United Kingdom

The British government has announced plans to increase defence spending by the highest amount since the Cold War in an attempt to "transform" the British military.

The UK Ministry of Defence is using the Covid-19 pandemic to reverse a long-term recruitment crisis, which has seen it miss its enlistment targets for the past six years, and to repair damage to its reputation from the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The British government has announced it will resume issuing export licenses for arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a year the Court of Appeal ruled that they had acted unlawfully when licensing the sale of UK-made arms to Saudi forces for use in Yemen.

The online newspaper Byline Times has challenged the UK's government over arms sales to Chile, after a Freedom of Information request found that 50% of the £164 million worth of arms licensed for sale since 2008 had been granted in the last year.

The University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom has been accused of training Bahraini police at a base that is well-known as a “torture hub”.

Shares in some of the world’s biggest arms companies rose to a combined total of nearly $14bn in the wake of the US assassination of the Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, with investors expecting a wave of fresh orders.

Activists in London -including WRI affiliates Campaign Against Arms Trade and Peace Pledge Union - have taken direct action to protest and disrupt a major networking and social event held by the UK’s Aerospace, Defence, Security, and Space Trade Association.

As Turkey begins its military attack on Kurdish regions in northern Syria, leaving dozens killed and tens of thousands fleeing their homes, activists are taking action against arms shipments to the Turkish military, and some states are responding by suspending arms shipments.

Six members of the XR Peace affinity group - part of the Extinction Rebellion protest - were arrested on Monday 14th October after blockading the entrance to BAE Systems central London offices.

Activists in London spent the first week of September repeatedly obstructing and delaying the set up of the DSEI arms fair, one of the world’s largest exhibitions for the arms industry.

Experts from the United Nations has identified fragments of laser-guided missile systems used by the Saudi military in Yemen that they concluded could break international law. The fragments were from a guidance unit stamped with the name "EDO MBM Technology ltd", a company based in Brighton.

On Tuesday 18th June the UK's court of appeal has ruled that arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawful in an appeal brought against a previous decision by Campaign Against Arms Trade.