PM reveals plan ‘to protect nation’
BORIS JOHNSON has set out a £16.5billion increase in defence spending over four years as he said the UK faces a “perilous” period for global security.
The Prime Minister told MPS the UK will once again become Europe’s leading naval power, the RAF will get new hi-tech jets and the military will be modernised.
The plans include the creation of an agency dedicated to artificial intelligence, and a “space command” capable of launching the UK’S first rocket by 2022.
A National Cyber Force, combining intelligence agencies and service personnel, is already operating against terrorists, organised crime groups and hostile states, the Prime Minister confirmed.
Mr Johnson suggested that in future, a soldier in hostile territory would be “alerted to a distant ambush by sensors on satellites or drones”, with artificial intelligence helping devise the best response which could involve an air strike, an assault by a swarm of drones or a cyber-attack. Warships and combat vehicles could be equipped with “inexhaustible” lasers to take on opposing forces, Mr Johnson suggested, with no prospect of running out of ammunition.
The announcements were billed as the biggest increase in defence spending since the Cold War and form part of a wider review of the UK’S foreign policy and security objectives which will now not be published until next year.
Mr Johnson said that for decades, successive governments have “trimmed and cheese-pared” defence budgets, risking the future viability of the Armed Forces.
The plans set out by Mr Johnson will see the UK spend more on defence than any Nato member except the US.
Setting out the reason for the multi-year settlement, Mr Johnson told the Commons: “The international situation is now more perilous and intensely competitive than at any time since the Cold War.
“Everything we do in this country – every job, every business, even how we shop and what we eat – depends on a basic minimum of global security.
“Our people are sustained by a web of lifelines, oxygen pipes that must be kept open – open shipping lanes, a functioning internet, safe air corridors, reliable undersea cables, and tranquillity in distant straits.”
Mr Johnson said the increase in defence spending is necessary to ensure the UK’S place on the global stage.
“Extending British influence requires a once-in-a-generation modernisation of our Armed Forces and now is the right time to press ahead,” he said.
Taking advantage of new technology, while acting speedily to “remove or reduce less relevant capabilities”, will transform the UK’S capabilities.
Mr Johnson also added the announcements mark the end of an “era of retreat” and could help create 10,000 jobs a year.