Defence Investment Plan will not be accepted 'at any cost' as deadline nears for Royal Navy funding reforms

Wrangling over the delayed defence investment plan looks set to go down to the wire as Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said he would not agree a deal “at any cost”.

The defence investment plan (Dip) has been promised before the summit of Nato leaders in Turkey on July 7, which could be Sir Keir Starmer’s final appearance as Prime Minister on the international stage. Mr Jarvis said he wanted a deal “sooner rather than later” but talks were still ongoing to finalise the Dip, the issue which led to the resignation of his predecessor John Healey in protest at a lack of funding.

At a conference organised by defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, Mr Jarvis said “time is not my friend” as the Dip had to be signed off well in advance of the Nato summit, but he said it was not yet done. “It is, of course, a matter of public record why my predecessor and friend John Healey is not delivering these remarks,” he told the conference in London.

“I accepted this job with full awareness of the task before me and my priority is to get the defence investment plan done, but not at any cost. I have a responsibility to get it right.”

Mr Jarvis indicated that the turmoil in No 10 did not change the “urgent need” to produce the Dip. He said: “The Dip is a significant, detailed and vast piece of work. The department has been working on it for 12 months. I have had 12 days, but I have made the most of all of them, and I am now working to finalise and publish the Dip before I travel to Ankara with the Prime Minister.”

Mr Healey quit because the Dip was only due to provide £13.5bn extra investment in defence, far short of the £28bn over four years which officials had said was necessary. He suggested the UK was on course to spend only 2.68 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on core defence by 2030, putting doubt on the country’s ability to meet its Nato target of 3.5 per cent by 2035.

But Mr Jarvis said the Dip came ahead of another “skirmish” with the Treasury over funding, which would be in the 2027 spending review. He said: “On the current plans agreed last year we will invest £270bn in defence over the course of this Parliament.

“The Dip will mean more money added on top. We will have another spending review next year, in which I expect defence to be the number one priority.”

Sign up for The Week in Defence with Freddie Webb - our newsletter rounding up the sector’s must-read stories

The defence secretary said he has had “very good, constructive meetings” with Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The Dip will help fund the Army’s transformation to a force using the latest drones and artificial intelligence technology alongside conventional troops and armour.

Chief of the General Staff General Sir Roly Walker told the conference that drones had to be ready to strike against Russian forces in 30 minutes, drawing on the lessons from the war in Ukraine, if efforts to deter Vladimir Putin failed. He highlighted the role played by the artificial intelligence-enabled Asgard control system to help the military find and target enemy forces.

Sir Roly said: “In the next year, I expect to see much greater numbers of our remote and autonomous systems forward on our eastern flank, ready to strike and act within 30 minutes, all orchestrated by Asgard as it goes into its next spiral.” Asgard was a “digital juggernaut” evolving every eight to 12 weeks, he said.

Sir Roly added: “If ever I think this was a moment where we have our century’s tank-versus-horse moment, I feel it’s about this area.”