Wall Street Journal: Their armies are getting weaker with lack of arsenals… A Military collapse in European countries
The Wall Street Journal reported that the armies of Europe, in particular the British army, which is considered the largest defense spender in Europe, has only about 150 battle-ready tanks, and perhaps more than a dozen operational long-range artillery pieces, ready for service.
The Wall Street Journal described the military treasury as “so empty,” that the British Army considered last year obtaining multiple missile launchers from museums, to modernize them and donate them to Ukraine, an idea that was later abandoned.
As for France, which is the second largest spending country in Europe, It has less than 90 heavy artillery pieces, which is equivalent to what Russia loses almost every month on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Denmark doesn’t have heavy artillery, submarines, or air defense systems, while the German army has enough ammunition for two days in a military battle.
In the years following the end of the Cold War, governments throughout the West tolerated weak European armies, because US involvement, thanks to its enormous military muscle, served as the foundation on which NATO and defense policy in Europe were built, and the United States formed nearly 70% of NATO’s defense spending last year.
However, discomfort has grown as the US moves toward a more isolationist stance, and as the potential threat to Europe from Russia reemerges, after nearly two years of bloody fighting in Ukraine.
There is no direct military threat to Europe from Russia, and Western military and political leaders believe that Russia is now under control thanks to the war of attrition it is waging in Ukraine, but if Russia ultimately wins in Ukraine, no one doubts Moscow’s ability to fully rearm it; Within three to four years and causing problems elsewhere.
Much of Europe’s weapons-making capacity has been eroded by years of budget cuts, and changing that is a challenge at a time when most governments face budget constraints amid slowing economic growth and an aging population, as well as significant political opposition to curtailing production.
Anthony King, professor of war studies at the University of Warwick, said Europe “systematically disarmed because it didn’t need to spend money,” thanks to the lack of a clear threat and US military dominance around the world… They literally went to sleep”.
European countries pledged to provide billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, but said they faced economic restrictions and restrictions on arms production.
If the United States withdraws from providing the bulk of aid, Europe won’t have the necessary stockpiles to make up the difference, and won’t be able to resupply Ukraine and rebuild its forces at the same time.
The head of NATO’s Military Committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said this year that Europe could now see the bottom of the barrel in terms of what it could offer Ukraine.
The European Union is unlikely to fulfill its promise to supply Ukraine with a million badly needed artillery shells by this spring, which it has achieved only a third of that amount so far.
In the same period, according to The Wall Street Journal, North Korea shipped more than a million missiles to Russia in the same period, according to Western officials and statements by the Russian government.
Ukrainian officials said that if the aid stopped completely, they wouldn’t be able to continue the already faltering military campaign to reclaim the captured territory, and they may not be able to fend off Russian units backed by a much larger country with superior manpower reserves.
