Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, Chief of the Defence Staff, warned the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee on June 16 that UK armed forces would have to dial back training, exercises, and operations without increased funding.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed the same day at the G7 summit in Evian, France, that no additional funds would be added to the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), a settlement reported at £13.5 billion ($18.1 billion).
Knighton said his primary concern was the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (RDEL), the budget line covering day-to-day military running costs. “We will have to dial back our activities and our exercise and operational activity if the level of resource funding available to us does not increase,” he said.
The testimony followed last week’s resignations of former Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns over insufficient DIP funding. In a Commons statement on June 16, Healey said the plan was “falling well short of what is required,” accusing the Treasury of letting cost-reduction cycles drive defence policy over threat timelines.
Knighton confirmed some legacy platforms would exit service to create space for drone investment, drawing on lessons from Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh.
British Army procurement faces the heaviest exposure, with Challenger 3 main battle tank upgrades and the RCH 155 self-propelled artillery system most at risk of timeline slippage. The DIP is expected before the NATO summit in Ankara next month.
The shortfall puts at risk two operations Britain has pledged to lead once hostilities end, a European-led coalition of the willing in Ukraine and a maritime operation in the Strait of Hormuz.
“There is an enduring mismatch between the UK wanting to exert leadership in NATO on defense” and its available resources, Paul Taylor, a senior fellow at the European Policy Centre, told Breaking Defense.
