英镑（72 亿美元）。

华莱士一直在与财政部争夺额外资金，以重建武装部队的能力。这位国防部长此前曾表示，过去 30 年来，武装部队的能力已被掏空。

近期两位数的通货膨胀加剧了国防预算问题，不过亨特在这方面带来了一些好消息，他告诉议会，到今年年底，成本上涨幅度将低于 2.9%。

亨特告诉议员们：“我确认，未来五年我们将向国防预算增加110亿英镑，到2025年，国防预算将占GDP的近2.25%。”

英国财政部表示，这笔支出“是对日益恶化的安全环境的认可，英国必须能够威慑和防御日益增长的安全威胁，正如《综合评估更新》中所述”。

周一发布的 2021 年国防、安全和外交政策评估更新版，是由俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以及其他对国际秩序快速变化的挑战引发的。

国防部计划在今年晚些时候对综合评估进行跟进，制定一项战略，优先考虑装备能力，并可能增加人员数量，尤其是在陆军方面。

在宣布第二阶段国防开支增长之前，首相里希·苏纳克于 3 月 13 日表示，保守党政府将在未来两年内支出 50 亿英镑——明年 20 亿英镑，后年 30 亿英镑。

英国政府于 3 月 13 日表示，未来两年增加的 50 亿英镑将用于英国的核潜艇建造和支持活动，以及补充因向乌克兰提供武器而消耗殆尽的导弹和弹药库存。

财政部和国防部均未详细说明这笔新增资金的具体用途。

亨特宣布追加的 60 亿英镑资金将在 2023/24 年开始的五年期间的最后三年内平均分配。

财政大臣重申了本周早些时候发表的声明，称政府的目标是将国防开支提高到GDP的2.5%，但这只有在财政和经济条件允许的情况下才会实现。

今年的国防预算将超过 480 亿英镑——略高于北约要求的 2% 的水平。

Andrew Chuter 是《防务新闻》的英国记者。