>The British military—the leading U.S. military ally and Europe’s biggest defense spender—has only around 150 deployable tanks and perhaps a dozen serviceable long-range artillery pieces. So bare was the cupboard that last year the British military considered sourcing multiple rocket launchers from museums to upgrade and donate to Ukraine, an idea that was dropped.
>
>France, the next biggest spender, has fewer than 90 heavy artillery pieces, equivalent to what Russia loses roughly every month on the Ukraine battlefield. Denmark has no heavy artillery, submarines or air-defense systems. Germany’s army has enough ammunition for two days of battle.
>
>In the decades since the end of the Cold War, weakened European armies were tolerated by governments across the West because an engaged America, with its vast military muscle, underpinned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and defense policy in Europe. The U.S. accounted for nearly 70% of NATO’s defense spending last year.
>
>But alarm has grown as America has moved toward a more isolationist stance, and as the understanding of a potential threat to Europe from Russia re-emerges, after nearly two years of bloody fighting in Ukraine.
>
>There is no immediate military danger to Europe from Russia, and Western military and political leaders think that Russia is for now contained by its war of attrition in Ukraine. But if Russia ultimately wins in Ukraine, few doubt Moscow’s capacity to rearm completely within three to four years and cause trouble elsewhere. Russian President Vladimir Putin has for years mourned the loss of a Russian empire that encompassed Ukraine and other Eastern European nations including the Baltics.
>
>Much of Europe’s industrial capacity to make weapons has eroded over years of budget cuts, and turning that around is a challenge at a time when most governments face budget constraints amid slow economic growth and aging populations, as well as large political opposition to cutting back on welfare spending to fund defense.
>
>Europe has “systematically demilitarized itself because it didn’t need to spend the money,” thanks to the lack of an apparent threat and U.S. military dominance around the globe, said Anthony King, a professor of war studies at the University of Warwick. “They have basically gone to sleep.”
>
>“Although NATO countries’ combined economic and industrial might dwarfs that of Russia and its allies, we are allowing ourselves to be outproduced,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO Secretary-General. “Ukraine is now in a war of attrition, if we do not get serious on ammunition production the threat of war will likely come closer to us.”
>
>The European Union looks unlikely to keep a promise to supply a million desperately needed artillery shells to Kyiv by this spring, achieving only around a third of that so far. North Korea, an impoverished dictatorship with a population of 25 million, has shipped over a million shells to Russia in the same period, according to Western officials and Russian government statements.
>
>Military spending among NATO countries fell from about 3% of annual economic output during the Cold War to about 1.3% by 2014, according to NATO data. Things began to change after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, but only slowly. In the past decade, EU defense spending rose 20%, according to the European Parliament. Over the same period, Russia and China boosted their defense budgets by almost 300% and close to 600%, respectively.
>
>A militarily weak Europe is a huge shift for a continent that boasted the world’s best armed forces from at least the early 1500s to the 1940s, a stretch of five centuries in which European armies and naval power carved up the world into global empires. That dominance ended during World War II, when the region’s armies pulverized each other for the second time in roughly two decades. After that, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. emerged as the bigger powers.
>
>Germany’s army, which at the end of the Cold War had half a million men in West Germany and another 300,000 in East Germany, now has 180,000 personnel. West Germany alone had more than 7,000 battle tanks by the 1980s; reunified Germany now has 200, only half of which are likely operational, according to government officials. The country’s industry can make only about three tanks a month, these officials said.
>
>“The armed forces are lacking in everything,” Eva Högl, the parliamentary commissioner for Germany’s armed forces, said as she presented the findings of her report earlier this year. German military bases not only lack armaments and ammunition, but functioning toilets and internet, she said. One attack helicopter unit has been waiting a decade to be fitted with helmets, her findings show.
>
>The Netherlands disbanded its last tank unit in 2011, folding the remaining few tanks into the German army. Conscription across most European countries was scrapped after the Cold War.
