Overview

• During parliamentary debates, Lord Robertson described the UK as underprepared for high-intensity warfare, citing shortages in ammunition, training, personnel, logistics and medical capacity.
• The Strategic Defence Review outlines 62 recommendations, including £1 billion for homeland missile defence and increased investment in artificial intelligence and drone capabilities.
• Conservative and crossbench peers, including Baroness Goldie and Lord Stirrup, urged the government to specify financial commitments and timelines to raise defence spending to between 3 and 3.5 percent of GDP by the mid-2030s.
• Lord Dannatt criticised Chancellor Reeves’s recent reallocation of 0.3 percent of GDP to defence as insufficient to meet the review’s requirements and called for a restructured spending trajectory.
• Warning that Vladimir Putin may invade a NATO ally to test the West’s resolve, peers stressed that clear and accelerated funding is essential to deter major threats.