The UK government has decided to increase defense spending by 2030.

The United Kingdom government announced this on its official website.

In general, the plan is to increase the defense budget to £87 billion, which is 2.5% of GDP and it will help bridge the financial gap in the country’s armed forces.

This decision was announced during the visit of Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to Poland.

In total, he said, the defense sector is to receive an additional £75 billion over six years.

Additional funding will be used to put the UK’s defense industry on a war footing, deliver cutting-edge technology, and back Ukraine against Russia.

“An axis of autocratic states like Russia, Iran, and China are increasingly working together to undermine democracies and reshape the world order. They are also investing heavily in their own militaries and in cyber capabilities and in low-cost technology, like the Shahed attack drones Iran fired towards Israel last weekend,” the Government stated.

This budget increase will allow for more procurement of important weapons that will potentially help protect both European NATO allies and the Kingdom itself.

In addition to its own defense, the UK will also provide long-term support to Ukraine at its own expense, as well as set up new packages of financial and military assistance.

Militarnyi previously reported that the UK plans to transfer the first samples of the DragonFire laser directed-energy weapon to Ukraine.

During a trip to the DragonFire lab, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said that the energy laser system was still in the testing phase, but the government was working to speed up development.

According to him, the UK is planning to add DragonFire to its arsenal by 2027 but is working to see if it can send prototypes to Ukraine sooner – even if they are not 100 percent refined.