{"id":643,"date":"2026-06-23T11:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/643\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:43:08","slug":"europe-must-be-ready-to-replace-key-us-weaponry-says-eu-defence-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/643\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe must be ready to replace key US weaponry, says EU defence chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"European Commission Andrius Kubilius\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"912\" height=\"570\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"html-img h-auto w-full\" style=\"color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/adc947ad-european-commission-andrius-kubilius-061124.webp\"\/>EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius said Europe must be prepared for Washington to shift key assets elsewhere in the world. (EPA Images pic)<br \/>\nBRUSSLES: Europe faces an \u201curgent challenge\u201d to replace US weaponry, as Washington weighs scaling back its military presence on the continent, the EU\u2019s defence commissioner said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth last week announced a six-month review of the US force posture in Europe after anger with Nato allies over their response to the Iran war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius said the move could see Washington shift key assets elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cWe have to be prepared. This could not be at some distant time in the future. It could be soon,\u201d he told a defence conference in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cWe are now faced with an urgent challenge to replace American strategic enablers and heavy weaponry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">Kubilius warned that failing to plug the gaps in areas such as space-based intelligence would be an \u201copen invitation\u201d for Russian President Vladimir Putin to test Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">Putin could seek to lash out at the continent as he is on the back foot in Ukraine, Kubilius said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">The EUn has pressed to ramp up the continent\u2019s defence spending as questions swirl over the reliability of US support under President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">Kubilius warned that filling the \u201cstrategic gaps\u201d could cost around \u20ac500 billion, citing an estimation from Germany\u2019s Kiel Institute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">But the commissioner, who oversees efforts to bolster the EU\u2019s defence industry, said the issue was not just the eye-watering sums of money needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cWe learnt how to raise additional funds,\u201d Kubilius said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cWe still need to learn how to spend them in an effective way in order to outproduce, out-innovate, outgun Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">Kubilius reiterated calls for the EU to better integrate Ukraine\u2019s defence industry, focus on producing at larger scale, and increase cooperation between member states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">\u201cAt a time when America is asking us to step up, because in some areas, they might step aside \u2014 now is the time to create a more integrated European defence market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"py-1.5 mb-4 text-lg\">He said the European Commission would lay out options on creating a more integrated EU defence market next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius said Europe must be prepared for Washington to shift key assets elsewhere in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[434,38,14,435,93,243,273,436],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-andrius-kubilius","tag-defence","tag-defence-industry","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-us-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}