Michael Fallon, defense secretary from 2014 to 2017, made the appeal in an April 2 letter co-signed by 24 current and former defense officials and published by the Council on Geostrategy think tank.

While the letter acknowledged the country has met NATO’s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product by 2024 — a pledge made by all alliance members in 2014 but not yet attained by some — it also stated that the U.K.’s current level of spending is not sufficient to respond to the “gravest threats” the countries has faced since the end of the Cold War.

According to NATO’s latest report on allies’ defense expenditures, the U.K.’s defense spending in 2023 was 2.07% of its GDP, or around $65 billion, down from 2.14% in 2014.

Current and former British officials noted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the dangers the Kremlin posed to democracies through election interference, cyber attacks and assassinations, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin will not “relent” and may see Britain as an “absolute enemy.”

They also cited militants’ attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, Iran’s and North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities and China’s rearmament drive as well as the threat of a military conflict in Taiwan and in the South China Sea, which could spread throughout the Indo-Pacific region and potentially the whole world.

Together, these threats have put Britain’s energy supplies, subsea cables and international trade routes at “greater risk than at any time this century,” causing food and energy prices to rise, putting its borders in jeopardy, and increasing people trafficking, the letter said.

Because of the risk to Britain and its allies, all U.K. political parties should pledge to invest a minimum of 2.5% of GDP in defense over the long run, with the goal of reaching 3% by 2030, the letter stated.

Among the letter’s signatories are members of the parliamentary Defence Committee who clashed with Defence Secretary Grant Shapps last week over cuts to next year’s core defense spending.

British leaders have previously pegged a defense spending rate of 2.5% of GDP as the new objective. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outlined a longer-term goal to raise defense spending to that level as part of the Integrated Review Refresh 2023, though the guidance is tied to the country’s economic situation.

The parliamentary Defence Committee convened the March 26 session roughly a month after the government released its 2024-2025 budget plan, showing a drop in defense funding for the next fiscal year.

Shapps said there was “confusion” in the documents published by the Treasury because they fail to account for £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) pledged in supplementaries for Ukraine aid and £280 million for ammunition stockpiles.

“Once you add those two things in, which are then comparable to the outturn of last year with the outturn of this year, you get a 1.8 percent real-terms increase of £1.5 billion,” he said. Because of these omissions, Shapps said, “you’re not comparing apples with apples but apples with oranges.”

According to the government’s Spring budget 2024, also known as the Red Book, the operating budget allocated to the Ministry of Defence is going down by £2.2 billion from £35 billion in 2023-24 to £32.8 billion in 2024-25.

In terms of capital spending – the other large chunk that makes up the British defense budget – the amount dips from £19.2 billion in 2023-24 to £18.9 billion in 2024-25.

Mark Francois, member of the defense committee, added up these losses, saying it was a combined £2.5 billion drop in defense spending for next year.

While Francois acknowledged the £2.5 billion promised to Ukraine, he said these funds are not part of the U.K. defense budget.

He went on to describe Shapps’ numbers as “smoke and mirrors,” accusing him of “suffering a massive defeat at the hands of the Treasury.”

“You’ve had your budget cut by £2.5 billion and you’re now trying to play smoke and mirrors with the Ukrainian money to pretend your budget hasn’t been cut when it’s been slashed,” Francois said.

Jeremy Quin, chair of the Defence Committee, joined Francois in his assessment that the defense budget was recording a drop in real terms.

Meanwhile, Shapps stood by his argument, saying the overall defense budget was up £1.4 billion to £55.6 billion with the Ukraine funding included.

The line of questioning came off the back of a defense committee report published on Feb. 4, which found the Ministry of Defense is unready for a “high-intensity” war.

The report cited capability shortfalls, stockpile shortages and a net loss in personnel, which all combined would delay Britain’s combat readiness.

A review by the Public Accounts Committee, released March 8, found the Ministry’s alleged failure to adequately manage stocks of spares and supplies puts military personnel at risk.

Earlier this year, during a Jan. 15 speech at Lancaster House, Shapps said given the “threats” posed by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Houthi rebels in Yemen, the world is “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world.”

“This exciting partnership will see McLaren Racing bring their world-class expertise from the racetrack into a number of defence projects,” Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in a news release. “By collaborating with industry we will continue to drive innovation through knowledge sharing, which will benefit Defence’s engineering and operations across the course of the partnership and beyond.”

The McLaren Racing team was established in 1963 and has won 20 Formula 1 world championships and 183 Formula 1 grands prix.

Under the arrangement, the motor-racing team will provide expertise gained from decades in elite-level motorsport and help the ministry on innovative defense projects, including electrifying armored vehicles through Project Lurcher.

To kick off the collaboration, McLaren Racing and the ministry showcased their respective vehicles — the all-electric off-road sports car NEOM McLaren Extreme E and the Project Lurcher armored vehicle — at BattleLab, a defense innovation hub in Dorset, England.

“This new partnership with the Ministry of Defence provides a great opportunity to stretch and apply our innovation and technological know-how and a high-performance culture with a view to improving operational efficiencies across a wide range of exciting projects,” Matt Dennington, the co-chief commercial officer for McLaren Racing, said in the release.

McLaren has a track record of developing scalable electric products, such as the 5G edge computing antenna for rail and integrated inverters. It has also launched vehicle models like the hybrid electric sports car McLaren Artura.

On the battlefield, electric vehicles provide more efficient fleets and reduce the need to resupply them with fuel, lessening the chance of putting humans in harm’s way.

The new multiyear partnership comes a year after the ministry awarded a one-year contract to the defense firm Babcock International to modify four in-service British Army Land Rovers from diesel to electric propulsion under Project Lurcher.

According to a 2022 Army report, the U.K. has a 15-year plan to make the majority of its land capabilities hybrid or fully electric by 2035. However, it’s unclear whether the service can go fully electric by its deadline, former chief of the General Staff for the British Army, Gen. Mark Carleton-Smith, told Defense News in 2021.

“We’re, industrially, still some way away from completely living without carbon engines in our principal war-fighting equipment,” Carleton-Smith said while still in his role.

The partnership also seeks to advance high-tech engineering know-how, potentially drawing in a larger pool of candidates for military jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.