Military & War News and Discussions

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Rishi Sunak pledges to hit 2.5% GDP defence spending target by 2030

14 minutes ago

The UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030, Rishi Sunak has promised.

The move, which No 10 said would see £75bn more for the military over the next six years, follows pressure from Conservative MPs and ministers.

The government says it plans to spend 2.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence this year.

It had previously said it would raise spend to 2.5% when economic conditions allowed, without setting a date.

But the announcement of a specific date, made by the prime minister during a visit to Poland, hardens the spending commitment ahead of the general election, which could come as soon as July.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68880171

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Lockheed's Skunk Works teases a new aircraft it's developing for the 2040s
May 13, 2024

https://newatlas.com/military/lockheed- ... aft-2040s/
Lockheed Martin's paradoxically famous/secret Skunk Works has released the first image of its futuristic stealth tanker aircraft designed to refuel US and allied warplanes at long distances close to combat zones sometime in the 2040s.

Officially known as the Advanced Development Programs (ADP), the Skunk Works division was founded sometime between 1939 and 1943, depending on who's telling the story, and its engineers living under conditions of tight security cranked out the P-38 Lightning, P-80 Shooting Star, the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 Lightning II.

In their spare time, they also worked on supersonic transports, hypersonic research planes, space launch vehicles, a fusion reactor, and even a stealth boat that was featured in a Bond thriller.

Today, the US government is pushing to develop a new family of aerial tankers to replace the aging fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers. These tankers are essential to US and allied flight operations because they allow warplanes to operate far out of range of their bases. They are what made it possible for B-52s to reach anywhere in the world from the 1950s onward, and for British Vulcan bombers to strike Stanley Airport in the South Atlantic during the Falklands War in 1982 from bases in southern England.