The UK Ministry of Defence is facing deep cuts to its budget for modernizing the Armed Forces, Report informs referring to The Telegraph.
Civil servants have been told that the budgets for science and technology and research and development face a cut of around 20 percent this financial year – amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds.
Hundreds of jobs are expected to be lost, while the Minerva project to put new satellites into space to help with military intelligence is under threat from the cuts.
It has fuelled concerns in the defense industry that the Armed Forces are at risk of “falling further behind” adversaries in the coming years.
Rachel Reeves has told government departments they need to make £5.5 billion of savings this year to help fill a £22 billion financial black hole she claims to have inherited from the Conservatives.
While the Tories had promised to raise defense spending from around 2.2 percent of GDP to 2.5 percent by 2030, Labour has failed to set a deadline for hitting that target.
The spending squeeze comes amid fears that the UK and the West face growing threats from foreign states. Iran and its proxies are expected to attack Israel within days, with Britain among the nations trying to convince Tehran not to do so.