Ireland recently increased their defence spending by 50%, but as the most recent %GDP on spending was 0.3% they’d need to up the spending substantially
Why would they bother when they’ve been neutral since the Free State was founded and have no direct threats?
Well it’s nice but cannot see Russia invading the ROI anytime soon. Surely it’s in ROI interest not to have to commit to the fiscal commitments of being in NATO?
Navy:
Yummie, lots of ports on the Atlantic coast (and local breweries+distilleries for the visiting sailors), and no doubt the ROI already has a solid foundation for Coast Guard levels of ships, adding a few bigger militarized ships would be fairly easy (depending on volunteers from their population, off course).
Airforce:
Having a ‘qualified’ airbase for (armed) Atlantic patrols is a big plus, even if only as a ‘recovery’ or resupply base.
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Ireland recently increased their defence spending by 50%, but as the most recent %GDP on spending was 0.3% they’d need to up the spending substantially
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locations=IE
Why would they bother when they’ve been neutral since the Free State was founded and have no direct threats?
Well it’s nice but cannot see Russia invading the ROI anytime soon. Surely it’s in ROI interest not to have to commit to the fiscal commitments of being in NATO?
It would be [‘nice’ for NATO](https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/52.443/-7.427).
Army:
Whatever the ROI feels comfortable with.
Navy:
Yummie, lots of ports on the Atlantic coast (and local breweries+distilleries for the visiting sailors), and no doubt the ROI already has a solid foundation for Coast Guard levels of ships, adding a few bigger militarized ships would be fairly easy (depending on volunteers from their population, off course).
Airforce:
Having a ‘qualified’ airbase for (armed) Atlantic patrols is a big plus, even if only as a ‘recovery’ or resupply base.