UK defence spending
This paper summarises UK defence spending. It also looks at international comparisons of the defence spending of NATO allies and UK spending in some key areas, including equipment and military operations.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the UK spent £60.2 billion on defence.
Spending plans set out in the 2025 Spending Review show that defence spending is expected to total £62.2 billion in 2025/26, increasing to £73.5 billion in 2028/29. This is equivalent to an annual average real-terms growth rate of 3.8% over this period.
Continuing recent trends whereby investment spending has been prioritised over day-to-day spending, a large portion of this additional funding has been allocated to capital budgets. In 2024/25 the Ministry of Defence (MOD) had the largest capital budget of any government department, and is expected to continue to do so in future years.
How has defence spending changed recently?Real-terms defence spending fell by 22% between 2009/10 and 2016/17 (from £59.2 billion to £46.2 billion in 2024/25 prices). It then started to rise again, recently returning to its 2010 levels.
Real-terms spending has increased steadily since 2016/17, and is expected to continue to do so.
Source: MOD, Defence departmental resources: 2024; HM Treasury, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2025, Table 1.10; HM Treasury, GDP deflators, September 2025 (Quarterly National Accounts)
Historical defence spendingWhen looking at longer term trends, defence spending as a percentage of GDP had been falling for decades before stabilising in recent years, whereas real terms spending has fluctuated. This reflects GDP growing by more than defence spending.
Defence spending increased during the Cold War, reaching a peak in the mid-1980s, followed by a period of decline. Spending increased again due to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, before declining and then increasing again in line with recent spending commitments. Today’s real-terms defence spending has almost returned to Cold War peak levels.
Commitments to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDPWhen defence spending targets are discussed as a percentage of GDP, this usually relates to spending that meets the NATO definition of defence expenditure, rather than total departmental expenditure by the MOD. The NATO definition is a broader measure of defence spending than MOD expenditure, meaning NATO figures are higher than the departmental spending figures.
As a member of NATO, the UK is committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on defence expenditure that meets NATO’s definition each year. For the first time, all member states are expected to meet or exceed the 2% target in 2025. The latest NATO estimates show that the UK is expected to spend 2.4% of GDP on defence in 2025.
In February 2025 the government committed to increase defence spending, according to the NATO definition, to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, or 2.6% of GDP when including additional elements of security and intelligence spending. It has since further committed to increase spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, in line with a new NATO target.
The previous Conservative government had committed to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
Source: NATO, Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2025)