I was thinking about UK defence policy and considering the role of the domestic economy. I was doing this in the light of the GMB’s internal debates on defence manufacturing. These charts are dated 2017 and I believe that Italy and France have both overtaken the UK since then and the measurement in USD will not help the UK post Brexit.
The UK is seventh in this chart, and has I believe been overtaken by Italy and France since then. Despite Russia’s probable fall in the rankings, it looks like our seat on the G7 will be at risk and if one takes the top EU countries on this chart, they are third, even without the UK.
from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/
I was specifically interested in the UK, and found this article on Wikipedia, on the economic history of the UK, which covered some issues of which I was unaware.