A £500 million ($620 million) package of weapons is being added to a promise in January that Britain would contribute funding of £2.5 billion this financial year to supply Kyiv with a wide range of equipment for the military.

The latest top-up will see the British supply additional Storm Shadow strike missiles, air defense weapons, hundreds of armored vehicles, four million rounds of small arms ammunition, drones, boats and other equipment.

The weapons package is being billed by the British as its largest single delivery of weapons to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion.

“Ensuring Ukraine wins is the most important thing we can do for global peace and security. That’s why we’re increasing our support – backing Ukraine with £500 million for military aid and delivering our largest-ever package of equipment said Sunak in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Sunak meets new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Apr. 23 ahead of traveling to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The promise of the new arms package for Ukraine may be the first of several defense-related announcements by the British.

The Sunak’s office has already briefed media that they will offer to deploy a squadron of Royal Air Force Typhoon combat jets to Poland in the coming months.

The British move to bolster defense spending for Ukraine to £3 billion this year is the second boost for Kyiv’s dwindling weapon stocks in the last few days.

After months of political wrangling the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $61 billion aid bill to supply Ukraine with fresh weapons.

The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, but that is expected to happen this week.

While the British continue to provide large amounts of military aid to Ukraine – they are the second-largest European contributor of weapons behind Germany – leaders here have come under increasing pressure to spend more on defense at home.

Politicians, even Cabinet ministers in Sunak’s government, military officers and the media have called for an immediate increase in spending to 2.5% of gross domestic spending from the current level just above 2% percent.

Sunak used the visit to Poland to announce the government would do just that, targeting 2030 as the year when the higher defense-spending rate would be reached.

The plan would see defense spending rise by £75 billion over the next six years. Previously the government had only said it would spend more when the economy allowed.

Speaking alongside Stoltenberg in Warsaw, Sunak said the boost would make Britain “by far the largest defense power in Europe,” calling it a “generational investment in British security.”

Also part of the plan is dedicated spending on ammunitions production to the tune of £10 billion, Sunak said. “We will put the U.K.’s own defense industry on a war footing,” he said, promising companies long-term commitments for government purchases.

Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include new defense-spending plans announced by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The new servicing arrangement for the BAE Systems-built L119 guns replaces a maintenance plan for the 105mm guns that currently entails shipping them outside of the country for repairs.

Officials announced the agreement to use a Ukrainian plant during an April 9 British trade mission to Kyiv, which saw the two sides sign a new defense pact aimed at encouraging cooperation on defense and industrial issues.

The British, along with other European arms makers, are eager to boost ties with Ukraine as the war with Russia opens up possible opportunities for local production. Twenty-nine British companies joined the trade mission, the second of its kind in recent months.

BAE is cooperating with British-based company AMS Integrated Solutions in providing the in-country repair and maintenance capability for the L119.

The two companies signed a teaming agreement last December to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services on BAE-supplied weapons from existing facilities in Ukraine.

Aside from the towed light artillery, the company has supplied other weapon types to Ukraine, including AS90 tracked 155mm howitzers and Challenger 2 main battle tanks.

Kyiv has also signed a statement of intent with Sweden to explore possible support and production of the CV90 family of armored vehicles, made by the Swedish arm of BAE and donated to Ukraine by Stockholm.

Maj. Gen. Anna-Lee Reilly, director of operations at Defence Equipment and Support, the Ministry of Defence’s procurement and support arm, said the AMS-operated facility could become a center for the support of several other weapons systems.

“The repair facility that has been secured is scalable to provide a similar capability for U.K. and other nations’ systems,” she said.

The light gun support deal could be a stepping stone to Ukraine building the L119 in the country.

During a visit by BAE CEO Charles Woodburn to Kyiv last August the company said it was setting up a local office. Exploring potential partners and how it could eventually facilitate the production of the light gun locally was one of the issues being studied, BAE said at the time.

