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Posted on 07/05/2026 12:36:24 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
BRUSSELS—When NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte took office in 2024, his biggest challenge was getting the alliance’s European members to spend more on defense.
Now, with tens of billions of new dollars pouring into the continent’s militaries, the problem is how to quickly turn that money into potent weapons and more capable armed forces.
“A year ago was all about promises” of additional spending, Rutte told The Wall Street Journal ahead of the planned North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week. This year “it’s about delivery,” he said.
It is a high-stakes race, with the allies caught between an increasingly belligerent and well-armed Russia to the east and, to the west, an American president who publicly questions NATO’s value and whose aides have signaled plans to scale back U.S. military commitments to Europe.
On Thursday, in a post on Truth Social, Trump complained about European military spending and said the U.S. doesn’t get “any benefit” from belonging to NATO.
During a televised Oval Office visit with Trump, Rutte touted the defense-spending increases by European allies and Canada, which he dubbed the “Trump Trillion.” His message: Europe has stepped up and responded to U.S. demands that it do more, building a NATO 3.0.
Last year, the alliance’s non-U.S. members boosted military spending by 20% over 2024 levels, to $574 billion, according to NATO. German outlays rose 24%, to $114 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and Berlin is aiming to spend roughly $180 billion in 2029—roughly triple the 2024 level.
Already the pace and scope of Europe’s increases are threatening to outstrip defense contractors’ ability to keep up with demand for sophisticated armaments. Around $300 billion in weapons have been ordered from U.S. companies, Rutte said.
“We are basically reaching the absorption-capacity level,” Rutte said, with...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
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This site routinely provides information.....what you do with it is your business.
“As far as weapons and ammo NATO countries have greatly increased manufacturing,...”
If that was actually true we wouldn’t have Rutte in July 2026 announcing that Europe needs to turn money into actual munitions.
Evidently you guys have zero interest in that issue or you would have followed it, or at least bothered to make note of the postings about it for years until people realized that Putin’s people here are frozen in time and don’t actually follow much in that regard.
“Vlad continues to advance, slowly some say, “
Russia took a little in June. Ukraine took back more.
US shoulders much of Israel’s missile defense in Iran war
Pentagon shows DC fired more than 200 THAAD interceptors
Over 100 ship-based US missiles fired during the war with Iran,
Far more high-end munitions than Israel used,
Dire concerns remain over US readiness to protect American families
News Agencies / 05.21.26 / ynet.com / breaking news from Israel
The U.S. military has significantly depleted its stockpile of advanced missile-defense interceptors while defending Israel during the war with Iran, firing far more high-end munitions than Israeli forces used themselves, according to DOD assessments to The Washington Post.
The report said the imbalance highlights the extent to which Washington carried the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile attacks during Operation Roaring Lion, while also raising questions about US military readiness and its security commitments elsewhere in the world.
Iranian missile interception in central Israel
According to three U.S. officials who spoke to The Washington Post on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, the United States launched more than 200 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in defense of Israel, roughly half of the Pentagon’s total inventory.
US naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean also fired more than 100 Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6 interceptors, the officials said. Israel, by comparison, fired fewer than 100 Arrow interceptors and about 90 David’s Sling interceptors, some of which were used against less sophisticated projectiles launched by Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Lebanon.
tough luck for the Losekrainians that the Russians liberated Kostiantynivka and are working on liberating Lyman...
All while the Losekranians advance to the rear. They’re running like Abel Reyna runs in front of a motorcycle gang!
That’s why Reyna favored brown slacks - the poop stains didn’t show - except when he pooped his mouth.
Like Wimpy from Popeye - the Yuro-peeing arms manufacturers will gladly produce weapons on Tuesday if you pay them today.
Sorry, I’m saving my urine for jane fonda...
“Evidently you guys have zero interest in that issue or you would have followed it, or at least bothered to make note of the postings about it for years until people realized that Putin’s people here are frozen in time and don’t actually follow much in that regard.”
No.
Every time I check in the status of actual production vs announced targets, the story is the same.
Yes, kicking the crap out of someone is expensive. And sometimes appropriate. And the Iranians have been attacking us for decades now, probably including at least one attempt on Trump’s life.
But to you, it is all “Israel”.
“Like Wimpy from Popeye - the Yuro-peeing arms manufacturers will gladly produce weapons on Tuesday if you pay them today.”
Nietzsche’s “Eternal Return” is the EU missing munitions targets, and announcing more ambitious ones in the future.
Israeli Strikes On Iran: A Strategic Blunder
Arms Control Today / July/Aug 2025 / By Daryl G. Kimball
Trump’s decision to join Israel’s military attacks against Iranian scientists and safeguarded nuclear sites represents a departure from his earlier pursuit of diplomacy. It will increase the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran and erode confidence in the nuclear nonproliferation system.
Three days before Iranian and U.S. negotiators were to meet in Oman, Israel launched air strikes June 13. The attacks were designed to sabotage the talks as much as they were intended to damage Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced Trump that U.S. participation was key to knocking out the most heavily fortified nuclear sites and coercing Iran to give up its nuclear program altogether. It did not.
The Israeli-U.S. military campaign—including heavy U.S. bombardment of underground portions of the Natanz and Fordow uranium enrichment plants and the Isfahan uranium conversion facility June 21—inflicted heavy damage but did not eliminate the program.
