UK plans to publish Defence Investment Plan before NATO summit in Ankara

Jarvis opened the Uncrewed Systems Centre for Excellence, Europe's biggest unmanned aerial vehicle testing centre, in Swindon on 12 June. (Crown copyright/Lauren Hurley/No 10 Downing Street)

The UK plans to publish its Defence Investment Plan (DIP) before the NATO summit to be held in Ankara on 6-7 July, Secretary of State for Defence Dan Jarvis told the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) land warfare conference on 23 June.

Jarvis stated in his speech closing the first day of the conference that his priority was “to get the Defence Investment Plan done, but not at any cost. I have a responsibility to get it right. There will be a change of prime minister. There will be no change in the urgent need to produce the Defence Investment Plan. The DIP is a significant and vast piece of work. The department [UK Ministry of Defence] has been working on it for 12 months. I've had twelve days, but I've made the most of all of them. I am now working to finalise and publish it before I travel to Ankara with the prime minister.” Keir Starmer is likely to attend the summit as caretaker prime minister, possibly his last international engagement in that post.

Accumulated neglect

Jarvis said that the Labour government had inherited “almost every single major programme behind schedule, delayed upgrades to our nuclear deterrent, and an army at its smallest size in centuries. There is no overnight remedy. There is no single defence review or funding settlement that can erase the legacy of accumulated neglect.”