A headline defence total needs comparison with the commitments it is supposed to meet. The figures used here allocate a little over £5 billion to drones within £298 billion over four years. That total is compared with roughly £400 billion for a higher spending ambition. The criticism concerns whether the scale and timing of the investment support the description of Britain as being on a war footing.
Notable Point · 8:31-9:21
Testing a war footing against the investment plan
A four-year investment total and the drone allocation are compared with the resources implied by a war footing.