WARSAW, Poland — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Tuesday that the country is putting its defense industry on a “war footing” by increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade, amid NATO concerns of possible repercussions of Russia's war in Ukraine.
“In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent," he said at a news briefing alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests and our values." “We will put the U.K.’s own defense industry on a war footing,” Sunak said to an audience of British troops serving on NATO's eastern front. “One of the central lessons of the war in Ukraine is that we need deeper stockpiles of munitions, and for industry to be able to replenish them more quickly.”
U.K. official figures showed that defense spending last year was about 55.5 billion pounds. NATO data showed that this amounted to about 2.07% of the U.K.’s GDP, ahead of countries including France and Germany but behind Poland, the U.S., Estonia and others. The shipment will include British Storm Shadow long-range missiles, which have a range of some 150 miles and have proved effective at hitting Russian targets.