The MoD announces defence secretary sets out £160bn plan to equip Armed Forces

Thursday, Jan 31, 2013

The MoD has today (Thursday) published details of how it will equip the Army, Royal Navy and RAF over the next ten years and how this will be funded.

For the first time, the Government has set out a fully-funded Defence Equipment Plan totalling almost £160Bn.

The publication of the Equipment Plan follows the Defence Secretary’s announcement last year that the Defence budget has been balanced for the first time in more than a decade and that the MoD is taking a new approach to financial planning.

Within the equipment and equipment support budget of around £160Bn over the next ten years, Philip Hammond has introduced for the first time a contingency of £4.8Bn to manage cost variation and protect existing projects.

In addition, within the £160Bn, £8Bn is currently unallocated. This will be allocated as new equipment priorities emerge over the decade and only once the MoD is confident that they are affordable and therefore deliverable. Priorities will be decided by the Armed Forces Committee, chaired by the Chief of the Defence Staff.

Structuring the Defence Equipment Plan and the budget that supports it in this way will enable the MoD to deliver Future Force 2020.

Source: The MoD