Alexander Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, said in a statement issued during the British trade mission that the U.K. was making progress towards building local production capabilities.

“It was British defense companies that were the first to open their offices here after the start of the great war. Our partnership is developing, and today we are one step closer to British manufacturers being the first to start producing their weapons in Ukraine,” said Kamyshin.

“We are aware of the current short-term delays to U.K. aircraft deliveries,” Procurement Minister James Cartlidge wrote in a letter to the chairman of the parliamentary Defence Committee, Jeremy Quin. “At this time, it is not assessed to impact the scheduled FOC declaration at the end of 2025,” he added, referring to the term Full Operational Capability, a milestone in military-procurement lore that indicates an acquisition program is performing as planned.

The references to software issues on the F-35B being delivered to the British came in a wider update by Cartlidge, published by the Committee last month, on progress in the acquisition and operation of the Lockheed Martin-built jets jointly operated by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

Britain is one of a number of F-35 customers facing delivery disruptions caused by Lockheed Martin’s problems completing development testing of a software update known as Technical Refresh 3.

The company has pledged to address the issue. “We continue to produce at rate and expect to begin delivering TR-3 jets in the third quarter, with a 2024 delivery target of 75-110,” spokesman Andrew Boyle said. “Over 90% of the TR-3 functionality is currently in flight test, with additional focus underway to address consistent performance and closure of improvements identified in the lab.”

The setbacks appear to have no bearing on negotiations for a further order of F-35B aircraft, as the minister’s letter says he expects to complete internal approvals process for the procurement of a new tranche of 27 jets this summer.

Inflation and foreign exchange costs were the key challenges over the previous 18 months, with effects likely to be reflected in the price of the next batch of jets for the British, says the letter.

“It is anticipated that the price of each aircraft in Lots 15-17 will increase marginally by around 6%. This is predominately due to increasing manufacturing costs associated with inflationary pressures. Inflation and foreign exchange continue to be a concern to the program, as do the recent savings pressures levied across the department,” Cartlidge wrote.

Despite the growing concerns over the affordability of the British defense equipment program over the next decade or so, the letter says funding for this next phase of the F-35 procurement has been ring-fenced.

The purchase of the jets will bring the UK fleet up to 74, realizing long-term ambitions to increase the air power punch of the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers. The additional jets will allow the British to create a third front line squadron by 2033.

The government recently said it remains committed to buying 138 jets over the life of the program but gave no date for doing so.

The number and timing of further jet purchases will likely be considered again in a new strategic defense review, expected to follow a general election set to take place by early 2025.

This story was updated on April 4 to include a statement from F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

The mega deal involving the two companies is slated to produce a BAE-designed fleet of nuclear attack submarines for Australia by the early 2040s under the Australian-British-U.S. initiative.

Per the AUKUS agreement, Australia and the U.K. will eventually operate a common class of nuclear submarines, incorporating technology from all three nations. The boats will be based on Britain’s next-generation design, now in its its early stages at BAE.

The U.S. Navy will supply Australia with three Virginia-class submarines, maybe more, as an interim measure ahead of delivery of any Anglo-Australian boats.

The announcement of the industrial tie-up was made by Richard Marles, Australian deputy prime minister and defense minister, during a visit by British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.

The two ministers signed a new defense and security pact on the previous day, which among other things will make it easier to facilitate U.K. submarine crews visiting Australia as part of the AUKUS partnership.

BAE Systems and ASC, Canberra’s builder and maintainer of conventional submarines, will initially work together under a collaborative arrangement in Australia before formalizing to a more long-term joint venture.

BAE Systems chief executive Charles Woodburn said work on delivering the new class of submarine, known as the SSN-AUKUS, was already well underway in the UK.

“We’re already making good progress on the design and development of the next-generation submarine in the UK where we have more than 1,000 people working on the SSN-AUKUS program and major infrastructure investment underway,” said Woodburn.

