Eastern European NATO member states have increased their defense spending to an unprecedented $70 billion a year.
Bloomberg reports this.
NATO countries have increased defense spending
Estonia and Poland have become the leaders among those countries that have increased their defense and weapons budgets.
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These countries have sufficient reserves of military equipment, but as the agency writes, orders for aircraft, helicopters, tanks and missile systems have demonstrated how much more needs to be added to meet the standards of the North Atlantic Alliance in the most dangerous time since the Cold War wars.
— By replacing most of the Soviet equipment sent to Ukraine, NATO is trying to quickly build up the military potential of most countries, which has been ignored for decades.
The ignoring was due to the fact that defense faded into the background after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Balkan wars, — writes Bloomberg.
It is noted that such costs are unprecedented and extremely high in comparison with the budgets of these countries.
However, high-ranking officials realize how important it is to purchase modern military equipment and train personnel to use it effectively.
— We have done nothing in this area for almost 20 years. So, in essence, this is a jump from 1st and 2nd generation machines straight to 4th or 5th. It is like moving from a computer with 386 processors to modern multi-core networks, — explained Slovakia's Chief of Staff Daniel Zmeko.