>
>While Russia doesn’t disclose data on its weapons manufacturing, statistical lines in its industrial production reports indicate significant growth. The output of finished metal goods—a line that analysts say includes weapons and ammunition—rose by 31% in the first 10 months of the year compared with the period last year. Other lines associated with military output also increased. Production of computers, electronic and optical products rose 34%, and so-called special clothing jumped by over 37%. In contrast, production of medicines was down around 2%.
>
>Germany is currently unable to fight a war of defense and must rearm in light of Russia’s massive military buildup, the commander of Germany’s armed forces said. “We must get used to the idea that we will maybe have to fight a war of defense,” Gen. Carsten Breuer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on Sunday. The reign of peace that society has become accustomed to “exists no more,” he said.
>
>Britain hasn’t had a fully deployable armored division since the 1991 Gulf War, Ben Wallace, who was U.K. Secretary of State for Defence until the end of August, said recently to Parliament.
>
>Sanders said the U.K. had taken a risk by allowing stockpiles to dwindle and its industrial base to atrophy. He said he has spent more time in the past year visiting factories than inspecting troops in the field.
>
>Britain announced its biggest increase in defense spending since the Cold War in 2020. But the overall army size is still expected to shrink to 72,500 full-time troops from a previous target of 82,000. It is replacing its 227 tanks with 148 more-modern versions, but those won’t be deployed until 2027. Of its existing 227 tanks, only 157 can be deployed within 30 days and perhaps only 40 are fully functioning and ready to move, military analysts said, as many are in storage or being upgraded.
>
>The U.K. has pledged to ramp up defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, but only when economic conditions allow.
What an utter disgrace!
Poland seems to take the threat the most seriously now and spending like crazy.
Comparing artillery to Russian numbers is a bit pointless as NATO and Russia have built their forces to fight in a different way.
And comparing British tanks to Russian is also stupid. Britain does not expect to have tank battles on their island and Russia has no capacity to bring their tanks there via invasion so why would Brits invest in more tanks?
Europe should refresh their arms but let’s not get stupid with this.
So, there are risks that the Ukrainian army may not withstand the pressure from Russia. What will Europe do then? When a European was concerned and protested that a few Euros from their taxes would be spent on aiding Ukraine, it was just talk. Because now the threat of war is increasing, and the payment might involve lives and health. Perhaps you think that Russians will stop at the borders of Ukraine, but you are gravely mistaken. You don’t know the Russians. They genuinely believe that the territory of Poland was gifted to the Poles thanks to Stalin, and now they have the right to claim it. As for Germany, it’s seen as an invaluable trophy. Entering Berlin and re-establishing their order is their ambition. They love to say, ‘how our ancestors fought.’ Their spirits are filled with hatred toward Britain and, in general, they hate all of Europe. They are convinced that Nazism is resurging in Europe, and as the primary combatant against Nazism in the world, they want to restore order once again. Their spirits are filled with a sense of revenge, and this sentiment pervades their entire society. You are greatly mistaken if you believe they are rational. You simply do not understand the Russian language and can’t even imagine what they are saying about the whole of Europe on their television and how they plan to conquer it by military means. If you believe that NATO will take care of everything and the US will sort it all out, you’re mistaken. Because you are NATO. It will primarily be up to you to fight! The US is far across the ocean. Moreover, with the likely victory of Trump in the presidential elections, there’s growing skepticism about the effectiveness and funding of this organization. So, while a European lamented a few euros he might have spent on coffee or beer, now there’s a threat that the payment might involve blood. Don’t think you’ll escape it. Polish Krzysztof, German Hans, French Pierre, and all Europeans, get ready for the army. Men, improve your physical fitness, study the theory of how to operate a mortar or other weapons, and prepare. Russia doesn’t value the lives of its own citizens or others. The era of peace in the world is coming to an end, and the epoch of wars is beginning. Everyone will be fighting.
Aftermath of allowing leftist to make decisions.
Poland got our backs
Europe has to get serious now. If all European NATO countries now increase the defense spending and investment then maybe we can also manage to keep the US in this alliance. If Europe remains weak and the US loses interest in NATO we are fucked. Now it is time to act.