The British shipbuilder already has experience working with the Australian maritime industry and navy. The company is currently building a fleet of anti-submarine frigates for the Australian sea service based on its Type 26 design.

SSN-AUKUS will start to replace the Astute class, which BAE is currently building at its site in Barrow-in-Furness in the northwest of England, from the late 2030s.

The industrial tie-up announcement follows a nearly £4 billion ($5 billion) contract award to BAE by the British government for the next phase of the joint submarine program last October.

The funding covers development work through to 2028, enabling BAE to progress the detailed design phase of the program and procure long-lead items.

The award also funds significant infrastructure investment in Barrow, which will see the site’s facilities double in size from 80,000 to 160,000 square meters by the late 2030s.

The MoD termed the arrangement a “monumental success” for British industry.

BAE has already increased its U.K. submarines workforce to 13,500, and there are plans to grow to that number to around 17,000 at its peak to support SSN-AUKUS and other nuclear vessels.

Fourteen CH-47-ER Chinooks, destined principally for use by British special forces, will be delivered to the Royal Air Force under the terms of the deal signed between the British and U.S. governments.

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps on Thursday confirmed the procurement, known as the Chinook Capability Sustainment Program, will advance.

The defense ministry originally confirmed the deal in May 2021, but talks to complete the negotiations were slowed by British concerns about cost growth and other issues.

The British set the baseline budget for the program at £1.5 billion (U.S. $1.9 billion) but inflation, foreign exchange and other problems increased costs.

At one point during the negotiations last year, then-defense secretary Ben Wallace was widely reported in the U.K. to have threatened to cancel the program due to spiraling costs.

Giving evidence to the Parliamentary defense committee in November, Shapps said he too had raised the issue of axing the procurement with U.S. officials.

“We have to weigh up the cost of exiting a contract as well as going into one,” he told the committee. “I have discussed the issue with [U.S. Defense Secretary] Lloyd Austin.”

Procurement minister James Cartlidge told Parliament last year Britain’s weakening exchange rate against the U.S. dollar alone had cost the program £37 million as of Sept. 11, 2023.

In a statement Thursday, the defense ministry said negotiations with the U.S. government had produced a cost reduction.

“The U.K. has reduced costs for elements of the program by more than £300 million, ensuring value for money whilst providing our armed forces with a cutting-edge heavy lift capability,” the ministry said, though it did not release the total cost of the program or details about the reductions.

The current delivery schedule has not been made public, although a website operated by the Defence Equipment & Support arm of the defense ministry says the first delivery is set for 2027 with a manufacturing program end of 2029.

The new airframes will replace the most obsolescent Chinooks in an Royal Air Force fleet that is currently shrinking CH-47 numbers from 60 helicopters to 51. The 14 oldest Chinooks will be retired from the U.K. fleet as the new machines enter service.

No decision has yet been made on what will happen to the Chinooks when they are pensioned off .

The overall size of the British Chinook fleet will remain at 51 aircraft as the new aircraft are delivered and the oldest aircraft are retired.

The extended-range helicopter will have double the range of standard CH-47s operated by the Royal Air Force and help fill a special forces capability gap created by the early retirement of Lockheed Martin-made Hercules C-130s last year.

In a statement, Boeing said it looks forward to delivering the helicopters.

The extended-range Chinook buy is the second major British helicopter procurement to advance recently.

In late February, the defense ministry triggered the start of a near £1.2 billion competition to replace Puma and some smaller helicopters in what is known as the New Medium Helicopter program. Airbus, Leonardo and Lockheed Martin are all expected to respond.

The Public Accounts Committee’s review, released March 8, comes two days after the government opted not to allocate extra funding for the military in its 2024 budget.

The deficit for the 10-year equipment plan, which the ministry published late last year and begins in 2023, will amount to £16.9 billion (U.S. $21.5 billion), the committee found. However, that could grow by a further £12 billion if the individual armed services each took the same approach to stating their equipment requirement costs, the committee noted.

