The Ukraine war has increased Europe\u2019s dependence on arms imports in the past five years, but it may also have helped to turn Europe into a rising arms manufacturer and exporter, new research suggests.<\/p>\n
Imports of major arms by European states more than tripled during 2021-25, when the Ukraine war has raged, compared with the previous five-year period of 2016-20, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual Arms Transfers report released on Monday.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Almost half of those weapons \u2013 48 percent \u2013 came from the United States, suggesting that Europe is failing in a commonly shared ambition of becoming more weapons-autonomous.<\/p>\n Poland and the United Kingdom are Europe\u2019s biggest importers of weapons, said SIPRI.<\/p>\n However, there are caveats to that picture.<\/p>\n \u201cUkrainian arms imports over the last five years made 43 percent of the overall increase in European imports,\u201d said Katarina Djokic, a leading SIPRI researcher.<\/p>\n That figure measures only direct imports from the US to Ukraine, she said. It does not include imports made on Ukraine\u2019s behalf by other European states. So in reality, Ukraine\u2019s needs made up an even bigger proportion of Europe\u2019s imports.<\/p>\n Beneath that headline figure of growing European imports lies another picture of Europe.<\/p>\n \u201cTaken together, the arms exports of the 27 current EU member states went up by 36 percent,\u201d said SIPRI\u2019s report.<\/p>\n That is a faster growth rate than the US\u2019s 27 percent over the same period, and China\u2019s 11 percent.<\/p>\n The European Union\u2019s combined arms exports accounted for 28 percent of total global arms exports in the past five years, nearly replacing its imports, which account for a third of the world\u2019s total.<\/p>\n That 28 percent of the global market is \u201cfour times higher than Russia\u2019s export volume and five times higher than China\u2019s\u201d, said SIPRI.<\/p>\n At the same time, Russia, seen as Europe\u2019s main security threat, has seen its share of arms exports collapse by 64 percent in the past five years compared with the previous five years.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir exports have dropped off partly because they desperately need what they make themselves,\u201d said General Ben Hodges, a former commander of US forces in Europe.<\/p>\n \u201cBut nobody wants to buy Russian kit because it\u2019s been proven to be not that good \u2026 their technology has been defeated by Ukrainian technology,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s top clients are abandoning it, Djokic said.<\/p>\n \u201cChina has promoted its own defence industry and has become independent in arms production. For a while, they were importing at least, for instance, Russian-produced engines for Chinese-produced aircraft. Now they have their own design, they don\u2019t really need it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Europe depends on the US for a number of reasons, said Djokic.<\/p>\n Some items, such as multiple-launch rocket systems, are not manufactured in Europe, she noted.<\/p>\n Then there is the desire to go for the best-in-class.<\/p>\n \u201c[States] go for something they perceive as superior technology, so you have many air forces wanting to have the F-35 [jets] even though some of them can\u2019t use all the capabilities they gain with that,\u201d said Djokic.<\/p>\n Another example is the battle-proven Patriot antiballistic missile defence system.<\/p>\n But perhaps the biggest reason is the desire to strengthen the security partnership with the US, which has been perceived as the biggest security partner, \u201cespecially in the eastern part of the EU\u201d, Djokic said.<\/p>\n For example, Poland, which says it is building Europe\u2019s largest land army, is equipping its armed forces almost exclusively with US weapons.<\/p>\n That may be changing.<\/p>\n Unlike in previous support packages from the EU, Brussels is now insisting that Ukraine give preferential treatment to weapons it can buy in Europe.<\/p>\n That is because after the US moved away from providing aid to Ukraine under President Donald Trump, the EU has become Ukraine\u2019s biggest donor and supporter, sending 195 billion euros ($230bn) to date and voting to lend Ukraine another 90 billion euros ($106bn) over the next two years. Much of that money will now flow back into the EU.<\/p>\n The perception of the US as a security partner is also likely to suffer, said Hodges.<\/p>\n \u201cThe transatlantic relationship is still there, but it\u2019s not the same and probably will never be the same,\u201d he said. \u201cEuropeans are realising that they have to become less and less dependent on the US if an American president can say, \u2018S**** you guys\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Hodges was referring to Trump\u2019s abandonment of Ukraine in the midst of Russia\u2019s invasion, his questionable commitment to NATO and his threat this year to invade Greenland, a territory belonging to a NATO ally.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, the fighting in the Middle East, the dangers are not going to go away. So most European countries have a more sober, realistic view of the threats and the need for stronger capabilities for deterrence, especially if they sense that the US is not as present or capable or reliable as it has been,\u201d Hodges said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll continue to see growth, and investors are more willing to invest in defence now \u2013 pension funds, insurance companies \u2013 who have traditionally shied away from defence.\u201d<\/p>\n Europe has ploughed 150 billion euros ($175bn) into Security Action for Europe (SAFE), a low-cost loan programme given to member states that buy weapons from other member states. More than 113 billion euros ($113bn) of that have been allocated to member states.<\/p>\n None of these changes in spending and perception is yet reflected in SIPRI\u2019s numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are witnessing now are new orders being placed for European weapons systems, prominently Aristide air defence systems from Germany, or Cesar howitzers from France, where you can tell that this kind of support through the European Union does play a role in promoting within-EU procurement,\u201d said Djokic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Ukraine war has increased Europe\u2019s dependence on arms imports in the past five years, but it may also have helped to turn Europe into a rising arms manufacturer and exporter, new research suggests. Imports of major arms by European states more than tripled during 2021-25, when the Ukraine war has raged, compared with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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