Germany will likely overtake the UK in total military spending before the 2030s, a report by one defence think-tank has claimed.
Research conducted by Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has found that Germany will soon eclipse the United Kingdom when it comes to military spending.
It comes as the latter begins to ramp up spending in the sector after largely avoiding militarization since the end of the Cold War, a change that has been sparked by Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.
By contrast, the UK government has committed itself to cutting the size of its military despite the fact that the country’s defence forces — as things currently stand — would likely be unable to combat any sort of serious threat to the country or its interests.
According to the NGO report published on Wednesday, such a transition will see gross spending by the German government on defence rise above UK spending before 2030.
“In the immediate aftermath of the Ukraine invasion, the German chancellor established a €100-billion fund to be spent on defence over coming years, in addition to the annual €50-billion core budget,” the report said.
“There remains some uncertainty over how rapidly this fund will be spent,” it continued. “Even so, together with extra funds allocated to Ukraine support and a likely increase in the core budget, total German spending could overtake that of the UK within the next few years”.
“Even if it does not, the gap between the two countries seems likely to narrow,” the document went on to say.
The report goes on to say that increased defence spending from both France and Germany ultimately may risk leaving the United Kingdom out in the cold when it comes to its sway in the defence of the European continent.
This is not even accounting for the fact that previous reports have already indicated that the country’s military is losing its capacity to respond to external threats, with repeated investigations from both inside and outside government finding that the country is woefully ill-prepared for a near-peer conflict with stocks of ammunition and supplies low.
Meanwhile, certain elements of British defence find itself preoccupied with pushing progressive politics rather than shoring up national security, with the Royal Air Force being accused recently of effectively banning the hiring of white men in order to push diversity quotas.
However, despite all of these negative elements dragging UK defence down, RUSI has emphasised that it will take quite a bit of time for the likes of Germany to completely catch up with the UK militarily.
“Even if Germany’s defence budget does overtake the UK in the next three years, that doesn’t mean that Germany will be a more capable power than the UK,” report author Professor Malcolm Chalmers assured The Times.
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