The Ministry of Defence will not get any extra funding in next week’s Budget, according to reports.
The Treasury is expected to argue that strained public finances will limit spending in the package to be unveiled by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on March 6.
It comes despite warnings about the state of the Armed forces and mounting geopolitical tensions.
Former defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson told The Telegraph: “What is becoming increasingly clear is that the threats that we face, need and require Britain and its allies to step up what it does in terms of building both capability and mass within our Armed Forces.
“That is going to require additional money to grow the size of our Army, Navy and Air Force.
“Without doing that, we will be ill-equipped to face the challenges that our enemies are increasingly presenting us with.”
A funding boost for the MoD announced last spring saw an extra £5billion over two years, with another £2billion a year extra for much of the rest of the decade.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps had indicated he would be pushing for more cash.
It comes after the head of the British Army warned that under-funding has left it at risk of becoming a “domestically-focused land force”.
In a leaked letter to former generals, General Sir Patrick Sanders said: “For some time, we have asset-sweated the military, compounded by a mismatch between ambition and resource that has been robustly addressed by both National Audit Office and Defence Select Committee reporting.
“Our strategic resilience is at risk, and we might inadvertently reduce ourselves to a smaller, static and domestically-focused land force.
“I am not sure that this is either the Army the nation needs, or the one that policymakers want.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to raise military spending to 2.5 percent of GDP when the economic circumstances allow.
The Treasury was contacted for comment.
