For the first time since World War ii, Europe will outspend the United States in procuring military equipment in 2025, according to Aviation Week Network. This “landmark shift” is particularly significant because of the speed of innovation. Germany is leading this shift, as Reuters highlighted on July 23 in “Spy Cockroaches and AI Robots: Germany Plots the Future of Warfare.”
Aviation Week reported in May that Europe’s 19 top defense spenders, including Turkey and Ukraine, were projected to spend $180.1 billion this year on military procurement, compared to $175.6 billion for the U.S.
“Europe this year, for the first time in decades, is spending more on defense technology acquisition than the U.S.,” stated Gundbert Scherf, cofounder of German drone manufacturer Helsing. Reuters wrote: “The former partner at McKinsey & Company says Europe may be on the cusp of a transformation in defense innovation akin to the Manhattan Project—the scientific push that saw the U.S. rapidly develop nuclear weapons during World War ii.”
In the world war years, the U.S. ascended to the superpower status it has kept until this day. Could Russia’s war on Ukraine trigger a similar transformation in Europe?
Analysts are quick to note that Europe still faces steep obstacles to rival U.S. military might. But in an age defined by relentless innovation, size and strength are secondary to the newest technology.
Reuters spoke to “two dozen executives, investors and policymakers to examine how Germany—Europe’s largest economy—aims to play a central role in the rearming the Continent.”
Anyone familiar with the Trumpet knows we have written a lot over the past few decades about German militarization and domination. Like the late Herbert W. Armstrong, we warn of Germany’s military rise based on Bible prophecy. For a long time, people scoffed at the idea of Germany becoming a formidable military foe. But now Germany is taking the lead in military innovation as new technologies level the battlefield.
Preparing for Military Acceleration
According to Reuters, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government “views AI and start-up technology as key to its defense plans and is slashing bureaucracy to connect start-ups directly to the upper echelons of its military.”
On July 23, the German federal cabinet approved a draft law aimed at accelerating the country’s armament efforts. “We need more weapons, and we need them faster. This can only be achieved by expanding production,” said Economics Minister Katherina Reiche. The proposed legislation would extend to all military goods without exception and bypass lengthy tender processes for military contracts. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius hailed the measure as a “groundbreaking law” and a “quantum leap” for Germany’s defense capabilities.
Along with the new legislation comes unprecedented funding. Reuters wrote:
Shaped by the trauma of Nazi militarism and a strong postwar pacifist ethos, Germany long maintained a relatively small and cautious defense sector, sheltered by U.S. security guarantees.
Germany’s business model, shaped by a deep aversion to risk, has also favored incremental improvements over disruptive innovation.
No more. With U.S. military support now more uncertain, Germany—one of the biggest backers of Ukraine—plans to nearly triple its regular defense budget to around €162 billion (us$175 billion) per year by 2029.
Much of that money will go into reinventing the nature of warfare, the sources said.
This is not the first time Germany is “reinventing the nature of warfare.” Reuters explains why we shouldn’t underestimate German innovative skills:
In the first half of the 20th century, German scientists pioneered many military technologies that became global standards, from ballistic missiles to jet aircraft and guided weapons. But following its defeat in World War ii, Germany was demilitarized and its scientific talent was dispersed.
Wernher von Braun, who invented the first ballistic missile for the Nazis, was one of hundreds of German scientists and engineers transported to the United States in the wake of World War ii, where he later worked at nasa and developed the rocket that took Apollo spacecraft to the moon.
As Winston Churchill warned in 1934, “Beware! Germany is a country fertile in military surprises.”
German Military Start-ups
Helsing, Europe’s most valuable defense start-up, is a case in point for the military shift from the U.S. to Europe. In June, Helsing more than doubled its valuation to $12 billion at a fundraiser. The company is entirely focused on innovation. Reuters wrote:
Helsing is part of a wave of German defense start-ups developing cutting-edge technology, from tank-like AI robots and unmanned mini-submarines to battle-ready spy cockroaches.
Some of these smaller firms are now advising the government alongside established firms—so-called primes such as Rheinmetall and Hensoldt—that have less incentive to focus primarily on innovation, given their long backlogs for conventional systems, one of the sources said.
Speaking about drones, Annette Lehnigk-Emden, head of the head of the Federal Office for Equipment, told Reuters: “The changes they’re bringing to the battlefield are as revolutionary as the introduction of the machine gun, tank or airplane.”
As Reuters wrote, some of what the German military start-ups are developing sounds like science fiction, like Swarm Biotactics’ cyborg cockroaches designed for real-time data collection via cameras.
“Our bio-robots—based on living insects—are equipped with neural stimulation, sensors, and secure communication modules,” said ceo Stefan Wilhelm. “They can be steered individually or operate autonomously in swarms.”
“There’s a lot of pressure now on Germany being the lead nation of the European defense,” said Sven Kruck, Quantum’s chief strategy officer. Quantum is one of three European start-ups worth over $1 billion. The other two are Helsing and Portugal’s Tekever. All of them are focused on producing drones.
“Quality of talent in Europe is extremely high, but as a whole, there’s no better country, no better talent that we’ve seen other than in Germany,” said Jack Wang, partner at venture capital firm Project A.
Swarms of Locusts
Bible prophecy gives us insight into some of the weapons systems that will be used in future wars. In Revelation 9, the Apostle John was inspired to describe the forces of an advanced military as locusts. But as Lange’s Commentary states: “In antithesis to natural locusts, which desolate vegetation, these locusts leave unharmed all green things, attacking solely those men who have not the seal of God.”
Live Science writes: “Locust are large grasshoppers that live on almost every continent of the world and are known for their propensity to gather in large, destructive swarms.”
“Unlike other pests, which are localized, desert locusts can swarm and fly, and an entire region can be wiped out of crops,” said Esther Ngumbi, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Drones have proven destructive in the war between Russia and Ukraine and other conflicts. But we have not seen swarms of drones akin to swarms of locusts on the battlefield.
“Future wars most certainly will include nuclear bombs and biological weapons,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote. “These deadly weapons can be mounted on aircraft and drones and sent all over the world. Imagine what they could do! … A prophecy in Revelation 9 describes the military equipment used in this warfare as swarms of locusts. Could these locusts be swarms of various aircraft coordinating their flight patterns through AI?”
While we can’t be certain that Revelation 9 is describing drone warfare, Germany’s interest in it may have great prophetic relevance. Bible prophecy shows German military hardware is being described in Revelation 9, as Mr. Flurry explains in “The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence.”