UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting urged Washington and its allies to shorten procurement timelines and expand joint production, arguing NATO needs industrial capacity to match advances in military technology.
Speaking in Washington on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Streeting called for technology and expertise to move more easily across the Atlantic and for allied buyers to combine orders. He said shared demand could give manufacturers confidence to expand production. “We must out-produce them too,” Streeting said. He also said U.S. frustration with Europe’s reliance on American military power was largely justified.
Streeting said the UK wants to reduce the concept-to-contract timeline for new platforms from six years to two. For adapting existing platforms, the target is a reduction from three years to one, while the target for other procurements is under three months. His speech did not set a deadline for meeting any of the targets.
Streeting cited the RAVEN ground-launched missile system as an example, saying it was delivered in four months and the first eight systems cost less than $25 million.
The UK government’s commitment for 2035 is to spend 5% of GDP on national security, with 3.5% for core defense and 1.5% for resilience and security. The Defence Investment Plan lists NATO spending at 2.7% of GDP in each fiscal year from 2027-28 through 2029-30, and sets a goal of 3% in the next Parliament.
Streeting presented defense investment as a potential source of growth and jobs for UK industry. He argued that military advantage increasingly depends on rapid innovation and production at scale, and invoked postwar NATO and the Marshall Plan as examples of U.S. support for European security serving American interests.
The plan includes £15 billion in additional funding for 2026-27 to 2029-30, partly through shifting spending among departments and reducing capital budgets. A further £4.7 billion is due to be confirmed at Budget 2026, and NATO allies are scheduled to review spending trajectories in 2029. Streeting announced no new U.S.-UK agreement or funding package at the event.
