But defence spending is rising relatively slowly in America and haphazardly in Europe
. He called it “one of the largest investments in our national security in history”. Among other things, Mr Biden said, it was intended “to forcefully respond to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine”. In Europe, meanwhile, many NATO allies are beefing up their forces even faster. But will the extra money for weapons be spent effectively?
As a share of American GDP, defence spending has in fact fallen over the years, from 4.7% in 2010 to an estimated 3.3% this year. Leading Republicans have called for a budget that adds 5% above inflation. If they take control of one or both houses of Congress in this year’s mid-term elections, they will have the clout to push for bigger increases.
For America’s European allies, though, it is Russia that poses not just the most immediate threat, but also the biggest. That explains why they have been announcing crash programmes to boost their armed forces and meet NATO’s target of spending 2% of GDP on defence. Poland has announced plans to increase spending from 2% of GDP to 3%; Romania and Lithuania are aiming for more than 2.5%.in a turnaround being referred to as a. Last month it announced plans to raise defence spending from 1.
But defence spending in Europe is inefficient. It is parcelled up among more than two dozen armies, navies, air forces and ministries of defence. In 2017 the European Commission noted that its members fielded 178 major weapons systems, compared with America’s 30. There were 17 main models of battle tank versus one; 29 types of destroyers and frigates against four; and 20 fighter jets instead of six.
Germany’s first big decision, for instance, has been to buy 35 stealthy American F-35 jets to replace ageing Tornados, to fulfill Germany’s role in delivering NATO’s nuclear bombs. Germany has also decided to buy Eurofighter Typhoons adapted for electronic warfare. All this will discomfit France, which fears that Germany will be less committed to the Future Combat Air System, a Franco-German-Spanish project linking manned and unmanned aircraft, to enter into service in 2040.
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