“So I welcome Labour copying our idea, particularly if that means getting more cash to UK start-ups and defence tech businesses.”
Mr Cartlidge said the investment should be used to “accelerate the uncrewed, artificial intelligence-driven transformation of our armed forces”.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has defended the Government’s lack of clarity around defence spending, laying blame at the Tories for failing to invest in previous Governments.
He said: “The public must be sick and tired of the Tories complaining about things they never did.
“They owe Britain an apology, not another lecture.
“Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives shrunk the British Army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic era and left a £17billion hole in the equipment plan.
“Their fantasy economics won’t keep Britain safe, just as their reckless hollowing out of our armed forces didn’t when they were in power.”