LONDON: Britain will increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet, the government has announced ahead of a defence review expected to say the country must invest billions to be ready and equipped to fight a modern war.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, like other leaders across Europe, is racing to rebuild his country’s defence capabilities after United States President Donald Trump told the continent it needed to take more responsibility for its own security.
Monday (Jun 2)’s Strategic Defence Review will call for Britain’s armed forces to move to a state of “warfighting readiness”, spelling out changing security threats and which defence technologies are needed to counter them.
“We know that threats are increasing and we must act decisively to face down Russian aggression,” defence minister John Healey said in a statement.
Britain will build up to 12 of its next-generation attack submarines, which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional non-nuclear weapons, to replace the current fleet of seven from the late 2030s, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Britain operates a separate fleet of submarines armed with nuclear weapons. The government for the first time said a pre-existing programme to develop a new nuclear warhead to replace the model used by that fleet would cost £15 billion.
“With new state-of-the-art submarines patrolling international waters and our own nuclear warhead programme on British shores, we are making Britain secure at home and strong abroad,” Healey added.
The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under the security partnership known as AUKUS.
