The Mace Defence Special Report: Experts warn we have fallen behind our NATO allies

Daniel Frampton | 7th July 2026 | Defence, Editor's Pick
Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

With the NATO Summit in Turkey, our defence expert Dr Daniel Frampton looks at whether the UK is bringing enough security and spending to the table.

Modern military advantage is increasingly defined by speed, adaptability, and the ability to scale production rapidly. Yet as warfare accelerates into the drone age—seen most starkly in Ukraine—the UK was mired in delays to the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP), intended to underpin delivery of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) 2025. In light of the plan being published ahead of the NATO summit today, some critics argue that the delay has caused significant harm, reflecting a broader issue in defence: whether the UK’s procurement and industrial systems are sufficiently enabled to deliver the capabilities required for modern warfare.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) itself has acknowledged the pressure, with National Armaments Director Rupert Pearce noting that “there are some things we are waiting for the DIP to do, and that delay is costing people… Time is money in procurement.”

This tension between strategic ambition, funding and implementation is feeding wider unease about national preparedness and the extent to which defence is treated as an urgent political priority. Those concerns are echoed by Andriy Dovbenko, a London-based Ukrainian entrepreneur and founder of the UK-Ukraine TechExchange, a platform connecting Ukrainian defence and technology companies with UK investors and industry partners.

Speaking to Mace Magazine, Dovbenko said: “As someone who works …

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