The UK government has delayed confirming how many new nuclear-powered attack submarines it will order, with Defence Secretary Wes Streeting admitting a final decision on numbers will not come until 2028. This pushes back a commitment Sir Keir Starmer made last year to settle the figure by the time the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was published, and follows criticism from the Conservatives, who called the delay "a shambles" amid wider concerns about the pace of Britain's naval expansion.

Starmer had announced in June 2025 that "up to 12" new SSN-AUKUS submarines, built to a British design with US technology under the AUKUS pact, would replace the Royal Navy's ageing Astute-class fleet. Streeting told Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge that the programme is midway through its design phase, with exact hull numbers to be confirmed by the end of that phase in 2028, though deliveries would still begin every 18 months from the mid-2030s. The Ministry of Defence insisted the commitment "is unchanged" and that the delay would not affect the delivery schedule, while the row comes against a backdrop of tension within Labour over balancing defence spending with welfare, after Andy Burnham said security spending must not come at the expense of social security.