Al Carns quit his job as Minister for the Armed Forces on 12 June 2026 and has now spoken about what he found inside the Ministry of Defence: waste and inefficiency he calls "unbelievable." His main frustration was that the MoD keeps funding old defence programmes even when they cost too much and do not work well.

Carns left on the same day Defence Secretary John Healey stepped down. Both men said the government was not doing enough to actually change how defence works. When Carns spoke again on 16 June 2026, he made his complaint even sharper.

This is not really an argument about spending less money. The 2025 Strategic Defence Review promised the UK would spend 2.5% of its national income on defence by 2027 — sooner than originally planned — and possibly 3% after that. The National Audit Office reports defence spending will rise 12% over the next few years. The Commons Library says the budget has grown about 3.6% per year since 2023-24. The money is definitely increasing.

But Carns sees a problem that extra money cannot fix. Imagine a company that keeps paying employees who do not produce results because firing them looks bad. The MoD does something similar: old defence programmes that go over budget and underdeliver stay alive because cancelling them means admitting past failures and facing criticism. So the money set aside for new, better equipment instead goes to keeping old programmes running. It is like pouring water into a cracked bucket.

What makes Carns worth listening to is his background. He is a decorated military officer with medals for bravery and service. He was not a politician looking tough for voters; he was someone who actually fought and understood what soldiers need. When he says the MoD's waste is "unbelievable," he means it.

This kind of problem is common across NATO countries right now. Governments announce they will spend more on defence, but many struggle to actually turn that money into better weapons, equipment, and capability. Promising to spend 3% of your income is easy. The hard part is stopping old projects that employ people in important voting districts and admitting that billions already spent are simply wasted. Most governments avoid that hard choice.

What happens next matters. The new defence team could actually change how money is spent, or they could just say nice things about reform while leaving the old system in place. The 12% budget increase makes politicians look good. It does not, on its own, improve the military.

For people paying attention to UK defence — journalists, think tanks, members of Parliament — Carns' resignation is worth taking seriously. He quit not because the budget was too small, but because the system itself was broken. That tells you where the real problem is.