UK defence spending as a proportion of GDP has halved since the 1980s - leading to a decline in equipment and a drop of one in six military personnel, Sky News analysis has shown
.that a senior US general privately told Defence Secretary Ben Wallace that cuts to the British Army meant it was no longer regarded as a top-level fighting force.
Defence spending has remained consistent over recent years because of the government's pledge, as a NATO member, to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence each year.The UK is only one of a handful of countries to have consistently met this NATO benchmark. Over a quarter of the UK's defence budget was spent on equipment in 2022, according to NATO estimates.
While British defence spending has been maintained over a substantial amount of time, personnel numbers in the armed forces have been on the decline for years.
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