The committee reviews the 10-year defense equipment plan annually as part of its role in overseeing how the government spends taxpayers’ money. The committee has consistently cast doubt on the affordability of the ministry’s equipment plans, but the latest report is especially critical.

The 10-year plan, based on financial data from March 31, 2023, saw the ministry allocate an equipment budget of £288.6 billion over the following decade to 2033 — a £46.3 billion rise on the figures presented from 2022.

“However, forecast costs have increased by £65.7 to £305.5 billion, resulting in a £16.9 billion deficit between the MoD’s capability requirements and the available budget,” the committee reported.

That deficit could grow to £29 billion were the separate armed services to be consistent in the method they use to price their equipment requirements, the committee noted. For example, the inquiry found the Royal Navy includes the costs of all capabilities the government expects the service to deliver, whereas the Army only includes those capabilities it can afford.

Committee figures show this can have a significant impact on forecast costs. For instance, the Royal Navy’s decision to change its previous policy of only including costs it can afford, to predicted costs for capabilities the ministry expects it to deliver, resulted in a deficit of £15.3 billion in the latest plan, compared with a surplus of £700 million in the 2023 equipment plan.

The primary problem

The main cause of the cost increases reported by the committee is the ministry’s decision to fully fund Britain’s defense nuclear enterprise, according to the report.

The ministry has agreed to a minimum 10-year budget with the Treasury at a price tag of £109.8 billion for nuclear activities over the period.

The principal cost for the nuclear program is the construction of four Dreadnought-class nuclear missile submarines made by BAE Systems. They are to enter service in the coming decade. However, a new warhead program and other nuclear-related initiatives together dwarf spending on individual conventional weapons procurement.

Maintaining the nuclear deterrent is one of the ministry’s top defense priorities. If addition funds are needed for the nuclear program, accounts for conventional equipment will be further squeezed, the report noted.

Costs at the Defence Nuclear Organisation, which is responsible for the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent — have increased by £38.2 billion since the government released last year’s plan, the committee said.

‘Unpleasant, short-term decisions’

Inflation and the foreign exchange rate have also taken their toll on Britain’s budget. The ministry estimates inflation will add almost £11 billion to its costs over the 10-year period.

Despite the ailing condition of the Defence Ministry’s finances, the report said, the department has put off making major decisions about canceling programs it cannot afford.

“Instead, it has optimistically assumed that the plan would be affordable if the government fulfilled its long-term aspiration to spend 2.5% of GDP [gross domestic product] on defense each year, despite there being no guarantee on whether this will happen,” the report noted.

Everything that does not fall under the nuclear budget will experience severe pressure, said Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.

“The government is going to have to make some unpleasant, short-term decisions between different conventional equipment capabilities at a time when the Ukraine war is shining the spotlight on neglected capabilities in which our armed forces clearly need to invest more,” he said.

“After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many European countries are increasing their defense budgets rapidly, including Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the exposed eastern countries and quite a number of others as well. The U.K. government seems to have decided, given the wider fiscal squeeze and the priority being given to tax cuts, that there will be no more money for defense in this budget.” he added.

Indeed, the Defence Ministry is becoming “increasingly reliant” on allies to protect British interests, the committee said, “which carries the risk that such support might not always be available.”

Last year, the ministry told the National Audit Office, the government’s financial watchdog, that it was not planning to cancel programs in the short term, as that would limit the choices available to decision-makers at the next governmentwide spending review‚ which is likely this year.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has been under pressure to increase funds to rebuild Britain’s depleted military amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. He has reiterated the Conservative government’s ambition to increase overall defense spending from the current level of 2.1% of GDP to 2.5% during his March 6 budget speech‚ but has not provided a concrete timeline, only saying it would happen when economic conditions allow it so.

The Labour Party has pledged to reform defense, but not unveiled specific spending commitments.

