How much does Britain spend on its military?
Basic figures
The answer is not straightforward, since it depends how you define it. It is a complex subject, but in round numbers, we can say that the UK spends approximately £50bn per annum from the public purse on the military.
Note: the available figures are sometimes those from the previous year, since there is a reporting lag. Furthermore, actual spending results are different from budgets (projections).
In the UK case there is also a difference between Ministry of Defence (MoD) spending (as reported to Parliament) and Military spending (as reported to NATO). The figures for NATO are higher, since they include a number of additional elements such as military pensions and British contributions to UN peacekeeping – in compliance with NATO reporting standards.
The total “Core DEL” (Departmental Expenditure Limit) for Defence in the coming year, 2021-2022, is £46.0 billion (£31.4bn Resource, £14.6bn Capital) out of £484.8bn total government spend, (just under 10%) OR £46bn out of £553.3 bn (8.5%) if you include all the covid-related special measures. The rounding up to £50bn is to take account of the additional items reported to NATO. There are in any case persistent overruns in military equipment spending plans.
Recent history
UK military spending rose significantly during the 2000s due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It then dropped from 2009-2015 due to the austerity cuts; then increased again after the Ukraine crisis. Current threat perceptions seem to relate more to China and Russia than to Islamist terrorism.
Nuclear weapons
It is especially important to mention the huge investment the UK government is making in the nuclear weapons system to replace Trident: estimated at £205bn over its lifetime.
Recent increase for subsequent years
In a statement to the House on 19th November 2020, Boris Johnson committed to significant new spending on the UK’s armed forces, mostly on new hi-tech technologies such as AI, drones, and cyber warfare. The increase is entirely in capital expenditure, with small cuts to recurrent (personnel and operations) spending. This totals an additional £16.5bn – amounting to a real terms increase of £24bn when combined with the already declared increase of over £7bn by 2024-25. This is a staggering sum to spend on weaponry at a time when the health, care and social systems of the UK are in crisis after ten years of government imposed austerity and the huge costs of the pandemic and its consequences. This announcement was made at the same time as the controversial £4 bn cuts in the overseas aid budget.
Global context
In late April 2021 the global figures for 2020 are due to be published by the reputable Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The current figures from SIPRI put global military spending in 2019 at $1.9 trillion ($1,900,000,000,000), the largest annual increase in a decade, equivalent to 2.2% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) or $249 per person. Here you can find a full record of military spending since 1988. The UK ranked eighth, spending £45 billion in 2018/2019.
£45 billion = £664 for every person in the country (including children) or an average of £1,592 per household per annum.
For some comparisons, see this commentary by the Institute for Strategic Studies: “Overall, Europe’s defence spending in 2019 rose by 4.2% compared with 2018. These increases in Europe are part of an international trend. Global defence spending rose by 4.0% in real terms compared to 2018. In 2019, defence spending by both China and the US rose by 6.6%. The US increase alone – at US$53.4bn – almost equalled the UK’s entire 2019 defence budget of US$54.8bn”.
Definitions
SIPRI’s figures include: all current and capital expenditure on:
- the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces;
- defence ministries and other government agencies engaged in defence projects;
- paramilitary forces, when judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and
- military space activities…etc
But excludes: Civil defence and current expenditures on previous military activities, such as veterans’ benefits [ie pensions ], demobilization, conversion and weapon destruction.
Sources
For a useful summary see slide show by Sam Perlo-Freeman of CAAT, prepared for GCOMS-UK webinar, Feb 2021.
See also his 2020 report for Campaign Against the Arms Trade which has a good explanation of the different ways that the UK reports its military spending figures: Fighting the wrong battles. CAAT (2020).
Useful source of official UK data
Detailed MoD Defence breakdown 2020
Institute for Strategic Studies: Top 15 Defence Budgets 2019. NB Budget, not actual
