UK’s Cameron urges more UAV and surveillance SDSR spending

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said that more resources should be allocated to unmanned air vehicles and surveillance aircraft, indicating that the upcoming Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) could include more spending on these capabilities.

Ahead of a visit on 13 July to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire – the home of the UK’s surveillance fleet, including the armed General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper UAV – Cameron said that the UK’s recently pledged 2% GDP defence spending needs to be spent on key areas, including UAVs, special forces and counter-terrorism assets.

“Now we know how much we will spend; what matters next is how we spend it,” Cameron says. “I have tasked the defence and security chiefs to look specifically at how we do more to counter the threat posed by ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and Levant] and Islamist extremism.

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