spending money on defence to get to a certain % of GDP is stupid and wasteful

 If you need to spend money you never have to be told you need to get to a certain proportion to get there. You spend money because you need to.

Albo is correct if we as a nation need some weapons' then we need to spend money to get them. If we do not then we don't spend the money.

NATO counties are now going to get to 5% of GDP ( although only 3.5% is defence spending). In a sense NATO countries could be worried about Russia although its performance in Ukraine is unimpressive and its defence capabilities were found wanting by the Israeli air force.

We are told we should be worried about China however China would lose bigtime in a war given how it is aligned in the international economy although WW1 begs to differ!!

Given all that it is easy to see how it would contribute to waste. If you have to hit a figure then you will spend money until you hit it!

I am sceptical about the need to hit a certain level of defence spending  (although we would be near 4-4.5% on NATO definitions) we need to look at what we actually need. Perhaps nuclear submarines are not top of the list?