They pledged 3.5% of GDP. The country spends 2.33%.
Two pledges, 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and 3.5% by 2035, against what the country actually spends and how many people are actually in uniform. For the first time in years, more joined than left.
10 figures, each with its official source.
Up from 2.25% in 2023. NATO estimates 2.3% for 2025 and 2.6% for 2026. The UK has met the 2% NATO target every year since it was introduced in 2006.
On the NATO definition, or 2.6% counting wider security and intelligence spending. Funded in large part by cutting overseas aid to 0.3% of national income, so this is a pledge paid for out of another budget.
The core-defence half of a 5% total, the other 1.5% being resilience and security. Getting from 2.33% to 3.5% is a larger sustained increase than anything since the Cold War, and no government has yet set out where the money comes from.
Behind the United States and Germany, at $84.2bn. Spending per person was $1,216, the highest since 1987, which is the honest counterweight to the idea that defence has simply been hollowed out.
Up 130, or 0.1%, on a year earlier. Small, but it interrupts a decade of decline. Army 70,760, Royal Navy and Royal Marines 28,180, RAF 27,800.
The MoD no longer publishes a headline requirement figure beside this number, so the shortfall against what the Army says it needs cannot be stated precisely from the official release. It does say trained strength across all three services remains short of requirement.
Up 920, or 7%, on the previous twelve months.
Down 1,190, or 8%. Recruitment rising while departures fall is the combination that actually grows an armed force, and it is the first time in years both moved the right way at once.
14,370 in against 13,390 out. At this rate, closing a shortfall measured in thousands takes many years, so the direction is right and the pace is not yet enough.
The share who chose to leave, as opposed to reaching the end of an engagement. Army 5.3%, Royal Navy and Royal Marines 4.9%, RAF 4.4%, and 6,060 people in total.