UK to scrap five warships and dozens of aircraft – defense secretary

“Difficult decisions are required” to save the military hundreds of millions of pounds, John Healey has said

The British military will scrap several warships and dozens of helicopters and drones as it continues to struggle to plug a multi-billion pound hole in its budget, Defense Secretary John Healey has announced.

In a statement to Parliament on Wednesday, Healey admitted that “difficult decisions are required” from the Labour government to keep the country safe as it faces “increasing global threats,” including those stemming from the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts.

Acknowledging “serious financial pressures in the defense budget,” Healey said that the UK will now retire a total of five warships, including the amphibious assault ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, large auxiliary ships RFA Wave Knight and RFA Wave Ruler, which can provide logistical support to the rest of the Navy, and the frigate HMS Northumberland.

The Defense Ministry will also remove from service 14 Chinook and 17 Puma transport helicopters, along with 46 Watchkeeper drones. The latter will be decommissioned in March 2025, despite having only been introduced in 2010. The drones will be replaced by “a new advanced capability,” Healey promised.

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According to the defense chief, the Labour government “has taken immediate action, confirming an additional £2.9 billion ($3.65 billion) for the Defense budget in 2025-2026 to help start to fix the foundations of UK defense,” adding that it “will set a clear path to spending 2.5% of GDP on defense.” Currently, the UK spends a little over 2% of GDP on the military.

Healey, meanwhile, hinted that more military assets could end up on the chopping block. “These are not the only difficult decisions we will need to make as a new Government to deal with the fiscal inheritance,” he said, adding that the new measures will save the UK military £150 million in the next two years, and up to £500 million over five years.

Shadow Defense Secretary James Cartlidge blasted the move, arguing that the Labour government “is weakening our national security.”

This comes after the UK National Audit Office warned last December that the military had a gaping budget hole of £16.9 billion despite a budget increase of £46.3 billion between 2023 and 2033. Moreover, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee said in March that the real deficit could be as high as £29 billion, as the military had excluded a number of government requests from the tally while limiting its budget to some of the more affordable items.