Pictured above, a Royal Navy Type 26 frigate. A new report argues that the Royal Navy needs to purchase eight new Type 26 submarine frigates on top of the eight already ordered
Tom Cotterill – The Telegraph June 23, 2026
Britain’s military needs an extra £70bn to make it war-ready, a report has warned.
A study published by the Centre for a Better Britain, a Right-wing think tank, said the Armed Forces were facing “terrible” shortfalls in equipment and finances after 15 years of underinvestment.
The paper claimed the country faced “a significant risk of war with a peer power” such as Russia, and that the military “risks catastrophic failure” if gaps are not plugged.
It argued that at least £7bn would need to be spent on new missile defences to counter the threat of attack posed by drones and hypersonic missiles.
The RAF would need an additional £5bn to buy 50 new F-35A stealth jets, which can carry nuclear bombs, to “plug the air defence and offensive strike shortfall”, the paper added.
Britain pledged to buy 12 F-35As last June but there are fears this could be cut to save money after the Treasury refused to provide enough cash to fund the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP).
Dr Lee Rotherham, the report’s author, accused Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and her predecessors of adopting a “dangerous routine of trying to bumble through, by bluff and on the cheap” when it came to military spending.
“Hoping to scrape through by good luck and the skin of our teeth is not an option. We increasingly run the risk of being called out,” he added.
According to the report, the Royal Navy would need almost £10bn to purchase eight new Type 26 submarine frigates on top of the eight already ordered and 10 additional general-purpose Type 32 frigates in addition to the five being built..
A further £250m would be needed to expand the Royal Marines’ fighting force alongside £170m for the Army’s Ranger unit.
The report also calls on additional fleet support ships, minehunters, surveillance planes, missiles and amphibious landing ships to restore Britain’s war-fighting ability.
Sir Julian Lewis, the Conservative New Forest East MP who chaired the defence committee from 2015-2019, said the report’s findings provided “credible calculations of the expenditure needed to restore our ability to defend ourselves”.
Writing a foreword for the study, Sir Julian said: “Must we wait for the worst to happen before providing the resources we need? Far better to invest in them now, so the war plan need never be implemented.”
The release of the report came just hours after Sir Keir Starmer resigned as prime minister, plunging the Government into chaos.
The PM had faced repeated criticism over delays to the DIP, which is almost a year behind schedule. Aeralis, the plane-builder, which called in administrators last month, blamed the chronic delay for its financial woes.
Sir Keir’s resignation on Monday came a week after John Healey, the former defence secretary, and Al Carns, the former Armed Forces minister, both quit over a lack of money from the Treasury for the DIP.
The financial settlement was due last autumn and was meant to outline what Britain would spend on the military over the next decade but has been stuck in limbo after the Treasury refused to fund it.
Andy Burnham, the newly installed MP for Makerfield, is the front-runner to replace Sir Keir in No 10.
It’s not clear what role Mr Burnham will have in the DIP if he becomes PM. The Government previously said it would be published by the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 7.
Industry insiders said they had been “left in the dark” over Mr Burnham’s defence priorities. “People don’t really know who he is and what he stands for,” one source said. “The whole defence industry feels pretty in the dark about his philosophy on national security.”
Mr Burnham previously set out a 10-year approach to defence and security, as well as a 10-year approach to public investment and procurement. He also said he was “not at all squeamish” about cutting the welfare bill to fund his plan.
The Government said it remains committed to funding the military, having introduced the biggest sustained increase in core defence funding since the Cold War.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “This Government is delivering a generational increase in defence spending – hitting 2.6 per cent of GDP in 2027 and investing over £270bn across this Parliament.
“The Strategic Defence Review sets out our path to warfighting readiness – creating a new hybrid Navy with world-class submarines and cutting-edge warships, investing in air and missile defence, munitions, and increasing the size of the Army.”
War !
The Native Brits have been at War since the government intentionally allowed in millions
of foreign people who were not welcome, & in the main hated us as indigenous people.
We were NEVER ASKED if we wanted this.
It’s all been a deceptive replacement, Planned & executed with apparent enthusiasm.
The time has passed, The wooden Horse is Burning, The ‘city’ is on fire.
The Defense of the homeland should have been at least, AT LEAST… 5 decades ago.
to add. Imagine this nation going to war with another nation…
All the women left behind at home, All able bodied men away in foreign lands. (forced conscription) The Pakiz/Hindus/Sikh’s/African-Caribbeans will have a field day.
Coz they won’t be going away fighting…
What a pathetic ‘end’. We never even tried. 🙁
We may be a peer to Trinidad & Tobago but never Russia.
Do you want to do X? Then set up a “think tank” that will push X. More “democracy” at work.
More WW3 in 2030 by the way.
Just saying. For a friend.
so the government who taxes the balls of us to pay
for the migrant armies they imported
forced us all to have the covid kill shot
sends us to prison for hate spech
lets migrants gang rape our kids year after year
gives out jobs and homes to foreiners now wants us to fighta war for it
get real
let rothschild fight it himself
Bwitish Miwit’turry…. couldve done with it last night…. againsr Ghana!!!😂😂😂
get the billions from your Illegales + criminal
perverted politicians to make Britain great again .
seven baby goats have been snatched from a petting zoo under the cover of Tuesday’s early-morning thunderstorms.
Staff realised something was wrong at Christmas Tree Farm in Downe, Kent, when they heard their distressed mother screaming for them.
The month-old goats were popular with young children who enjoyed seeing them charging at one another and ‘parkouring’ on their wooden play area.
Manager Paul Gubby told Kent Online: ‘We came in this morning and there was a little bit of damage from the floods last night.
Then we noticed the goats and been takent was devastating because all the children we get up here love to see the goats and now they’re gone.
We’d just like their safe return really.’
The petting zoo posted on Facebook stating that the farm is struggling at the moment and asked people to keep an eye out.
The mother goats were found screaming for their babies
they also revealed that the goats would be eaten my muslim migrants
Or used for sex by jews
WTF?
What planet are the Brits on?
Iran has vividly shown what the future of war actually is.
Is DRONES baby ……and other UNmanned weapons.
End up like a video game with joysticks.
What the business model? Oh…use weapons and tactics from WW2 ?
aka the “Sitting Duck” model …simply keep the grifters in the Military Industrial Complex employed and perpetually enriched ?
AirCraft carriers with Non- stick / UNpluggable toilets ie sh*t directly into a hole that goes directly into the ocean ?
This one option can save $$$ millions
Brits are like USA..neither can win a war without Allies..ie Churchill and Lusitania.
False Flags started by real F*gs.
which enemy? I see none other than internal. 12 f35 stealth jets that cost £250 each a waste of money that proved useless in Iran. Wake up – the art of war has changed completely and all these frigates, destroyers and aircraft carrier costing bullions and in the repair yard – what for? one missile costing $1m dollars could sink these behemoths. Spend the money on getting rid of the illegal immigrants, stop funding n et zero, DEI and start spending in creating wealth by policies that invite investment, drilling for gas and oil in the north sea and building coal fired stations near the coal seams for cheap energy at cost+ rather than relying on imports.
Preparing for war against Britons.
Britons will have to go to die in the field and your houses will be given to the imports who will be excempt from “service”.
Part of Kalergi.
Gloria Britannia…
THE ONLY WARS
IS THE WAR WE
START,or LED
INTO ?
“Military ‘needs £70bn to prepare Britain…… ” for BURIAL??? 🤔
@GLENN ASHTON
thanks to your ruling king Rothschild !