Britain to invest billions in defense spending following escalating fears, threats of World War III

Britain said on Monday it would radically change its approach to defense to address threats from Russia, nuclear risks, and cyberattacks by investing in drones and digital warfare rather than relying on a much larger army to engage in modern combat.

Responding to US President Donald Trump's insistence that Europe take more responsibility for its own security, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase in British defense spending since the end of the Cold War.

But with limited finances, the government's plan envisages making the army more lethal, not much larger, by learning from Ukraine, where drones and technology have transformed the battlefield.

Healey said Britain's adversaries were working more in alliance and technology was changing how war was fought.

"Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine, and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their armed forces the quickest will win," he said.

Despite cuts to the military budget in recent years, Britain still ranks alongside France as one of Europe's leading military powers, with its army helping to protect NATO's eastern flank and its navy maintaining a presence in the Indo-Pacific.

But the army, with 70,860 full-time trained soldiers, is the smallest since the Napoleonic era, and the government has said it needs to be reformed, given the growing strategic threats.

James Cartlidge, defense policy chief for the opposition Conservatives, said the government had failed to prove it could finance the review's recommendations, meaning it had "dodged the big decisions".

"An SDR (Strategic Defense Review) without the funding is an empty wish list," Cartlidge told lawmakers, many of whom criticised the government for not releasing the review first to parliament rather than to the media.

But Britain's biggest defense company, BAE Systems, welcomed the review, describing it in a statement as a "clear demand signal" for the defense sector to invest in capacity and develop technologies.

Russia's embassy in London said following the defense overhaul that Moscow had no intention of attacking Britain, and rejected British accusations that Moscow was demonstrating growing aggression and instigating daily cyberattacks.

New defense age

It will build at least six new munitions plants, procure up to 7,000 British-made long-range weapons, and launch new communication systems for the battlefield.

A Cyber and Electromagnetic Command will lead defensive and offensive cyber capabilities, after British military networks faced more than 90,000 "sub-threshold" attacks in the last two years.

But on the size of the armed forces, the review said it would not reduce numbers, even as a greater emphasis is put on technology, but would increase the total number of regular personnel when funding allowed. Healey said the number of full-time soldiers would reach 76,000 in the next parliament, likely after 2029.

"The moment has arrived to transform how we defend ourselves," Starmer told workers at BAE Systems' Govan shipbuilding site in Scotland, saying he would "end the hollowing out of our armed forces".

"When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready," he said.

Starmer has already said defense spending would increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, from 2.3%, but critics and political opponents urged the government to put a date on when it would move to 3% of GDP.

Reuters has previously reported that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wants members to raise defense spending to 3.5% of their GDP, and a further 1.5% on broader security-related items to meet Trump's demand for a 5% target.

Starmer said he was "100% confident" that British defense spending would hit 3% in the next parliament, likely between 2029 and 2034, something the review took into account when drafting its recommendations.

The government described its policy as "NATO first", drawing on the strength of the alliance's members, which meant it would never fight alone.

Starmer has sought to cast the higher defense spending as a way to create jobs and wealth, as he juggles severely strained public finances, a slow-growing economy, and declining popularity among an increasingly dissatisfied electorate.

Fears and threats of World War III

Russia has repeatedly threatened that the West is gambling with World War III over support for Ukraine.

"We are now confirming once again that playing with fire - and they are like small children playing with matches - is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country," Sergei Lavrov, who has served as Putin's foreign minister for more than 20 years, told reporters in August."Americans unequivocally associate conversations about a Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively."

Only a week into Russia's invasion, Lavrov told Al Jazeera, "World War III will be a devastating nuclear war."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had also threatened during the lead-up to Russia's invasion that Western sanctions on Russia would result in World War III.

Trump also warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a heated February meeting at the White House that failing to accept a US-led peace deal with Russia would mean “gambling with World War III.”

As previously explained by the Jerusalem Post's Aaron Reich, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' infamous Doomsday Clock ticked dangerously close to midnight in 2024 over a number of conflicts by nuclear-armed actors, not limited to the Russia-Ukraine war.

While some believe World War III may soon be approaching, now-Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed on his first day as foreign minister that World War III had already begun.

“We’re in the middle of World War III against Iran-led radical Islam, whose tentacles are already in Europe,” Katz said.

Beyond world leaders, a slight majority of British nationals (53%) polled in 2024 said they believed another world war was only 5-10 years away. Asked which countries they thought would be battling against the British, 80% named Russia, 68% named Iran, 64% named China and North Korea, and 17% named Israel.