Labour ‘to cut millions’ from budget for modernising Armed Forces

The Ministry of Defence is facing deep cuts to its budget for modernising the Armed Forces, The Telegraph reveals.

Civil servants have been told that the budgets for science and technology and research and development face a cut of around 20 per cent this financial year – amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Hundreds of jobs are expected to be lost, while the Minerva project to put new satellites into space to help with military intelligence is under threat from the cuts.

It has fuelled concerns in the defence industry that the Armed Forces are at risk of “falling further behind” adversaries in the coming years.

Rachel Reeves has told government departments they need to make £5.5 billion of savings this year to help fill a £22 billion financial black hole she claims to have inherited from the Conservatives.

While the Tories had promised to raise defence spending from around 2.2 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2030, Labour has failed to set a deadline for hitting that target.

A UK defence source said: “Without these investments in cutting-edge tech, the Armed Forces risk falling further behind not only our adversaries like China and Russia, but also our peers like the Americans.

“This is going to make our Armed Forces less capable and mean the UK is less safe and less secure.”

Two former Tory defence secretaries have raised concerns over the cuts.

Sir Ben Wallace said: “Unless Rachel Reeves commits to 2.5 per cent of GDP with a timeline, the cuts to R&D [research and development] will be a drop in the ocean compared to what will happen to the rest of the defence budget. They are facing massive cuts.”

Sir Gavin Williamson told The Telegraph: “This is deeply concerning. When we’re facing ever-increasing threats, and we see the technologies on the battlefield advancing so rapidly, this isn’t the time to be making cuts in cutting-edge science and tech.

Minerva is not the only project potentially affected by the cuts, with The Telegraph having revealed last month that the development of Britain’s new “drone killer” radio wave weapon had been thrown into doubt.

The future of the Tempest next generation fighter jet project is also unclear, with ministers not guaranteeing that it will go ahead despite lobbying from Italy and Japan, which are developing the aircraft with the UK.

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