Europe is saying all the right things but actions are another matter. When it comes to war, you can’t defeat the enemy by throwing money at them. You actually have to build the factories and manufacture weapons. Europe has been extremely unwilling to do that, instead preferring to buy weapons from the US.
Ukraine to their credit have been going all out to build their own military industrial base. Their domestic drone production is accelerating. They still need a lot of help with air defence systems, artillery shells, small arms, training, and logistics.
That already shifted since 2022, in eastern European countries even since 2014. Granted that these things take time, although companies like Rheinmetall are currently getting investments like hell to build production lines quickly.
In general EU military usually gets sold as too weak for a multitude of reasons. We indeed cut too much investment in the national militaries for too long, however European arms manufacturers are going strong. There’s also the general notion especially in western Europe (and especially in Germany) of not wanting to be seen militaristic but humanistic, which is generally a good thing until someone from the outside tries to take advantage through military force (among other things).
That said, Poland now got a lot of influence in Brussels regarding EU military politics, as other nations had to admit they were right about Russia and their own military strategy all along. And they’re rather blunt about what’s necessary as far as I know.
Europe is saying all the right things but actions are another matter. When it comes to war, you can’t defeat the enemy by throwing money at them. You actually have to build the factories and manufacture weapons. Europe has been extremely unwilling to do that, instead preferring to buy weapons from the US.
Ukraine to their credit have been going all out to build their own military industrial base. Their domestic drone production is accelerating. They still need a lot of help with air defence systems, artillery shells, small arms, training, and logistics.
That already shifted since 2022, in eastern European countries even since 2014. Granted that these things take time, although companies like Rheinmetall are currently getting investments like hell to build production lines quickly.
In general EU military usually gets sold as too weak for a multitude of reasons. We indeed cut too much investment in the national militaries for too long, however European arms manufacturers are going strong. There’s also the general notion especially in western Europe (and especially in Germany) of not wanting to be seen militaristic but humanistic, which is generally a good thing until someone from the outside tries to take advantage through military force (among other things).
That said, Poland now got a lot of influence in Brussels regarding EU military politics, as other nations had to admit they were right about Russia and their own military strategy all along. And they’re rather blunt about what’s necessary as far as I know.