Which NATO countries are not hitting their defence spending targets?
The former US President ignited a political firestorm with the comments at a rally in South Carolina when he said of NATO countries: 'You didn't pay? You're delinquent?' No, I would not protect you.'
This doesn't include the money that many are not spending to maintain their military effectiveness. For example:
NATO: How useful is Germany's Bundeswehr? – DW – 02/25/2022
Following the Russian attack on Ukraine, NATO has begun to reinforce its eastern flank. The German Bundeswehr is also involved. But critics warn the army is too depleted to act.
www.dw.com
Officially, the Bundeswehr insists that it is not entirely helpless. Following the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Bundeswehr is now preparing for a possible deployment of the "NATO Response Force," the alliance's rapid reaction force that currently comprises a total of 40,000 soldiers. Germany contributes 13,700 troops to this force.
But the German military has been dogged by stories of depleted equipment for years. A Bundeswehr report from December found that 77% of Germany's military is operation-ready. It evidently considered that a good result — it being above the 70% target — since the military's leader, General Inspector Eberhard Zorn, made sure to add at the time that the Bundeswehr was "capable of fulfilling its tasks both inside and outside Germany at short notice, flexibly, and together with our allies."
And complex weapons systems like planes and tanks have proved particularly problematic. During last year's emergency evacuation of Afghanistan, the Bundeswehr was forced to rent freight planes made by, of all companies, the Ukrainian manufacturer Antonov. Germany's NH90 and Tiger combat helicopters, meanwhile, are hampered by long reparation times and a shortage of spare parts, and December's Bundeswehr report admitted that only 40% of them are currently combat-ready.
Similarly difficult to maintain are Germany's Puma tanks, an enormously expensive (they cost €17.1 million each) and enormously heavy piece of hardware that was already criticized because only crew of a certain height could get inside (soldiers could be no taller than 1.84 meters). This tank, built by German manufacturers Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall, was forced by NATO to undergo several modifications in recent years, and only 65% of the around 350 the Bundeswehr owns are currently combat-ready, the December report said. According to the Bundeswehr website, the German tanks will be ready for NATO's Very High Readiness Task Force by 2023.
