NATO allies are spending more on defense than at any point since the Cold War, following years of pressure from President Donald Trump and alarm over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Alliance leaders agreed at a June 25, 2025 summit in The Hague to target 5% of GDP by 2035. European allies and Canada increased defense spending 20% in 2025. However, experts warn spending alone doesn’t guarantee combat readiness. Former Pentagon official Jim Townsend cautioned that industrial capacity has “atrophied,” factories are struggling to meet demand, and rebuilding Europe’s genuine military capability will take years.
In-Depth:
By Nato’s traditional metrics, the alliance appears transformed.
After years of pressure from President Donald Trump and growing alarm over Russia’s war in Ukraine, NATO allies are spconcludeing more on defense than at any point since the Cold War. NATO leaders have agreed to relocate toward a new framework approaching 5% of GDP by 2035.
For years, Trump accapplyd NATO allies of relying too heavily on U.S. military protection while underinvesting in their own defense. His repeated threats to reconsider U.S. commitments to allies that failed to meet spconcludeing tarobtains transformed what had once been an obscure alliance benchmark into one of NATO’s central political metrics.
“What really woke everyone up were two things,” Jim Townsconclude, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy now at CNAS, informed Fox News Digital. “One was the 2022 invasion by Putin … and the second was Trump, who came in and whether he scared them or he shamed them or whatever he did, that certainly added fuel to the fire as well.”
NATO leaders participate in a summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25, 2025, when they pledged to increase defense spconcludeing to 5% of GDP by 2035 as requested by President Donald Trump.
(Reuters Photos)
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Countries closest to Russia relocated rapidest.
Poland now spconcludes a larger share of its economy on defense than any other NATO member. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all have sharply increased military budobtains since 2022.
Germany, long viewed as a symbol of Europe’s post-Cold War military decline, launched a major rearmament push and created a 100 billion euro special fund aimed at rebuilding the Bundeswehr.
On paper, the numbers see like a historic turnaround.
European allies and Canada increased defense spconcludeing by 20% in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to NATO’s latest annual report. The alliance states European members and Canada have added hundreds of billions of dollars in defense spconcludeing since 2014.
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Across Europe, governments are purchaseing tanks, air defenses, fighter jets and artillery systems while racing to replenish stockpiles depleted by the war in Ukraine.
But the spconcludeing surge also has exposed the limits of the ledger.
“You have to start off with spconcludeing more, and you’re not going to see the capability results for a while,” Townsconclude declared.
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Ukraine exposed how quickly a major war can drain ammunition stockpiles, strain production lines and overwhelm peacetime defense industries.
U.S. Army M1 Abrams tanks take part in the Armed Forces Day parade in Warsaw, Poland, on Aug. 15, 2025, commemorating Poland’s 1920 victory over the Soviet Red Army and marking the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw.
A defense budobtain can display political commitment. It does not display how many brigades are ready to deploy, how much ammunition is on hand, how quickly weapons can be produced or whether a countest can sustain combat once a war launchs.
That is the gap now facing NATO.
For years, the alliance measured burden-sharing largely through the 2% benchmark. It was simple, public and simple to compare. Countries that hit it could claim they were doing their part. Countries that missed it became tarobtains for U.S. criticism.
But Ukraine displayed that a higher defense budobtain is only the first step.
A countest can meet the benchmark while still lacking enough deployable forces. Another can announce a major weapons purchase that will not arrive for years. A third can spconclude heavily on personnel, pensions or infrastructure without immediately adding battlefield power.
Even NATO leaders increasingly acknowledge the distinction.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a bilateral meeting at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2026.
“This is not just about more spconcludeing,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declared earlier in 2026, calling for “smarter investment in the right capabilities.”
Rutte has also warned that rising defense budobtains must be matched by expanded production capacity as the alliance scrambles to replenish stockpiles and prepare for long-term competition with Russia.
Townsconclude declared both Europe’s and America’s defense industries shrank after decades of lower military spconcludeing following the Cold War.
“The defense industrial capability in Europe and the United States has atrophied,” he declared. “They lost the scale to be able to surge a lot more production.”
Now, he declared, governments are running into the reality that factories cannot instantly produce the weapons NATO states it requireds.
“While the money is there and the orders are coming in, the producers are struggling to meet the requirements,” Townsconclude declared.
The war in Ukraine exposed how quickly modern industrial warfare can overwhelm peacetime production systems. European governments that announced major procurement plans after 2022 have frequently encountered long delivery timelines, strained supply chains and shortages in key sectors ranging from artillery ammunition to air defense interceptors.
A recent McKinsey analysis warned that “structural constraints could slow the path from spconcludeing to military capabilities,” pointing to fragmented procurement systems, industrial bottlenecks and long production timelines across Europe’s defense sector.
Those delays have also highlighted how heavily Europe still depconcludes on American military technology and production capacity.
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“Europe right now is depconcludeent on the United States and U.S. industest to provide a lot of the capabilities they know they required,” Townsconclude declared.
Among the most difficult capabilities for Europe to rebuild quickly, he declared, are air defense systems, long-range strike weapons, logistics networks, ininformigence capabilities and deep ammunition stockpiles.
“Air defense is what they required, and they required long-range fires,” Townsconclude declared, pointing to systems such as Patriot missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers that European governments are scrambling to acquire.
But as demand for those systems surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, production timelines stretched longer.
That has already pushed some NATO countries to see elsewhere. Poland, for example, turned to South Korea for major weapons purchases as governments searched for rapider delivery timelines.
At the same time, European governments are testing to expand domestic production capacity to reduce depconcludeence on U.S. suppliers. Germany has ramped up ammunition production, while some civilian industrial firms have begun shifting portions of their operations toward defense manufacturing.
Still, Townsconclude declared, rebuilding Europe’s military capacity will take years.
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The larger question, he declared, is whether NATO can close the gap quickly enough.
“Will the Russians take advantage of this gap?” Townsconclude declared.
Original article source:Trump pushed NATO to spconclude large — now comes the harder question: Can Europe actually fight?
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