LONDON (AP) — The U.K. is about to see the biggest increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War as it seeks to send "a message to Moscow," the British defense secretary said Sunday.
John Healey said the Labour government's current plans for defense spending will be enough to transform the country's military following decades of retrenchment, though he does not expect the number of soldiers — currently at a historic low — to rise until the early 2030s.
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Director of Mechanical Engineering Matt Beamont, right, shows Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey a storm shadow missile on an assembly line at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey is shown an air to air combat simulation during a visit to the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey, second left, visits the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Louise Holmes, MBDA UK Deputy Managing Director, shows Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey, left, a storm shadow missile on an assembly line at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Director of Mechanical Engineering Matt Beamont shows Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey, left, a storm shadow missile on an assembly line at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
He said plans for defense spending to hit 2.5% of national income by 2027, which amounts to an extra 13 billion pounds ($17 billion) or so a year, were “on track” and that there was “no doubt” it would hit 3% in the next parliament in the early 2030s.
The government will on Monday respond to a strategic defense review, overseen by Healey and led by Lord George Robertson, a former NATO secretary general and defense secretary in a previous Labour government.
It is expected to be the most consequential review since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and make a series of recommendations for the U.K. to deal with the new threat environment, both on the military front and in cyberspace.
Like other NATO members, the U.K. has been compelled to take a closer look at its defense spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“This is a message to Moscow,” Healey told the BBC. “This is Britain standing behind, making our armed forces stronger but making our industrial base stronger, and this is part of our readiness to fight, if required.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has also piled pressure on NATO members to bolster their defense spending. And in recent months, European countries, led by the U.K. and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture as Trump transforms American foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the U.S. provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.
Healey also said Russia is “attacking the U.K. daily” as part of some 90,000 cyber attacks from state-linked sources that were directed at the U.K,’s defense over the last two years. A cyber command to counter such threats is expected to be set up as part of the review.
“The tensions are greater but we prepare for war in order to secure the peace,” he said. “If you’re strong enough to defeat an enemy, you deter them from attacking in the first place.”
While on a visit to a factory on Saturday where Storm Shadow missiles are assembled, Healey said the government would support the procurement of up to 7,000 U.K.-built long-range weapons and that new funding will see U.K. munitions spending hitting 6 billion pounds in the coming years.
“Six billion over the next five years in factories like this which allow us not just to produce the munitions that equip our forces for the future but to create the jobs in every part of the U.K.,” he said.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary for the main opposition Conservative Party, welcomed the government’s pledge to increase defense spending but said he was “skeptical” as to whether the Treasury would deliver. He called on the government to be more ambitious and raise spending to 3% of national income within this parliament, which can run until 2029.
“We think that 2034 is a long time to wait, given the gravity of the situation,” he told Sky News.
Director of Mechanical Engineering Matt Beamont, right, shows Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey a storm shadow missile on an assembly line at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey is shown an air to air combat simulation during a visit to the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey, second left, visits the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Louise Holmes, MBDA UK Deputy Managing Director, shows Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey, left, a storm shadow missile on an assembly line at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
Director of Mechanical Engineering Matt Beamont shows Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey, left, a storm shadow missile on an assembly line at the MBDA Storm Shadow factory in Stevenage, England, Saturday May 31, 2025. (Dan Kitwood/Pool via AP)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Lamar Jackson thought it was over. That the Baltimore Ravens' unwieldy season would end up in a familiar spot: the playoffs.
Then, rookie kicker Tyler Loop's potential game-winning field goal from 44 yards out drifted a little right. And then a little further right. And then a little further right still.
By the time it fluttered well wide of the goalposts, the playoffs were gone. So was Jackson's certainty after a 26-24 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday night sent the Ravens into what could be a turbulent offseason.
“I'm definitely stunned, man,” Jackson said. “I thought we had it in the bag. ... I don't know what else we can do.”
