It will be “very difficult” to know what the public or political appetite for increased defence spending will be after the next general election, a defence expert has warned.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers, an expert in UK defence, foreign and security policy, told Forces News: “There is so much uncertainty in the international environment, particularly uncertainty about the outcome of the war in Ukraine.
“It is very difficult to know what the public appetite or, indeed, the political appetite is for big increases in defence spending after the next election.”
Prof Chalmers, the deputy director-general at the defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that at current levels “we are looking at more than 2.3% of national income going to defence”.
“That is partly because the Government has increased their spending on defence at a pace, that we haven’t seen really since the end of the Cold War.
“If you want to have significant increases in defence spending even more than in the past, you have to have credible plans on how to finance that.”
Speaking about the deal between Australia, the UK and the US, known as Aukus, the expert said the new generation of hunter-killer submarines will be the “most expensive programme over the coming decades.”
Source: forces
