UK: Major defense investments worth billions harder to track amid DIP delay

February 3, 2026, by Fatima Bahtić

Parliamentary committees have raised serious concerns over delays to the UK Defence Investment Plan (DIP), warning that the lack of timely updates is making it increasingly difficult to track major defense programs worth hundreds of billions of pounds.

In a joint letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, and Tan Dhesi, Chair of the Defence Select Committee, asked for clarity on when theDIP will be published.

The publication of the plan was due in Autumn 2025, as set out in the Strategic Defence Review, but has been repeatedly pushed back. The letter highlights that further delay to the DIP publication “risks sending damaging signals to adversaries”.

The last Equipment Plan, published in December 2023, forecast over £305 billion in defense procurement and support spending. The Public Accounts Committee had questioned the affordability of that plan in March 2024, but no comparable update has since been released.

The letter also criticised the discontinuation of the Major Projects Report in 2015, which, the MPs said, has made it harder to assess the progress of major defense programs, many of which involve significant public investment.

“The Chief of the Defence Staff has emphasised that there is no point in having a defence investment plan that cannot be delivered or is unaffordable,” the letter reads.

The MPs pointed to recent developments that suggest the UK is falling short of modernisation and transformation targets, including £0.5 billion in capability cuts in 2024, a lack of major new equipment orders, and ongoing problems with the Ajax armoured vehicle program.

They also warned that further delays “cannot be blamed on external events, which are unceasing.” The committees have requested that the MoD provide a clear timetable for publishing the Defence Investment Plan and confirm a date for parliamentary scrutiny.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and Tan Dhesi concluded that “difficult choices need to be made now” to ensure the Armed Forces are prepared for future challenges.