British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday unveiled a £15 billion ($20.5 billion) increase in defense spending over the next four years, saying the funding will come from cuts to investment budgets in other government departments rather than additional borrowing.

Axar.az reports, citing the BBC, that Starmer made the remarks.

"In one of the final acts of my premiership, I am setting out a plan to reverse the corrosive hollowing out of our armed forces," Starmer said, adding that some road and energy projects would "not go ahead as planned" to help raise annual defense spending to £80 billion by 2029.

The government said the plan includes more than £64 billion for the UK's nuclear deterrent, £5 billion for drone capabilities, more than £8 billion for the Global Combat Air Programme with Japan and Italy, and funding for six new Royal Navy warships.

Starmer said the plan would increase defense spending to 2.7% of gross domestic product by 2029 and put the UK on track to meet NATO's core defense spending target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

The Treasury said £10.3 billion in savings have been identified so far, with the remaining £4.7 billion to be confirmed at the next budget.