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Military to get £1bn more over next two years to fund cyber and nuclear capability

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The UK’s military is to receive £1bn more over the next two years to help plug funding shortfalls, the chancellor Philip Hammond said in his budget speech today.

Hammond told the House of Commons that the money would be used to boost the UK’s cyber capabilities, its anti-submarine warfare capacity and its submarine-borne nuclear deterrent.

“As a former defence secretary myself, I understand the immediate pressures our armed forces are facing," he said.

Hammond said the money is designed "to boost our cyber capabilities and our anti-submarine warfare capacity, and to maintain the pace of the Dreadnought programme to ensure continuous-at-sea-deterrence".

The Dreadnought programme is the future replacement for the Vanguard-class of submarines that carry the UK’s nuclear weapons.

Hammond said the defence secretary Gavin Williamson is currently carrying out a defence review.