A general election is expected by the end of the year, with the Labour Party currently ahead in the polls.

The U.K. arms of Belgian-based company Rhea and American firm Lockheed Martin won separate contracts, cumulatively worth £4 million (U.S. $5 million).

The deals were announced Feb. 14, although both contractors have worked on their potential offerings since mid-2023, when they were selected from six firms initially tasked to undertake work on what is known as Project Beroe.

The amount of money involved may be small, but the outcome of the research and development work by the two companies could be key, according to Commodore David Moody, the head of capability at UK Space Command.

“This is a pivotal moment for UK Defence and the UK Space Sector as we develop software and partnerships that will determine the future of how we manage our activities in space,” Moody said in a statement released at the time of the announcement. “This project will enable us to define and understand how we will control and optimise the use of our satellites in a safe and sustainable way and is an important part of UK MOD’s future satellite aspirations.”

The 20-month-long contracts are scheduled to conclude in March 2025. There is no public timeline regarding the possible acquisition or future development phases of the software.

Existing British satellite control is focused around the Skynet 5 communications spacecraft network but Project Beroe is expected to enable satellite taskings from a much wider group of government entities and satellite types, individually or in concert.

Project Beroe is not directly related to Skynet and will support future non-Skynet satellite constellations like the low-Earth orbit ISTARI and Minerva programs.

Together, ISTARI and Minerva are to form the building blocks of a low-Earth orbit ISR capability for the British military.

ISTARI is a 10-year, £968 million program planned to deliver a multi-satellite system supporting surveillance and intelligence gathering for military operations.

Minerva is a £127 million project to develop four concept demonstrator satellites: Titania, Tyche, Oberon and Juno.

Tyche, which is the first of the four to launch, is scheduled to enter orbit this year. The Minerva group is meant to demonstrate the ability to autonomously collect, process and disseminate data from British and allied space assets, and this will inform how the ISTARI project moves forward.

Both programs are part of a planned £6.4 billion fund spread out over 10 years, as announced by the MoD when it rolled out its space defense strategy in 2022.

At a cost of about £5 billion, the lion’s share of that spending will go toward the procurement of a new generation of satellites and ground facilities under the Skynet 6 program.

Airbus is already building the first of those satellites, known as Skynet 6A, and a further competition is underway to provide a new generation of narrowband and wideband satellites under the Skynet 6 banner.

The MoD will drop the use of the terms initial operating capability and full operating capability on spiral development programs. It will instead refer to new equipment as reaching “minimal deployable capability” as it is handed over to the military, procurement minister James Cartlidge told Parliament Feb. 28 in a statement about acquisition reforms.

“In a world where our adversaries are threatening to out-compete us in capability terms, we have no choice but to reform acquisition — or see our military competitiveness diminished,” Cartlidge told Parliament.

The changes to spiral development evaluation is one of five key areas of what the British call the Integrated Procurement Model.

Other areas of procurement marked for change include a greater emphasis on the exportability of equipment being purchased; more integrated requirements for the armed service and the breaking down of organizational stovepipes; earlier engagement with industry on future requirements; and new checks and balances to ensure better decisions at the start of programs.

Cartlidge said the key to the reforms is delivering new equipment more quickly.

In the future, “rather than striving for perfection before delivering to the frontline, capabilities at 60%-80% of their full potential will be provided to the user, allowing early application, and subsequent improvements to reach their full potential,” Cartlidge said. “We will pursue spiral development by default.”

Cartlidge told lawmakers the MoD’s new procurement model is being introduced starting next month, with the primary aim avoiding programs like the Ajax armored vehicle and the Crowsnest airborne early warning radar, which he described as “over-complex, over budget and over time”.

“For contractual reasons, existing programs will continue under their current procurement mode,” he added. On April 8, “we will publish our new spiral development playbook so that extant programs which can adopt spiral features will be empowered to do so.”

