UK’s £298 Billion Defence Investment Plan: What the Figure Covers
The UK’s £298 billion is not a new package. It is the Ministry of Defence’s total budget for the four years 2026-27 to 2029-30, and only £15 billion of it is extra money on top of the 2025 Spending Review. The Defence Investment Plan (DIP), published on 30 June 2026, puts the exact total at £297.7 billion.
Last updated: 29 October 2026
What the £298 billion covers
According to the funding explainer on GOV.UK, the MoD budget runs £68.3bn in 2026-27, £73.8bn in 2027-28, £76.5bn in 2028-29 and £79.1bn in 2029-30. That adds up to £297.7bn, rounded to £298bn in the text. The page does not split the total into resource and capital spending, and it does not state the price base (nominal or real).
The additional money is a separate line: £15bn over four years (£3.4bn, £3.7bn, £3.9bn and £4.0bn a year). Funding for £10.3bn of it is already identified. The remaining £4.7bn is due to be settled at Budget 2026. The explainer puts genuinely new cash at £11.6bn.
GDP share and NATO targets
On the NATO definition, the official document shows 2.6% of GDP in 2026-27 and 2.7% from 2027-28. The government commits to 3% in the next Parliament and to the 3.5% agreed with NATO allies by 2035, with funding to be set at the next spending review. Calibre Defence reports that the plan itself does not fund either target, and that spending for 2030 to 2035 is deliberately left largely unallocated.
For context, NATO leaders agreed in June 2025 to spend 5% of GDP by 2035: 3.5% on core defence and 1.5% on defence-related spending.
Where the money goes
Four-year headline lines, as reported by Clifford Chance and Calibre Defence:
| Area | Amount (£bn) |
|---|---|
| People and veterans | 78.5 |
| Defence Nuclear Enterprise | 63.6 |
| Air domain (including GCAP) | 27.8 |
| Defence estate | 22.7 |
| Weapons and munitions | 11.1 |
| Autonomous systems and drones | over 5 |
GCAP, the sixth-generation fighter programme with Japan and Italy, gets £8.6bn. On the engine side, see our piece on the Rolls-Royce £2.5bn jet engine programme.
What the plan cuts
To close the gap, the plan trims capability. The Type 83 destroyer and Type 32 frigate are cancelled and a “Hybrid Navy” of uncrewed platforms takes their place. The remaining Type 23 frigates leave service by 2033, Wildcat reconnaissance helicopters retire early from 2027, and SKYNET 6 is cancelled. Storm Shadow is shifting toward low-cost cruise missiles.
How solid is the funding?
The savings line is large. The plan relies on £10.7bn of efficiencies, of which £8.4bn is rated as lower-maturity plans (Calibre Defence). Contingency rises from 1.2% of the MoD budget in 2026-27 to 2% by 2030. The National Audit Office had identified a £16.9bn affordability gap before the plan, according to the DoDs Political Intelligence explainer. The plan itself arrived roughly a year late.
Link to the 2025 Strategic Defence Review
The DIP follows the Strategic Defence Review of 2 June 2025 and puts money behind it. The SDR set the direction; the DIP decides which programmes get funded. The GOV.UK funding explainer does not discuss the SDR, so that link rests on the commentary cited above.
Comparing with Türkiye: why no simple ranking
Presenting the 2026 central government budget, Cevdet Yılmaz said 1.202 trillion lira was earmarked for defence and 953 billion lira for internal security, 2.155 trillion lira in total. That is the December 2025 proposal figure. The final enacted amount and its scope were not verified here.
Putting the two numbers side by side would mislead: one is a four-year total in sterling, the other a one-year allocation in lira, with different scope definitions and large exchange-rate and inflation shifts between dates. We have therefore made no dollar or euro conversion. For a like-for-like view, use NATO’s common-definition data, as in our NATO’s biggest defence budgets list.
Inflation caveat
Calibre Defence says the plan equals a 27% real-terms increase over 2023/24. Because the GOV.UK document does not state a price base, treat any year-on-year “increase” with care and check whether it is nominal or real.
FAQ
How much will the UK spend on defence over four years?
The MoD budget totals £297.7bn from 2026-27 to 2029-30, about £298bn. £15bn of that is on top of the previous Spending Review.
What share of GDP does the UK spend on defence?
On the NATO definition, 2.6% in 2026-27 and 2.7% from 2027-28. The 3% goal is for the next Parliament and 3.5% for 2035.
What is the Defence Investment Plan?
A four-year plan setting out which equipment and programmes the MoD will fund. It was published on 30 June 2026.
Sources
- GOV.UK, The Defence Investment Plan: Funding explainer — https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-defence-investment-plan/the-defence-investment-plan-funding-explainer
- House of Commons Library, Defence Investment Plan: Key decisions (CBP-10935) — https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10935/
- Clifford Chance, The UK Defence Investment Plan: what to watch — https://www.cliffordchance.com/briefings/2026/07/the-uk-defence-investment-plan–what-to-watch.html
- Calibre Defence, Confirmed but not funded — https://www.calibredefence.co.uk/?p=7446
- DoDs Political Intelligence, The Defence Investment Plan: Explainer — https://www.dodspoliticalintelligence.com/resources/the-defence-investment-plan-explainer/
- Presidency of Strategy and Budget (Türkiye), 2026 Central Government Budget Law — https://www.sbb.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1-2026-Yili-Merkezi-Yonetim-Butce-Kanunu.pdf
- CNBC-e, Cevdet Yılmaz on the 2026 budget — https://www.cnbce.com/son-dakika/cevdet-yilmaz-acikladi-2026-butce-buyuklugu-belli-oldu-turkiye-2026-yili-butcesi-turkiye-savunma-butcesi-turkiye-tarim-butcesi-turkiye-egitim-butcesi-2026-h18397