8 comments
important excerpts ->
​
>The British military—the leading U.S. military ally and Europe’s biggest defense spender—has only around 150 deployable tanks and perhaps a dozen serviceable long-range artillery pieces. So bare was the cupboard that last year the British military considered sourcing multiple rocket launchers from museums to upgrade and donate to Ukraine, an idea that was dropped.
>
>France, the next biggest spender, has fewer than 90 heavy artillery pieces, equivalent to what Russia loses roughly every month on the Ukraine battlefield. Denmark has no heavy artillery, submarines or air-defense systems. Germany’s army has enough ammunition for two days of battle.
>
>In the decades since the end of the Cold War, weakened European armies were tolerated by governments across the West because an engaged America, with its vast military muscle, underpinned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and defense policy in Europe. The U.S. accounted for nearly 70% of NATO’s defense spending last year.
>
>But alarm has grown as America has moved toward a more isolationist stance, and as the understanding of a potential threat to Europe from Russia re-emerges, after nearly two years of bloody fighting in Ukraine.
>
>There is no immediate military danger to Europe from Russia, and Western military and political leaders think that Russia is for now contained by its war of attrition in Ukraine. But if Russia ultimately wins in Ukraine, few doubt Moscow’s capacity to rearm completely within three to four years and cause trouble elsewhere. Russian President Vladimir Putin has for years mourned the loss of a Russian empire that encompassed Ukraine and other Eastern European nations including the Baltics.
>
>Much of Europe’s industrial capacity to make weapons has eroded over years of budget cuts, and turning that around is a challenge at a time when most governments face budget constraints amid slow economic growth and aging populations, as well as large political opposition to cutting back on welfare spending to fund defense.
>
>Europe has “systematically demilitarized itself because it didn’t need to spend the money,” thanks to the lack of an apparent threat and U.S. military dominance around the globe, said Anthony King, a professor of war studies at the University of Warwick. “They have basically gone to sleep.”
>
>“Although NATO countries’ combined economic and industrial might dwarfs that of Russia and its allies, we are allowing ourselves to be outproduced,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO Secretary-General. “Ukraine is now in a war of attrition, if we do not get serious on ammunition production the threat of war will likely come closer to us.”
>
>The European Union looks unlikely to keep a promise to supply a million desperately needed artillery shells to Kyiv by this spring, achieving only around a third of that so far. North Korea, an impoverished dictatorship with a population of 25 million, has shipped over a million shells to Russia in the same period, according to Western officials and Russian government statements.
>
>Military spending among NATO countries fell from about 3% of annual economic output during the Cold War to about 1.3% by 2014, according to NATO data. Things began to change after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, but only slowly. In the past decade, EU defense spending rose 20%, according to the European Parliament. Over the same period, Russia and China boosted their defense budgets by almost 300% and close to 600%, respectively.
>
>A militarily weak Europe is a huge shift for a continent that boasted the world’s best armed forces from at least the early 1500s to the 1940s, a stretch of five centuries in which European armies and naval power carved up the world into global empires. That dominance ended during World War II, when the region’s armies pulverized each other for the second time in roughly two decades. After that, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. emerged as the bigger powers.
>
>Germany’s army, which at the end of the Cold War had half a million men in West Germany and another 300,000 in East Germany, now has 180,000 personnel. West Germany alone had more than 7,000 battle tanks by the 1980s; reunified Germany now has 200, only half of which are likely operational, according to government officials. The country’s industry can make only about three tanks a month, these officials said.
>
>“The armed forces are lacking in everything,” Eva Högl, the parliamentary commissioner for Germany’s armed forces, said as she presented the findings of her report earlier this year. German military bases not only lack armaments and ammunition, but functioning toilets and internet, she said. One attack helicopter unit has been waiting a decade to be fitted with helmets, her findings show.
>
>The Netherlands disbanded its last tank unit in 2011, folding the remaining few tanks into the German army. Conscription across most European countries was scrapped after the Cold War.
