The Ministry of Defence has written off more than £1.2 billion in the 2025/26 financial year on cancelled programmes, decommissioned warships and lost equipment, according to figures revealed by The Mail on Sunday. This follows £1.9 billion in write-offs the previous year, bringing total losses to over £3 billion in two years, a scale of waste that campaigners say is unacceptable given ministers are simultaneously seeking additional funding to rearm the armed forces.

The single largest loss was £408 million wiped off building work at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which manufactures Britain's nuclear warheads, while £254 million was lost cancelling an upgrade to the RAF's Shadow spy planes and £236 million was spent scrapping the Army's Project Morpheus radio replacement scheme. Other losses included millions on retiring Royal Navy vessels, demolishing unused buildings, and destroyed drones and equipment, alongside £169 million in special payments including £48.5 million compensation for veterans historically sacked for being gay. The TaxPayers' Alliance called the losses "appalling" and urged ministers to tackle waste, while the MoD said write-offs do not necessarily represent cash losses and that it continually reviews programmes to meet the armed forces' needs.