“Photo: Gettyimages.com Against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s intentions to weaken transatlantic cooperation in NATO with European allies, the EU thought about the creation of a new regional alliance and their United Army. The journalist briefly found out how real it is and what military potential the European countries have. Who in Europe is the strongest to determine the set of combat capability and efficiency of European armies […]”, – WRITE: Businessua.com.ua
Photo: Gettyimages.com
Against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s intentions to weaken the transatlantic cooperation in NATO with European allies, the EU was thinking about the creation of a new regional alliance and their united army.
Journalist Briefly about He found out how real it is and what military potential the European countries have.
Who in Europe is the strongest It is difficult to determine the set of combat capability and efficiency of European armies, at least because each country itself defines and builds its defense policy. Their coordination goes through NATO, not through a single command point in the EU. That is, each has its own “sandbox”, the potential of common opportunities can be reduced only by estimating the resources of each individual army.
Experts from the international company Global Firepower, which annually make ratings of the strongest armies of the world and Europe, have released their report for 2024.
This rating takes into account several major factors, such as the number of the army, the number of tanks, aircraft, ships and other weapons. And inertia is not yet given a leading role for drones and robotics. The first thing experts repel are the number of armed forces.
The top five of Europe looks like this:
According to the UK Ministry of Armed Forces, their army is 220,000 (45,000 reservists). Italy’s regular army is 185 thousand people (about 20,000 reservists). In France, 200,000 people (70,000 in the reserve). The German Bundesver has 180,000 fighters and commanders (35,000 in the reserve).
In total, in the EU countries, the number of armies of all countries approaches 2 million people, and this is even more than in the United States, where there are about 1 million 400 thousand people in the service (at a reserve of 850,000 people). The overall problem of all European armies is the lack of combat experience.
There is no such experience as the Armed Forces in Europe. Photo: FB Armed Forces of Ukraine
Ukraine has combat experience, in Poland – a rapid impoverishment of the army number And in this unified EU army, the Armed Forces (subject to Ukraine’s accession to the EU) can be a unique place. Currently, about 980 thousand people serve in the defense forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian army was among the five strongest armies of Europe, taking the fourth place and ahead of many Western partners. The main advantage of the Ukrainian military is the experience of fighting against the potential enemy of the whole Europe – the army of the Russian Federation.
And the most dynamic is now developing the Polish army (7th in the Global Firepower rating). In Poland, more than 200 thousand people are already in combat. And the authorities of the country have repeatedly declared an increase in the number of armed forces to 300 thousand people.
The Polish army is about as many modern tanks as in Germany and France combined, and it will be even more. Poland is actively purchasing weapons in South Korea – a contract is concluded for 13 billion euros, which includes the purchase of 1000 modern K2 “Black Panther” tanks, 672 howitzers and 288 RSZV. In particular, part of this order will be fulfilled in Poland itself. After 2026, it is planned to release 820 tanks and thus increase production capacity. Purchases of military aircraft are also planned.
The number of Polish army is 200,000 people but Warsaw wants to increase it to 300,000. Photo: wikipedia.org
In Europe there are not enough soldiers But ambitious plans for the re -equipment and modernization of European troops are impossible without solving the problem of critical lack of human resources. After the end of the Cold War and the long era of peace, most European countries abandoned the military conscription system capable of providing a mass influx of human resources and moved to limited contract armies. Yes, Germany abandoned the conscription in 2011, and various conscription systems are stored only in the Baltic, Finland, Sweden and Austria.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in the last decade and the United Kingdom does not fulfill its annual plans for the recruitment of military personnel annually. The French armed forces have not yet reached the required number and have decreased by 8% since 2014. In Italy, the number of armed forces decreased from 200 thousand ten years ago to 160,900 today.
The shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces will have to decide either the return of military duty or the allocation of even more financial resources to encourage the contract service. Each of these options requires preparation and considerable political resource.
The Bundesver has everything except soldiers. Photo: Bagnet.org
The European MPC is growing rapidly There is currently a significant increase in the financing of the defense sector in Europe. This is evidenced by a significant increase in shares of large European defense enterprises. Yes, the shares of the German company Rheinmetall, a manufacturer of Leopard tanks, have increased by almost 90% since the beginning of the year. British arms manufacturer Bae Systems has increased by more than a third. Significant growth was also demonstrated by the defensive enterprises of the Italian company Leonardo and French Thales.
– Problems of drowning are problems of drowning. It is clear that Trump is not going to listen to Europeans’ excuses about lack of money or other problems. The US knows that there is money in Europe and demand to fulfill their obligations, including an increase in military expenses up to 5% of GDP. Europeans now have to pay more for their safety, – sure Political scientist Taras Zagorodniy.
French army soldiers look solid and threatening, but only the experience is clearly lacking. Photo: wikipedia.org
On the subject
French “nuclear umbrella” can close the entire continent An important point in the independence of Europeans from the United States is nuclear potential. And if the US is really giving up security guarantees for the EU, Europe hall Only sew with the French nuclear arsenal of 290 warheads. And to restrain Russia and to protect all European countries is not enough.
Therefore, there are three options for changing the nuclear status of Europe: “Europeanization”, that is, the spread of the French nuclear arsenal to all of Europe, the revision of non -nuclear status of other European countries and the purchase of nuclear weapons in other countries, including the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron proposes Europe to use the French arsenal of nuclear restraint to protect the whole continent from threats from Russia.
Such a scenario involves, on the one hand, collective financial investments in the development of the French arsenal, and on the other – the transformation of French weapons into pan -European, and therefore joint decision making regarding their use.
The expert’s comment
– Europeans realized and realized that the situation is much more dangerous than they seemed. And now they will have much more attention to their defense. And no matter how difficult it is for them, they woke up and realized that no Trump would protect them anymore. And Putin and his threat will always be near. And Russia should understand that in the event of an attack it attacks not only Ukraine but also other European countries, – notes International expert Igor Reityrovich.
Source: kp.ua
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