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the russia-ukraine conflict has lasted for more than two years. in addition to the fact that the warring parties are exhausted by the brutal war of attrition, the european union was also shocked to find that in the "european rearmament" plan against the backdrop of the russia-ukraine conflict, about two-thirds of the weapons purchased by european countries at a cost of tens of billions of dollars came from the united states. this made american arms dealers earn a lot of money, but damaged the eu's own defense capabilities.

"63% of defense procurement goes to the united states"

the u.s. "defense news" stated on the 10th that the "landmark" "eu competitiveness report" submitted by former italian prime minister and former european central bank president mario draghi warned that eu countries have purchased too many weapons and equipment from overseas in the past two years, 2/3 of which came from the united states, and that the eu's investment in joint military projects is seriously insufficient.

the report mentioned that a year ago, the european commission asked draghi to write a special report on how the eu should maintain its competitiveness in the green and digital economy amid intensified global frictions. the report mentioned in the part on defense capabilities that the 27 eu member states have failed to fully utilize their own research and development capabilities to modernize their military, and their investment level is only a fraction of that of the united states.

defense news stated that since 2014, nato member states (most of which are eu member states) have been increasing their defense spending, with the goal of each country spending at least 2% of its gdp on the defense budget. the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict further stimulated european countries to increase their defense spending. the eu competitiveness report predicts that by the end of this year, 23 of the 32 eu member states will reach or exceed the 2% target. these countries hope to use at least 20% of their defense spending to purchase major new equipment, including research and development funds, which is crucial to modernizing the armed forces. but from the actual results, the defense research and development expenditures of the 27 eu member states in 2022 totaled 10.7 billion euros (about 11.8 billion us dollars), accounting for only 4.5% of the total; in contrast, the united states is 140 billion us dollars, accounting for about 16% of its defense spending.

in recent years, the us president has frequently urged european allies to increase defense spending, but most of the relevant funds flow to the united states. from 2022 to 2023, 63% of the eu's defense orders were given to american companies, and another 15% were given to other non-eu suppliers such as turkey and south korea.

the european version of the u.s. politico website said on the 9th that many eu countries were rapidly rearming after the outbreak of the russia-ukraine conflict. according to the report, from june 2022 to june 2023, 78% of the eu's defense procurement orders worth 75 billion euros were given to arms dealers outside the eu, and 63% were directed to the united states.

eu unwilling to "in-house sourcing"

the report believes that this situation is partly due to the failure to make appropriate investments in europe to create stronger defense companies. "we have not yet united in the defense industry to help our companies integrate and achieve scale. we also do not value competitive european defense companies." the report highlights the disadvantages of eu countries investing in their own defense industries rather than joint procurement. for example, when ukraine requested artillery from european countries, the eu provided up to 10 different howitzers, including the french "caesar" vehicle-mounted howitzer, the british as-90 self-propelled howitzer, the german pzh 2000 self-propelled howitzer, the polish "crab" self-propelled howitzer, etc., but even though they are all 155mm caliber, they still need to use different shells, adding additional logistical burdens. the report criticized that "the eu is wasting its common resources. we have a strong collective defense industrial capability, but it is dispersed among many different countries and organizations."

the bigger problem comes from the eu countries' reluctance to "internally purchase". the report said that buying some weapons from the united states "may be reasonable in some cases because there are no corresponding products in the eu's weapons list". but in many other cases, when the eu clearly has similar products, it often chooses to purchase from other countries, which greatly damages the eu's defense capabilities.

the "politics" website cited an example that although europe has the ability to produce a variety of advanced equipment, including "typhoon" and "rafale" fighters, "leopard 2 a7+" main battle tanks, "caesar" and pzh 2000 howitzers, "tiger" attack helicopters, etc., many countries are purchasing similar equipment from abroad. for example, the netherlands, germany, poland, romania, belgium, denmark, the czech republic and other countries have successively decided or planned to purchase the f-35 stealth fighter of lockheed martin of the united states. romania and poland chose to purchase the k-9 self-propelled howitzer from south korea. at the same time, poland also introduced the "sky dance" multiple rocket launcher, fa-50 light fighter, k2 "black panther" main battle tank from south korea, and the "apache" attack helicopter from the united states.

the report also mentioned that due to insufficient relevant r&d investment and follow-up orders, the scale and production capacity of european defense companies have been seriously affected. the direct result is that the eu found it difficult to increase relevant supplies when ukraine urgently needed weapons. for example, the european commission previously claimed that as of january this year, european countries' production capacity of 155mm caliber artillery shells had reached 1 million per year. then in june, eu internal market commissioner thierry breton claimed that the eu plans to increase annual production capacity to 1.7 million by the end of 2024. however, a report released in july by an international media alliance composed of multiple media from germany, the czech republic, poland, finland and slovakia stated that the above statement of the eu is far from the facts. "at the beginning of this year, europe's production capacity of 155mm artillery shells was less than 550,000 per year."

the associated press said that the eu is not incapable of jointly developing weapons and equipment. for example, the airbus a330mrtt multi-purpose refueling transport aircraft was jointly developed by multiple european countries. it is currently the most successful aerial refueling aircraft in the world. it has been equipped in germany, france, britain, the united arab emirates, australia, singapore and other countries. many countries are interested in purchasing it, which enables the countries involved in the development to pool resources and share operating and maintenance costs.

let the united states make a lot of money

chinese experts interviewed by the global times said that the eu countries' reluctance to jointly develop and "internally purchase" weapons is related to many factors. the first is the decline of europe's manufacturing industry and the long-term lack of defense investment. such negative impacts cannot be solved by increasing investment in the short term. for example, britain was the first to invent tanks in world war i, but now britain has basically lost its tank manufacturing capabilities and can only modify some of its active "challenger 2" main battle tanks with the technical support of germany.

secondly, as modern weapons become more and more complex, it is increasingly difficult for small and medium-sized countries to bear the development costs independently, and joint development often wastes time due to disputes. for example, since 2017, france, germany, and spain have decided to jointly develop a new generation of fighter jets, the "future air combat system", but it was not until 2021 that the three countries reached an agreement on the phased development, intellectual property rights, and funding of the project's weapon system. currently, the project is progressing slowly; although france and germany have long announced the joint development of a new generation of main battle tanks, the project has now reached a deadlock, and france and germany are continuing to promote the improvement of the two countries' current main battle tanks.

at the same time, as nato has long dominated european security, american weapons account for a large proportion of the armies of european countries. due to political relations, security mechanisms, equipment maintenance and other considerations, many european countries have become dependent on the united states for national defense, and the number of american weapons in service continues to increase. "defense news" mentioned that from september 2022 to september 2023, of the $80 billion in arms orders received by the united states, orders from europe amounted to as much as $50 billion, which is five times the historical normal level.

in addition, after the outbreak of the russia-ukraine conflict, some european countries found that when they needed to urgently purchase modern weapons, european defense companies were slow to deliver. therefore, south korean and turkish weapons that could be delivered quickly were able to quickly occupy part of the european market.