The president demands NATO member increase spending to 5% of GDP.
Germany agrees but
NATO members are currently committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on military expenditure, a target which around one third of the alliance still doesn’t meet, including Portugal (1.55%), Italy (1.49%), Canada (1.37%), Belgium (1.3%) and Spain (1.28%).
Will 5% be enough?
Europe could survive without United States military support — but it would take a quarter century to replace the Americans and cost as much as $1 trillion, according to a new report.
The costs of like-for-like replacement of U.S. equipment and personnel would add up to approximately $1 trillion over 25 years, the study found. That includes one-off procurement costs ranging from $226 billion to $344 billion — depending on the quality of the equipment purchased — and additional expenses associated with military maintenance, personnel and support.
The IISS also estimated that in the event of a large-scale military operation to counter a Russian attack, the cost to replace U.S. personnel (estimated at 128,000 troops) would exceed $12 billion.
The assessment does not include other glaring gaps, the cost of which is harder to quantify. These include command and control, coordination, space, intelligence and surveillance, as well as the cost of nuclear weapons.
But cash-strapped governments only have so much wiggle room to spend more on defense while keeping their national debts under control.