Recommendation 24

In March 2025, the government announced that it will increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product from April 2027.48 However, the Department told us it is only midway through the process of deciding how to invest the additional funding in priorities that ensure the armed forces deliver what the government has asked of them.49 The Department said that once the SDR was published it would have to work through the detailed capability choices using an internal balanced investment process, and then set out the results of that for parliamentary scrutiny. It does not expect to have completed this process until the latter part of 2025.50 The absence of full Equipment Plan since 2022