FACTBOX: What's in Britain's Defense Investment Plan?

LONDON - Britain unveiled its long-delayed Defence Investment Plan on Tuesday, setting out how it intends to spend a growing military budget in the coming years as it prepares for possible future conflicts.

Here are some of the details announced by the government:

BIG KIT AND INFRASTRUCTURE

- £8.6 billion over the next four years allocated to the Global Combat Air Programme, a joint project between Britain, Italy and Japan to develop a new fighter jet, which is also known by the British as Tempest. It is led by BAE Systems BAES.L, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 7011.T and Leonardo LDOF.MI.

- £63 billion over the next four years to strengthen Britain's nuclear deterrent and fund its new Dreadnought and SSN-AUKUS submarines, and a new warhead, plus the acquisition of 12 F-35A fighter jets.

- £26 billion over 10 years to upgrade naval bases.

- £11 billion on munitions and weapons to boost stockpiles, including long-range strike weapons, low-cost cruise missiles and one-way effectors, a type of attack drone.

- £790 million over four years to better protect British homeland and overseas bases from air, drone and missile threats, with new radars and sensors, anti-drone systems and upgrade the air-defence weapon system on the navy's Type 45 destroyers.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

- £5 billion over four years to fund drones for the armed forces, including attack drones, drone fighter jets, armed drones to work alongside Apache helicopters, autonomous submarines, uncrewed vessels and uncrewed ground vehicles.

- Of that drone investment, £650 million is earmarked for inexpensive and expendable autonomous systems.

- £2 billion to integrate the armed forces through a "digital targeting web", to speed up decision-making by using AI and software.

- Britain has also said its Royal Navy would become a "hybrid navy" combining autonomous vessels and AI with warships and aircraft.

- The government has scrapped plans to replace the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers and will instead procure at least six "Common Combat Vessels" to serve as control hubs for uncrewed systems, due into service in the 2030s.

- There will be new high-speed boats for Royal Marine Commandos.

- £100 million to accelerate the deployment of AI in the armed forces and £115 million to raise Britain's defences against the threats from AI.

-Reporting by William James and Sarah Young, Editing by William Maclean and Alex Richardson/Reuters