Military Aircraft and Spacecraft: Expenditure

(asked on 10th October 2025) - View Source
Questioner
Neil Shastri-Hurst Portrait
Neil Shastri-Hurst
(Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent in (a) cash terms and (b) constant prices in the UK (i) aircraft and (ii) spacecraft industry in the last 20 years.

Answered by
Luke Pollard Portrait
Luke Pollard
Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 17th October 2025

Whilst we are unable to separate out “Aircraft” and “Spacecraft”, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) currently publish an annual bulletin on MOD Regional Expenditure with Industry which includes details on MOD’s spending with UK industry in the combined category of “Aircraft and Spacecraft”.

The table below shows this industry spend in both current and constant prices for the last 20 years (2005/06 to 2024/25).

Financial
Year

Aircraft and Spacecraft
Expenditure at
Current Prices
(£ million)

Aircraft and Spacecraft
Expenditure at
Constant 2024/25 Prices
(£ million)
[note 3]

2005/06

1,730

2,812

2006/07

1,960

3,103

2007/08

2,100

3,246

2008/09 [b] [note 1]

2,480

3,699

2009/10

2,640

3,886

2010/11 [b] [note 2]

2,710

3,915

2011/12 [b] [note 3]

2,430

3,449

2012/13

2,460

3,429

2013/14 [b] [note 4]

2,452

3,353

2014/15

2,235

3,019

2015/16

2,007

2,693

2016/17

1,832

2,403

2017/18

1,719

2,220

2018/19

1,619

2,047

2019/20

1,570

1,940

2020/21 [b] [note 5]

1,612

1,890

2021/22

1,728

2,038

2022/23

2,023

2,229

2023/24

2,205

2,294

2024/25

2,449

2,449

Notes:

[b] signifies a break in series

1 Break in series between 2007/08 and 2008/09. For 2008/09 onwards, industrial groupings are based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007 codes. Prior to this, industrial groupings may have used SIC 1992 or SIC 2003 guidelines

2 Break in series between 2009/10 and 2010/11 due to methodology changes, resulting in significant changes in allocation of spending to several industry groupings including that of Aircraft and Spacecraft.

3 Break in series between 2011/12 and 2012/13 due to a reclassification of Resource Account Codes, more extensive exclusion of 'Other Government Organisations' and improvements to processes on SIC code data cleansing.

4 Break in series between 2012/13 and 2013/14 due to methodology changes. Improvements were made to identify expenditure to be excluded as overseas, with Other Government Departments, or related to elements such as pay.

5 Break in series between 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to methodology changes. Direct comparison across the years 2019/20 to 2020/21 should not be made, longer comparisons across the time series should still be valid noting other breaks in series. More details can be found by visiting the background quality report (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-regional-expenditure-statistics-with-industry-202425).

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