The UK will invest $2 billion in new weapons factories as part of a sweeping rearmament strategy, Defense Secretary John Healey has announced.
The move comes ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defense Review on Monday. The plan includes the construction of at least six new munitions and explosives factories and the procurement of more than 7,000 domestically produced long-range weapons, including drones and missiles. Healey has also pledged to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2034.
“The hard-fought lessons from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind it,” Healey said in a statement on Saturday.
“We are strengthening the UK’s industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad.”
The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted significant shortfalls in Western arms production. Senior British officers have warned for months about depleted stockpiles, according to the BBC.
Opposition politicians questioned the timing of the announcement, pointing out that procurement had stalled over the past year.
“We welcome investment in new munitions factories, but we don’t know when they will be ready – only that these orders should have been placed months ago,” said Conservative shadow defense secretary James Cartlidge.
The UK has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest backers in its conflict with Russia, as NATO members in Europe seek to boost military support amid concerns that the US under President Donald Trump may scale back aid to Kiev.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that foreign military assistance would only escalate the conflict without altering its eventual outcome. Russian officials have also accused former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson of encouraging Ukraine to abandon peace negotiations in the spring of 2022 – a claim Johnson has denied. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed his denial as a “blatant lie.”
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