Britain invests £7.5 billion in AI-enabled military targeting network, with secret cloud due in 2026 to link sensors and weapons

Britain plans to spend about £7.5 billion over four years on a sovereign military network intended to connect sensors, commanders and weapons through artificial intelligence. The package includes roughly £420 million for Digital Backbone infrastructure and £740 million for a Digital Targeting Web that should accelerate identification and engagement of targets. A minimum viable version of a classified cloud environment is expected later in 2026, although contractors and detailed milestones remain undisclosed. The investment is framed as the foundation for multi-domain operations, with additional digital spending indicated for the following decade.