UK chief of defence staff calls on government to spend more on military
www.bbc.com
Treasury minister Darren Jones says defence spending should rise to 2.5% of GDP, but avoids saying by when.

Summary

U.K. defense chief Admiral Sir Tony Radakin reported that Russia suffered its highest casualty rate since the start of the Ukraine war, with 1,500 Russian soldiers killed or wounded daily in October, totaling around 700,000 casualties since February 2022.

Radakin noted that these losses are for minor territorial gains, and emphasized the heavy strain of Russia’s defense spending.

While allies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump suggest Ukraine may need to cede territory to achieve peace, Radakin affirmed Western support for Ukraine “as long as it takes.” Trump, who aims to end U.S. support for Ukraine, has not outlined a specific peace strategy.

  • thebestaquaman@lemmy.worldEnglish
    271·
    11 days ago

    There have been major investments in the European military industry the past years. Europe is ramping up its production. With new factories in place, it makes no sense for Europe to start cutting down on production- that would mean huge sums have been spent to build factories that aren’t used.

    Also, a bunch of countries have already paid for huge orders of equipment that will keep flowing for the next several years. Even if no new investments are made, there will be a substantial flow of weapons from European manufacturers.

    That’s not even mentioning that Europe has finally understood that we need to be able to stand on our own feet militarily, because we can’t trust that the US will actually honor the NATO pact if shit hits the fan.

    Accounting for purchasing power parity, the US economy is about 1.1x the size of the EU, and the population of the EU is about 1.5x that of the US. So it’s not like Europe doesn’t have the capacity to massively scale up its military power.

    Remember that up until 80 years ago, the European militaries were by far the most powerful in the world.

    • hydropticEnglish
      97·
      11 days ago

      And none of that necessarily translates to a sufficient will to help Ukraine. Germany has already been making it clear they want to scale down support

      • nexusband@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        11 days ago

        Where has Germany said that? If we are going to have elections in January, it’s highly likely Merz will be chancellor and while I do not agree with the CDU on social and economic issues, rest assured, Ukraine will have Taurus by the end of March and the full permission to use it as they see fit for the war effort.

      • thebestaquaman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        11 days ago

        It seems to me like most European countries see supplying equipment to destroy the Russian army in Ukraine as preferable to destroying the Russian army on their own soil. Although I do hope Germany picks up the pace rather than reduces it.

        However, even without Germany, there are plenty of other European countries that will be capable of buying truckloads of equipment from German manufacturers.

        • hydropticEnglish
          21·
          11 days ago

          But considering that Ukraine has been facing consistent shortages of materiel – including things like various kinds of artillery ammunition (although part of the problem especially with shells is that production is still ramping up) – that really doesn’t seem to have been the case. A lot of the equipment they’ve been given has just been token amounts that are clearly not enough but makes it seem like at least we’re doing something.

          • thebestaquaman@lemmy.worldEnglish
            41·
            11 days ago

            I definitely think the ramping up is going far too slowly, and as such it isn’t strange that there are shortages.

            This is a huge war- the largest land war since WWII. All of NATO is still operating on a peace-time economy, so ramping up production to the levels required to support a 500 k - 1 mill. strong army like the Ukrainians is taking far too long.

            However, as far as I can tell, production in Europe is only heading one way: Up. Not only that, Russia is operating in a war economy, which is, more or less by definition, unsustainable in the long run. Europe has the economic capacity to double its production, and maintain it indefinitely. I just think we should prioritise more heavily, and scale up more quickly.