The Government must increase spending on the armed forces if Britain is to maintain its defence relationship with the United States, MPs have warned.
The Commons Defence Committee said without further investment, UK forces would struggle to maintain “interoperability” with the US military, diminishing their usefulness as allies.
The warning comes ahead of next month’s Nato summit in Brussels where US President Donald Trump is expected to reiterate demands for European allies to take on a greater share of the burden of collective defence.
“Diminished capacity reduces the UK’s usefulness to the US and our influence within Nato. The Government must not allow this to happen,” it said.
It said that US defence secretary James Mattis had estimated that the UK benefited to the tune of £3 billion-a-year from its defence relationship with the US.
“However, that will continue to be true only while the UK military retains both the capacity and capability to maintain interoperability with the US military and to relieve US burdens.
“For this to be the case the UK armed forces must be funded appropriately.”
“The Defence Secretary launched the Modernising Defence Programme to strengthen our Armed Forces in the face of intensifying threats.”