>
>While Russia doesn’t disclose data on its weapons manufacturing, statistical lines in its industrial production reports indicate significant growth. The output of finished metal goods—a line that analysts say includes weapons and ammunition—rose by 31% in the first 10 months of the year compared with the period last year. Other lines associated with military output also increased. Production of computers, electronic and optical products rose 34%, and so-called special clothing jumped by over 37%. In contrast, production of medicines was down around 2%.
>
>Germany is currently unable to fight a war of defense and must rearm in light of Russia’s massive military buildup, the commander of Germany’s armed forces said. “We must get used to the idea that we will maybe have to fight a war of defense,” Gen. Carsten Breuer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on Sunday. The reign of peace that society has become accustomed to “exists no more,” he said.
>
>Britain hasn’t had a fully deployable armored division since the 1991 Gulf War, Ben Wallace, who was U.K. Secretary of State for Defence until the end of August, said recently to Parliament.
>
>Sanders said the U.K. had taken a risk by allowing stockpiles to dwindle and its industrial base to atrophy. He said he has spent more time in the past year visiting factories than inspecting troops in the field.
>
>Britain announced its biggest increase in defense spending since the Cold War in 2020. But the overall army size is still expected to shrink to 72,500 full-time troops from a previous target of 82,000. It is replacing its 227 tanks with 148 more-modern versions, but those won’t be deployed until 2027. Of its existing 227 tanks, only 157 can be deployed within 30 days and perhaps only 40 are fully functioning and ready to move, military analysts said, as many are in storage or being upgraded.
>
>The U.K. has pledged to ramp up defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, but only when economic conditions allow.
What an utter disgrace!
Poland seems to take the threat the most seriously now and spending like crazy.
Comparing artillery to Russian numbers is a bit pointless as NATO and Russia have built their forces to fight in a different way.
And comparing British tanks to Russian is also stupid. Britain does not expect to have tank battles on their island and Russia has no capacity to bring their tanks there via invasion so why would Brits invest in more tanks?
Europe should refresh their arms but let’s not get stupid with this.
So, there are risks that the Ukrainian army may not withstand the pressure from Russia. What will Europe do then? When a European was concerned and protested that a few Euros from their taxes would be spent on aiding Ukraine, it was just talk. Because now the threat of war is increasing, and the payment might involve lives and health. Perhaps you think that Russians will stop at the borders of Ukraine, but you are gravely mistaken. You don’t know the Russians. They genuinely believe that the territory of Poland was gifted to the Poles thanks to Stalin, and now they have the right to claim it. As for Germany, it’s seen as an invaluable trophy. Entering Berlin and re-establishing their order is their ambition. They love to say, ‘how our ancestors fought.’ Their spirits are filled with hatred toward Britain and, in general, they hate all of Europe. They are convinced that Nazism is resurging in Europe, and as the primary combatant against Nazism in the world, they want to restore order once again. Their spirits are filled with a sense of revenge, and this sentiment pervades their entire society. You are greatly mistaken if you believe they are rational. You simply do not understand the Russian language and can’t even imagine what they are saying about the whole of Europe on their television and how they plan to conquer it by military means. If you believe that NATO will take care of everything and the US will sort it all out, you’re mistaken. Because you are NATO. It will primarily be up to you to fight! The US is far across the ocean. Moreover, with the likely victory of Trump in the presidential elections, there’s growing skepticism about the effectiveness and funding of this organization. So, while a European lamented a few euros he might have spent on coffee or beer, now there’s a threat that the payment might involve blood. Don’t think you’ll escape it. Polish Krzysztof, German Hans, French Pierre, and all Europeans, get ready for the army. Men, improve your physical fitness, study the theory of how to operate a mortar or other weapons, and prepare. Russia doesn’t value the lives of its own citizens or others. The era of peace in the world is coming to an end, and the epoch of wars is beginning. Everyone will be fighting.
Aftermath of allowing leftist to make decisions.
Poland got our backs
Europe has to get serious now. If all European NATO countries now increase the defense spending and investment then maybe we can also manage to keep the US in this alliance. If Europe remains weak and the US loses interest in NATO we are fucked. Now it is time to act.