Government defence advisers warned ‘it may be necessary to go faster’

The government’s strategic defence review in June 2025 set out a blueprint for a transformation of the UK armed forces over the next decade, including more investment in drones, creating a “more lethal” army and investing in the “next generation” of aircraft.

The authors of the report specified they had made their recommendations within a framework of the government’s existing commitments for the defence budget to rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and 3% in the 2030s.

The report said: “We are confident that the transformation we propose for the harder world we now live in is affordable over 10 years, given these promised new resources.”

However, the authors - former Defence Secretary Lord Robertson, retired general Sir Richard Barrons and ex-US national security adviser Fiona Hill - added that “as we live in such turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”.

Since the review was published Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the Royal Navy will lead a multinational mission to protect commercial shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz.

And Robertson said in April that the government was “not willing to make the necessary investment” in defence.