Defence Budget Pressure Puts the Spotlight on Training Costs
27, October 2026 – UK defence equipment spending fell by £5 billion in the year to March 2026, according to evidence given to the Commons Defence Committee by ADS chief executive Kevin Craven. As reported by UK Defence Journal, Craven told the committee:
In terms of orders, what is probably interesting to note is that the equipment spend to the year ending March 2026 was £5 billion less than in the previous year, which is an indication of the MOD looking to remain within its budget or live within its means. We are hearing all of this language. The lived experience on the ground is that it is still hard to get orders.
UK DEFENCE BUDGET
£5bn
Fall in UK defence equipment spending in the year to March 2026
Evidence given to the Commons Defence Commitee by ADS Chief Executive Kevin Craven
Craven also questioned whether around a third of the £298 billion Defence Investment Plan is properly funded, and he pointed out that the MOD’s own central contingency buffer was raised from 1.2% to 2% over the spending period, which he called “indicative of some of their own cynicism around the ability to deliver those efficiencies and savings.
When budgets tighten like this and the savings behind them are in doubt, training activity is usually one of the first areas asked to absorb the pressure, even though it is where readiness is actually built. Departments need ways to protect training quality and frequency without depending on savings that may not materialise on schedule.
This is exactly the gap AVRT’s military VR training system is built to close. It runs on free-roam, wireless hardware with zero ongoing calibration, so there is no need for specialist technical operators or recalibration between sessions, and no dependency on live ammunition or fixed range infrastructure. That translates into a lower, more predictable cost per training hour, so units can train more often without needing a bigger budget to do it.
Because the platform supports multiple weapon types and configurations and scales from individual to section and platoon-level exercises, units can keep training intensity and consistency up even when live exercise budgets are squeezed, with every session captured through full 3D and first-person after-action review for objective, standardised assessment.
If your organisation is looking for a way to protect training quality while budgets tighten, get in touch with us at info@avrt.training or through our contact form to find out how AVRT can help.