Iran’s nuclear knowledge, its stockpile of 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60-percent uranium-235, its centrifuge manufacturing capacity, its third underground enrichment site, and its determination to keep the nuclear program going remain.
Prior to Israel’s attack, there was no imminent threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program and diplomacy had not been exhausted. US intelligence agencies assessed that Iran’s leaders had not yet decided to build a bomb, and it would take it a year or more to assemble a warhead small and light enough to be delivered on a ballistic missile.
Now, it might take Iran years to rebuild its enrichment plants to the scale of operations before the attacks. But it will take only months to enrich its supply of uranium enriched to 60 percent U-235 to bomb grade on a smaller scale and process it into metal for weapons, if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives the go-ahead
In the long run, the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel increases the chances that Iran may withdraw from the NPT and pursue a clandestine weaponization campaign.
There is a better decision—through serious nonproliferation diplomacy. The nuclear deal that Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), imposed limits, prohibitions and intrusive inspection requirements on Iran that were to last for 10 or 15 years, with some being permanent. For example, the JCPOA prohibited uranium enrichment at Fordow before 2030 and barred any production of highly enriched uranium by Iran through 2030.
The prospect of further negotiations on a new durable framework to contain Iran’s sensitive nuclear activities has been severely damaged. But it is still possible and necessary that Iran and the United States resume talks on an interim agreement to stabilize the situation and work with Gulf states on a longer-term regional solution.
Given Iran’s still substantial nuclear potential, the first priority must be securing its agreement to allow the return of IAEA inspectors. To do so, Trump should agree to Iran’s call for guarantees that there will be no further U.S. or Israeli attacks on any Iranian nuclear facilities or scientists so long as the IAEA is allowed to do its work.
Second, Iran should agree to suspend uranium enrichment for at least a year and to transfer its stocks of enriched uranium to another country under safeguards. After all, Iran’s major enrichment sites will be inoperable for quite some time, and domestic uranium enrichment is not necessary for Iran’s current domestic nuclear energy needs.
In exchange, Washington should recognize Iran’s right to pursue the peaceful use of nuclear energy as outlined in Article IV of the NPT and agree that Iran can, in the future, engage in limited centrifuge manufacturing and low-level uranium enrichment as part of a regional nuclear fuel consortium with other Gulf states.
To increase the prospect for success, Trump should pledge to deliver relief from U.S. nuclear-related sanctions that were reimposed on Iran following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom must not reimpose international sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council. The group also should acknowledge that the Israeli-U.S. strikes violated Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force in international relations.
All of this will require all sides to refrain from gratuitous threats and taunts, engage in serious sustained talks, and be willing to compromise enough to produce a win-win result. Although unlikely, such an outcome is vital to prevent the emergence of the tenth nuclear-armed state and the collapse of the nuclear nonproliferation system as we know it.
Brokered Bargaining in Nuclear South Asia: U.S. Mediation in the India-Pakistan Pahalgam Crisis
July 11, 2025
Israel and U.S. Strike Iran’s Nuclear Program
July 11, 2025
Trump Administration Increases Nuclear Weapons Budget
July 11, 2025
U.S. Energy Department to Reshuffle Warhead Budgets
July 11, 2025
UK to Purchase F-35As and Join NATO Nuclear Mission
July 11, 2025
“Sorry, I’m saving my urine for jane fonda...”
I remember seeing Jan Fonda urinal cards in the Officer’s Club...I assume the NCO Clubs had them as well.
A former POW told me he once tried to pass a message to one of the peacenicks “visiting”, asking them to let his wife know he was alive. A few hours later, he was suspended with his arms behind his back, being beaten. Of course, that COULD just be something he said, but since he couldn’t, in the 1980s, raise his hands to shoulder height....I BELIEVE HIM!
What treasonous assholes they all were! And what incredible heroes we sent and lost in Vietnam. My Dad died there near the end of the war. 1972. His third war. I was in Afghanistan when I reached the age he died at. In a way, that seemed a good way to say “I loved you”.
Israel’s Broad Discontent Over the Emerging US Deal With Iran,
Trump ignored US intel and was swayed by Mideast foreign interests to bomb Iran.
Enter the “all-seeing, all knowing” Mossad glibly assuring Don The Mideast Believer:
<><>Iran’s ballistic missile program would be “destroyed” in weeks.
<><>The Iran regime would be “too weak” to close the Strait of Hormuz.
<><>Street protests — with Mossad help — would “trigger a western-leaning uprising.”
<><>Kurdish fighters from Iraq could “open a ground front” in the northwest.
(None of which happened.)
The story is the same when they are about the need for more increases and more, more, more, and why the increases aren’t coming as fast as desired in some types, but the story isn’t the same when it is about huge improvements and increases in spite of falling short of desired results in some areas.
You can’t sell the idea that everything remains the same as it was in 2022, in the manufacturing of weapons, ammo, missiles, and drones.
Even in 155 shells there are massive improvements from a few 100,000 to millions and more importantly for all the nations that are not at war, much greater infrastructure for weapons manufacturing for the future as more manufacturing capabilities come online, supplies better secured, and kinks ironed out, laws changed, and contracts restructured.
Here are some figures on the shells.
https://ukraine-war-analytics.com/weapons/155mm-shell-production-eu-2026.html
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