In a document supporting the procurement reform announcement, the MoD said by the end of this year it will have assessed the defense equipment portfolio to identify opportunities to apply spiral development to new and already underway programs.

John Louth, an independent defense analyst here, said “good enough, rather than perfect, is smart in terms of obtaining an early capability that can be matured and moved through the technology readiness levels.”

“The caveat though is that with the speed of technological change, you may never achieve a full operating capability,” he added. “That may be a good thing, we may never want to freeze requirements in an old style, full operating capability, but always strive to develop and enhance the equipment as technology matures.”

Britain is shipping 200 MBDA-built Brimstone missiles to Ukraine, Grant Shapps said in a speech to Parliament to mark the upcoming second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Britain has already supplied large numbers of Brimstones to Ukraine. Shapps told lawmakers the “missiles have previously had significant impact on the battlefield, in one instance forcing Russian forces to abandon and retreat from an attempted crossing of a river.”

The supply, along with a recent pledge from the British government to spend £200 million (U.S. $253 million) this year supplying drones to Kyiv, comes at a critical time for Ukraine. The country is finding Western military aid far harder to come by.

Shapps said the time is now or never to equip Kyiv with the weapons it needs.

“This year will be make or break for Ukraine. So it’s time for the West — and all civilized nations — to step up and give Ukraine the backing it needs,” he told parliamentary members.

Aside from the delivery of more Brimstones, Shapps said Britain and its allies are to train 10,000 Ukrainian troops in the U.K. over the first half of this year to add to the 60,000 that have already undergone training.

Nearly a dozen nations, including Australia, Canada, Finland and Romania, have provided troops to train Ukrainian military personnel in the U.K.

Shapps said the list of nations involved in the training effort has now expanded to include Estonia and Kosovo.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The misfire saw the missile crash back into the sea close to the submarine HMS Vanguard, which was undertaking demonstration and shakedown operations off the coast of Florida following a seven-year deep maintenance program.

Shapps confirmed the failure in a Feb. 21 statement to Parliament after reports of the Jan. 30 incident appeared in The Sun newspaper here.

It’s the second Trident test-firing in a row that went wrong for the Royal Navy. The previous misfire took place in 2016 when a missile veered off course and was destroyed.

Shapps was accompanied onboard HMS Vanguard by Britain’s top sailor, Adm. Ben Key, numerous media outlets reported.

Defence Procurement Minister James Cartlidge, appearing before the parliamentary Defence Committee on a separate topic on Feb. 21, confirmed he too was onboard along with senior unnamed U.S. officials.

Cartlidge declined to comment on a question from a committee member suggesting the failure was unrelated to the missile itself.

The Sun newspaper, which broke the story, reported that a Trident II was propelled into the air by compressed gas in its launch tube, but that its first-stage boosters did not ignite.

“On this occasion, an anomaly did occur, but it was event-specific, and there are no implications for the reliability of the wider Trident missile systems and stockpiles,” Shapps told lawmakers. “Nor are there any implications for our ability to fire our nuclear weapons, should the circumstances arise in which we need to do so.”

He added that the government “has absolute confidence that the U.K.’s deterrent remains effective, dependable and formidable.”

Britain’s two misfirings are in contrast to the performance of the U.S. Navy, which also operates the Trident D5.

The last test of an unarmed missile by the U.S. Navy took place in September when the Ohio-class submarine Louisiana fired the weapon off the coast of San Diego, California.

Like HMS Vanguard, the Louisiana was undergoing a demonstration and shakedown operation at the time of the firing.

Despite the British misfiring, Shapps said the submarine and crew were successfully certified and will rejoin the operational cycle as planned.

Vanguard is part of a four-strong fleet of nuclear missile-armed submarines operating with at least one submarine at sea and operational at all times.

A fleet of four Dreadnought-class boats, now under construction by BAE Systems at its Barrow-in-Furniss yard, are scheduled to replace the aging submarine fleet starting early in the next decade.