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hitemlow t1_j20bnzf wrote

Reply to comment by zoom100000 in [OC] Defence budgets around the world by giteam

That's mostly because most of Europe doesn't meet NATO's minimum recommended defense spending.

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Few_Time_7441 t1_j20dlve wrote

4% is double the minimum requirement.

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ferrel_hadley t1_j20hbao wrote

>4% of the gdp though. So compared to the percent of gdp, it's a lot less than other countries.

3.3%ish. And most of the west relies on US logistics and intelligence.

Even as a European I would be happy for the US to spend less and the Europeans to build out more logistics capability. The UK is the only country with a reasonable airlift capacity. French operations in west Africa partially depend on that and the US.

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hitemlow t1_j20gpa8 wrote

Yes, and 2% is the minimum. Should "developed" countries in Europe really be hitting just the minimum (of which they're not even meeting that) every year?

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PandaDerZwote t1_j23eehs wrote

Seeing how Russia is fairing (which NATO is the explicit counterweight to), 2% seems high if anything.

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Few_Time_7441 t1_j20hu19 wrote

Well, it's their budget. Nato is a US project, they were able to increase their sphere of influence due to it. Why would these smaller countries do more than they can get away with?

They can spend extra money on what they care about. Sound like a pretty smart and developed move.

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Suspicious-Feeling-1 t1_j21o6kg wrote

It's a great strategy for peacetime. I think a lot of European nations are rethinking it in light of Russian aggression.

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protosser t1_j22b8hr wrote

And they'll never have to, the US isn't (can't) going to enforce it...because military bases (which the US has a lot of in Europe) are more important than NATO member spending the minimum

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