PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – The EU proposed a plan to free up $841 billion in defense spending over the next four years to face Russian aggression and help Ukraine defend itself.
The EU Commission president said the world is seeing an era of rearmament, and the 27-nation bloc is ready to “massively” boost defense spending.
The plans include $158 billion in loans to member states to build up pan-European capacities in areas like air defense and ammunition.
The spending proposal comes as Trump has pulled military and financial support for Ukraine and appears ready to walk away from NATO security guarantees for Europe.
Trump has repeatedly criticized European NATO members for not spending enough on defense.
Only a handful of NATO members spent more than 2.5% of GDP on defense in 2024, and nearly a third didn’t meet the 2% target set by NATO in 2014.
MEANWHILE – Russian defense spending overtakes Europe.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense stories ending the week from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:
NATIONAL SECURITY
Inside IBM’s complex effort to create and scale next-gen quantum supercomputers by 2029.
Advancing AI in the US military. The end of the beginning of widespread Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption has arrived, making a marked difference in processing large data sets.
Rough seas ahead: Steering the military profession. The cyclone of rapid-fire actions taken by the Trump team in its first weeks has affected every part of the government, including the Department of Defense and military services.
How Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ could speed up hypersonic weapon test range expansion. The Pentagon wants new flight corridors to test hypersonic weapons over the US and Australia — and it’s eyeing Trump’s urgent call for a homeland missile shield as a mechanism to speed up approval.
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
SECDEF Hegseth reinstated the name “Fort Benning” on Monday for one of the nation’s largest military bases – the second such reversal and the first that requires actually removing the name of a service member. But now named after a different non-Confederate “Benning.”
CHANGING YOUR SEX CAUSES “CHAOS” – Transgender troops say Pentagon is causing chaos with sudden policy reversal.
POLITICS
Marine One carrying Trump and Musk lands at White House after Florida trip.
US POWER OVERSEAS
CENTCOM forces kill the senior military leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
How US company Metrea hopes to grow the private air refueling market. Far from home and high above the seas for an event called “Pacific Skies” last year, three German Eurofighters made several pitstops behind KC-135 Stratotankers, helping the fighters notch its longest-ever flight, 10 and a half hours.
CHINA THREAT
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Norway receives three new F-35As, as Europeans rethink arms production.
IRAN THREAT/ISRAEL WARS
SPACE THREAT
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Thailand condemned for ‘shameful’ mass deportation of Uyghur refugees to China. The deportations came despite a U.N. statement saying those being sent to China faced a “real risk of torture” on their return.
US MILITARY
New Army ammo facility to supply millions of new 6.8 mm rounds annually. The Army is closer to producing millions of rounds each year of its newest caliber for the service’s newest rifle and light machine gun combination — the Next Generation Squad Weapon.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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So….they had the money, but why spend it on their own defense as long as they could leech off of the U.S.? Finally the whole world can see the truth of it.
This is excellent news; We’ve been subsidizing them for far too long.
It’s way past time they do their share