Britain wants to double its defense budget to £100bn a year by 2030

Great Britain and its new Prime Minister fully intend to remain the leading European military power in the years to come. This is essentially what Ben Wallace, Secretary of Defense for the new administration put in place by Prime Minister Lizz Truss, said in an interview given to the daily newspaper The Telegraph. In concrete terms, London intends to bring its defense spending to £2030 billion per year by 100, an increase of more than 100% and £52 billion compared to the 2022 budget, and thus stick to a higher defense effort. to 3% of its GDP, as was the case until the beginning of the 80s, to meet the security challenges imposed by Russia but also by other powers on the planet. Such an effort, which assumes an increase of more than £6 billion per year, i.e. €7,5 billion, is more than twice as large as that planned by Paris until 2024. This would also lead British Defense to very significantly exceed the German defense effort, which is targeting an effort of 2% of its GDP on this date, ie €80 billion.

For the time being, this is only a global announcement, and no strategic axis was even touched upon by Ben Wallace during the interview, apart from certain specific aspects in term of electronic warfare, electronic intelligence or the fight against drones which are far from requiring such investments. In addition, like Berlin or Paris, it is unlikely that London will be able to significantly increase the size of its armies, regardless of the budget allocated, except to constitute a large reserve. It is therefore likely that most of this increase in appropriations will be intended to support a very large-scale industrial effort, particularly in the air sector with the continuation and probably the acceleration of the Tempest program which would become even more attractive on the international scene. , as well as the expansion of the Royal Navy's fleet to rebuild what has been Britain's greatest asset for the past 300 years. Finally, we can assume that a special effort will be made to strengthen British deterrence, with the probable addition of an air component to its only submarine component today.

Beyond a recomposition of the industrial balances in Europe in terms of defence, this announcement will also cause a lot of turmoil on the old continent, including in Germany which has not stopped presenting itself, for several weeks, as the future great power. unifying military force in Europe. France will also be put under pressure, the British budget being able, in the state of the planning, to be double that of the hexagon in this field, which, of course, would constitute a powerful snub for Paris which has always sought to keep in touch with London in this area. Finally, with such a budget, Great Britain would adorn itself with an aura and an incomparable attractiveness in Europe, likely to undermine all European efforts in favor of a concerted defense effort within the framework of the EU.

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