“Now, with tens of billions of new dollars pouring into the continent’s militaries…”
In terms of military spending tens of billions is a trickle.
The problem isn’t cash flow — it’s lack of productive capacity and fighting men. You can’t fight a war with an economy based on solar and wind power. You can’t fight battles with woke women and metro-sexual males.
Allocating money is not the same as writing the check/spending it.
This is Europe.
What is the purpose of NATO and why has the USA not left it?
How does a military be a military without weapons and ammo?
It’s amazing that the Ukraine “Special Military Operation” has been going on since 2022 and the Euros are finally getting semi-serious about ramping up their millitaries.
They thought that the US would be Uncle Sugar for the entire ride.
Maybe, but most the EU member states manufacturing has crashed, notably Germany. Rheinmetal, Germaine’s largest defense company can’t even fulfill the munitions obligations from 2023.
Throw in they blew up the Nordstream pipeline ( fools) and for example a 155mm artillery shell cost went up 5x. They relied on cheap energy, commodities and metal from Russia ( fools, again). The seven VW plants that shut down are now being discussed to retool them for Defense.
It will take a decade.
I’ve read that the Germans are seeking to domestically produce a number of American weapon systems under license. Their economy could certainly use that stimulus as their national leadership has seemingly been doing every thing they can to DEINDUSTRIALIZE their country’s domestic economy.
Maybe they are beginning to come to their senses under prodding from the AfD.