They should easily be able to make their own rifles and pistols and ammunition. They can repurpose car/truck plants to make jeeps, trucks and light armoured vehicles (if they don't get them from Canada). They, hopefully, have the high-tech software and manufacturing to create air-air or surface-air missiles and associated radar. The only heavy manufacturing items would be artillery and its shells.
Yeah, there's no mention of tanks but they, too, can be made if they're still necessary. There's a chance that such big-thing weapons are less useful than they used to be based on the results in Ukraine. Europe doesn't really need to build ships in quantity as they're the target more than the attacker.
This will take political will. Open question whether countries and their politicians can or will muster such will. But as many have written, it's time for the rest of the world to stand together vs. the 3 large countries. Perhaps they need to stand up some infantry and engineering units to get boots on the ground and organized groups that can handle disasters as well as combat engineering.
And yeah, stop sending cash elsewhere for the expensive weapons that might not work as you expect them (or when you expect).
ben_w•1h ago
When you wrote "the 3 large countries", I must confess my first thought was "why, what has India done?": While Russia has a large land area, and are a potential threat if they were to take over Ukraine, until recently the EU's limited financing of Ukraine has been the geopolitical equivalent of loose change found behind the sofa, and that only really changed with the deal that kinda-is-kinda-isn't giving Ukraine the frozen Russian assets.
The differential outcomes for Iran (no nukes) vs North Korea (nukes), then the Russian attempt on Ukraine with nuclear sabre-rattling, and now Trump's plans on Greenland, have all made it increasingly desirable for nations to join the nuclear weapons club.
jleyank•1h ago
Yeah, there's no mention of tanks but they, too, can be made if they're still necessary. There's a chance that such big-thing weapons are less useful than they used to be based on the results in Ukraine. Europe doesn't really need to build ships in quantity as they're the target more than the attacker.
This will take political will. Open question whether countries and their politicians can or will muster such will. But as many have written, it's time for the rest of the world to stand together vs. the 3 large countries. Perhaps they need to stand up some infantry and engineering units to get boots on the ground and organized groups that can handle disasters as well as combat engineering.
And yeah, stop sending cash elsewhere for the expensive weapons that might not work as you expect them (or when you expect).
ben_w•1h ago
For specific weapons:
I believe Rheinmetall is currently on target to make more shells than the USA by 2027: https://www.thedefensenews.com/news-details/Germanys-Rheinme...
The differential outcomes for Iran (no nukes) vs North Korea (nukes), then the Russian attempt on Ukraine with nuclear sabre-rattling, and now Trump's plans on Greenland, have all made it increasingly desirable for nations to join the nuclear weapons club.