Defence Spending to 2.6% of GDP by 2027

Commitment: Fully funded increase of NATO-qualifying defence spending to 2.6% of GDP by 2027 (upgraded from 2.5% in Spending Review 2025). Long-term ambition: 3% of GDP in next Parliament. 5% on national security with NATO allies by 2035.

Owner: MOD / HMT

Target date: 2027 (2.6%); next Parliament (3%)

Metric: NATO-qualifying defence expenditure as % of GDP (NATO reporting).

Status: active

Delivery history

• [March 2025] Spring Statement: £2.2bn uplift to MoD budget in 2025-26. Total five-year cost: £11.8bn (2025-26 to 2027-28). Funded by reducing ODA from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI by 2027. UK Defence Innovation (UKDI): £400m ringfenced from April 2025. Commitment stated as 2.5% GDP.
• [June 2025] Spending Review: Commitment upgraded to 2.6% GDP by 2027 (from 2.5%); 3% ambition thereafter; £600m increase to intelligence agencies.
• [September 2025] Defence Industrial Strategy: 460,000+ jobs supported; £250m Defence Growth Deals; National Armaments Director created; Office of Defence Exports established.

Key dependencies

• ODA reduction delivered (from 0.5% to 0.3% GNI) — explicit trade-off with development commitments
• Minimum 10% of equipment procurement on dual-use, autonomous, AI capabilities
• Defence Nuclear Enterprise workforce: 48,000 now → ~65,000 by 2030
• Novel technology development through UKDI

Tensions

• defence-oda-funding — Funded by ODA cut; trade-off explicitly named in Spring Statement