{"id":201516,"date":"2025-06-21T03:24:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T03:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/201516\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T03:24:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T03:24:18","slug":"europe-remains-highly-vulnerable-and-dependent-on-us-defence-production-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/201516\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe remains \u2018highly vulnerable\u2019 and dependent on US defence production \u2013 report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Published on 20\/06\/2025 – 13:53 GMT+2\u2022Updated
\n 15:18<\/p>\n

\"\"ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Despite recent efforts to boost European defence production, the bloc remains \u201chighly vulnerable\u201d and heavily reliant on the United States\u2014particularly for major, high-end defence equipment\u2014according to a new analysis<\/strong><\/a> by the Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trade statistics show that the value of weapons imported to Europe increased from approximately \u20ac3.1 billion for the period 2019\u20132021 to \u20ac7.9 billion for 2022\u20132024 across the 27 member states, with the US leading this increase despite concerns over its capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope has the industrial production capacities to increase production of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles,\u201d said Guntramm Wolff, Bruegel\u2019s senior fellow, during the launch of the report ‘Fit for war by 2030?’ on Friday morning.* \u201cWhat is more concerning is the more modern weapons systems, where we have limited capabilities,\u201d he added. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruegel and Kiel Institute for the World Economy researchers have detected that the reliance on the US for certain defence and security domains is very high, including hypersonic missiles, next generation jets, AI integrated systems and intelligence services. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been some increase in various systems\u2014artillery in particular has grown substantially\u2014but these increases are still relatively small compared to the overall demand,\u201d Wolff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, the report notes that Europe held 1,627 main battle tanks in 2023, while projections suggest 2,359 to 2,920 will be needed in the coming years, depending on the scenario. As for air defence systems such as the Patriot and SAMP\/T, stock levels in 2024 stood at 35 units\u2014far below the 89 required.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor investments in research and development will be essential,\u201d the authors advise EU policymakers and national governments, especially given Europe\u2019s lagging defence R&D compared to global competitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, Europe invested \u20ac13 billion in military R&D. By contrast, China invested \u20ac21 billion, while the US allocated a staggering $145 billion (around \u20ac129 billion).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Money won\u2019t fix everything, Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n

In March, the European Commission unveiled its rearmament initiative\u2014now called ‘Defence Readiness 2030’\u2014with a target of mobilising up to \u20ac800 billion to address the bloc\u2019s most critical defence shortfalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NATO is expected to call on its 32 members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2032\u2014or potentially by 2035\u2014a target Spain has already criticised as \u201cunreasonable<\/strong><\/a>\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But simply increasing budgets won’t solve the problem, the report warns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMore military spending will not automatically and immediately translate into military capabilities, especially if the defence industrial base is already under strain,\u201d the researchers argue. The real challenge, they stress, lies in converting funding into tangible capabilities through a coherent, forward-looking strategic and operational plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the European defence market still highly fragmented, greater integration would improve cost-effectiveness. But alongside procurement reform, military planning must also be strengthened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really about rebuilding the ability to understand war through the lens of peer conflict\u2014and that is just as much of a challenge as disbursing the money,\u201d said Dr. Alexandr Burilkov, assistant director for research at the GLOBSEC GeoTech Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the researchers’ estimates, even the proposed \u20ac800 billion may fall short\u2014insufficient to cover the development of missile capabilities, procurement of tanks, artillery, and infantry fighting vehicles, modernisation of forces, and investment in air defence systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 20\/06\/2025 – 13:53 GMT+2\u2022Updated 15:18 ADVERTISEMENT Despite recent efforts to boost European defence production, the bloc…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[81321,81320,2993,81322,2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-201516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-air-defence-system","9":"tag-common-security-and-defence-policy","10":"tag-defence","11":"tag-defense-equipment","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114719218979430104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}