Full shopping list of kit armed forces could buy with billions more in funding

There’s plenty the armed forces would like to buy (Picture: Getty)

The Ministry of Defence will get billions more in funding by 2027 if ambitious plans to more rapidly hit the 2.5% of GDP spending target are achieved.

Sir Keir Starmer set out the plans in the House of Commons on Tuesday, telling MPs the money would largely be lifted from the aid budget.

The extra cash will come as a relief to the UK’s armed forces, which have been struggling to renew and build capabilities for a while.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee found last year that there was a £16.9 billion deficit between the MoD’s capability requirements and its budget, as set out in its Defence Equipment Plan 2023.

And with the US looking increasingly reluctant to step in and help in any further European security crises, calls for the UK to beef up its military have been growing.

Here’s what the armed forces may want to spend the extra money on.

Drones

Prince William getting a drone demonstration on Salisbury Plain (Picture: Aaron Chown/AFP)

The war in Ukraine has made it clear just how vital drones are in modern warfare.

Cheap unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) packed with explosives have been sent far beyond Russia’s front lines while avoiding detection, with brutally efficient results.

According to the Times, the Army may be looking to ask British firms for help building a large fleet of expendable drones which are able to react quickly to threats.

Tech

Future wars could largely be fought on screens rather than in person (Picture: Getty Images)

Soon after he became Chief of the General Staff last year, General Roly Walker said: ‘My vision for the British Army is to field fifth-generation land forces that set that joint force up for the “unfair fight”.

‘Fifth Generation Forces in this context exploit advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and autonomous systems to integrate data from all domains for precise battlefield impact.’

This new kind of warfare focuses on cyberattacks and misinformation – but taking full advantage would require extensive modernisation.

Missiles

There have been calls for the UK to get a more secure air defence system (Picture: Getty Images)

The i newspaper reports that the upcoming Strategic Defence Review will suggest the UK should build its own version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Currently, the UK operates the Sky Sabre air defence system, which can control the flight of 24 missiles simultaneously to 24 separate targets.

General Walker has also highlighted the need for ‘long-range fires’, which can cause devastation behind enemy lines far beyond what an explosives-laden drone is capable of.

Planes

The RAF wants to update its ageing fighter jet fleet (Picture: Getty Images/Corbis Unreleased)

The Royal Air Force is still planning to build a new flagship fighter aircraft called the Tempest with Italy and Japan, but the potentially decade-long wait until the jets are in the air has put the project at risk.

There’s a chance the new injection of cash into the military could save it, though.

In the meantime, the RAF could be looking to buy more warplanes that already exist and are therefore more conveniently available, like F-35s.

Personnel

The number of soldiers in the British Army is at a 200-year low (Picture: Shutterstock/PRESSLAB)

In his speech last June, General Walker pushed back against the idea that ‘raw troop numbers alone determine fighting power’.

But there’s no hiding the fact that the number of British soldiers is currently lower than at any point since the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century.

There have been calls to focus on growing the Army Reserves, who can be called up to fight when they’re most badly needed.

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