Jackson, who never really seemed fully healthy during his eighth season as he battled one thing after another, did his part. The two-time NFL MVP passed for 238 yards and three touchdowns, including two long connections with Zay Flowers in the fourth quarter that put the Ravens (8-9) in front.
It just wasn't enough. Baltimore's defense, which played most of the second half without star safety Kyle Hamilton after Hamilton entered the concussion protocol, wilted against 42-year-old Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers passed for a season-high 294 yards, including a 26-yard flip to a wide-open Calvin Austin with 55 seconds to go after a defender slipped, symbolic of a season in which Baltimore's defense only occasionally found its form.
Still, the Ravens had a chance when Jackson found Isaiah Likely for a 28-yard gain on fourth down from midfield. A couple of snaps later, the 24-year-old Loop walked on to try to lift Baltimore to its third straight division title.
Instead, the rookie said he “mishit” it. Whatever it was, it never threatened to sneak between the goalposts.
“It’s disappointing,” Loop said.
Loop was talking about the game. He might as well have been talking about his team's season.
The Ravens began 1-5 as Jackson dealt with injuries and the defense struggled to get stops. Baltimore found a way to briefly tie the Steelers for first in late November, only to then split its next four games, including a home loss to Pittsburgh.
Still, when Jackson and the Ravens walked onto the Acrisure Stadium turf on Sunday night in the 272nd and final game of the NFL regular season, Baltimore was confident. The Ravens drilled Pittsburgh in the opening round of the playoffs a year ago behind the ever-churning legs of running back Derrick Henry.
When Henry ripped off a gain of 40-plus yards on the game's first offensive snap, it looked like it was going to be more of the same. While Henry did rush for 126 yards and joined Hall of Famer Barry Sanders as the only running backs in NFL history to have five 1,500-yard seasons, he was less effective in the second half.
Even that first run was telling of what night it was going to be, as an illegal block by wide receiver Zay Flowers cost Baltimore some field position. The Ravens ended up scoring on the drive anyway, thanks to a 38-yard fourth-down flip from Jackson to a wide-open Devontez Walker, but it started a pattern that was hard to shake as several steps forward were met with one step back on a night the Ravens finished with nine penalties for 78 yards.
“We were having a lot of penalties, which kept stopping drives," Jackson said. “But I'm proud of my guys because we kept overcoming. We kept overcoming adversity and situations like this. Divisional games (can) be like that sometimes.”
Particularly when the Steelers are on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Pittsburgh has won 10 of the last 13 meetings. And while a handful of them have been in late-season matchups with the Ravens already assured of reaching the playoffs, the reality is the Steelers have been able to regularly do something that most others have not: found a way to beat Jackson.
“It comes down to situations like this,” Jackson said. “Two-point conversion one year. Field goal another year. And again this year. Just got to find a way to get that win here.”
And figure out who is going to be around to help get it.
Head coach John Harbaugh's 18th season in Baltimore ended with the Ravens missing the playoffs for just the second time in eight years. Jackson turns 29 this week and is still one of the most electric players in the league.
Yet Harbaugh and Jackson have yet to find a way to have that breakthrough season that Harbaugh enjoyed with Joe Flacco in 2013 when the Ravens won the Super Bowl.
There was hope when the season began that the roadblocks that have long been in the franchise's way — Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes chief among them — would be gone.
While the Ravens did get their way in a sense — the Chiefs will watch the playoffs from afar for the first time in a decade after a nightmarish season of their own — it never all came together.
Jackson declined to endorse Harbaugh returning for a 19th season, saying the loss was still too fresh to zoom out on what it might mean for the franchise going forward.
Harbaugh, for his part, certainly seems up for running it back in the fall.
“I love these guys,” he said afterward. “I love these guys.”
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Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, right, hands the ball off to running back Derrick Henry (22) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh talks with an offical during the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, left, greets Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) after an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Jabrill Peppers (40) reacts after Baltimore Ravens kicker Tyler Loop (33) missed a field goal attempt in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
