FACED with a more dangerous world, the moment has arrived to transform how we defend these islands.
It’s time to strengthen our fighting forces — and to renew our nation at the same time, with new investments creating jobs and growth in communities up and down the country.
Britain will respond forcefully to the ever-growing threats from around the worldAP
The threats we face are no secret. War in Europe. New nuclear risks.
The Kremlin is working hand in hand with its cronies in Iran and North Korea. We face daily cyber attacks.
The Royal Navy has chased off Russian spy ships loitering in our waters.
The RAF has scrambled to intercept Russian planes that menace our skies.
All of this creates instability, and it drives up the cost of living here at home — hitting Sun on Sunday readers directly in the pocket.
We will never gamble with Britain’s national security or our economic security.
Instead, we will meet this moment head on — by mounting the kind of response not seen before in most of our lifetimes.
This work is already under way. We have placed national security at the heart of this Government’s Plan For Change.
And we are delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.
Now we are going further. Tomorrow, we will publish our Strategic Defence Review — a blueprint for strength and security for decades to come.
We will restore Britain’s war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our Armed Forces.
We are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, so we must be ready to fight and win.
After all, the best way to prevent conflict is by preparing for it.
We will end the disgraceful hollowing out of our Armed Forces. We will invest in a fighting force that is more integrated, more ready, more lethal than ever
I have met our fighter pilots serving in Cyprus, soldiers protecting Nato’s eastern flank in Estonia, sailors and submariners serving in the Baltic, the North Atlantic and beyond.
And let me tell you plainly: our fighting men and women are the finest in the world.
They are working around the clock to keep us safe. But they haven’t always been given the support they deserve.
That is not acceptable.
So we will end the disgraceful hollowing out of our Armed Forces.
We will invest in a fighting force that is more integrated, more ready, more lethal than ever — putting Britain back where it belongs as a leader in defence and a leader in Nato.
We will provide better kit for our warriors when they are fighting abroad — so that they can use the full range of conventional and technological capabilities.
Genius for innovation
We have already delivered the biggest Armed Forces pay rise in 20 years, and now we are investing £7billion to provide better housing for them and their families, after it was allowed to fall into disrepair.
That is the least we can do for those who are ready to put themselves on the line to defend this country.
We will also back our brave forces with our British genius for innovation — so that we meet the threats not just of today but of tomorrow too.
This doesn’t mean replacing our warriors — they are indispensable.
We are announcing today we will build at least six new munitions factories across the UK, creating more than 1,000 skilled manufacturing jobs.
Instead, it means learning the lessons of the war in Ukraine, where we have seen the new face of modern warfare.
The RAF has scrambled to intercept Russian planes that menace our skiesGetty
Britain faces online cyber attacks on a daily basis, showing the constant threat we faceGetty
It means bringing together every capability we have, from drones, to artillery, to human instinct and intelligence, into one formidable, integrated fighting machine.
To achieve this, we are announcing a wave of new investments in our Armed Forces across land, air and sea.
This isn’t a moment for a few tweaks here and there, for tinkering around the edges. It’s time for a fundamental shift.
It’s time to flood the zone with new initiatives and new investments.
It’s time to bring together a whole-of- society effort to keep Britain safe.
That means business, society, tech experts and more, all working together in a new national endeavour. And it means seizing this opportunity to change our country for the better.
To me, this is simple common sense — let’s use this drive for national security as a drive for national renewal too.
Let’s use this moment to drive growth and jobs in every part of the United Kingdom and deliver a massive expansion in industrial capacity.
Let’s make this an investment in British pride and the British people — seizing this defence dividend to put more money back into your pockets.
We are announcing today we will build at least six new munitions factories across the UK, creating more than 1,000 skilled manufacturing jobs.
And we will sweep aside the planning blockers who stand in their way.
We will also build up to 7,000 long-range weapons for our Armed Forces, supporting around 800 more defence jobs. And that’s just the start.
Under this radical blueprint, we will drive forward investments in ship- building, drone technology, cyber defences and more — new measures to defend Britain and to strengthen every part of our forces.
The result will be something everyone can get behind — a stronger economy and a stronger Britain.
Everyone has a role to play in this effort, and everyone has a stake in its success.
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