20% target for equipment/R&D: boost potential for German/EU defence industry
While joint European procurement initiatives will help to use EU military
resources more efficiently – they cannot compensate for the fact that overall
European and German defence investment spending is generally rather low,
compared to major peers.
According to the Commission, the EU-28 spends an
average of EUR 27,639 on R&D and equipment per soldier. This is only one-
fourth of the amount that the United States invests on one of their soldiers. This
shortcoming has also been addressed in NATO’s 2014 “Defence Investment
Pledge”. On top of their 2% of GDP spending target, NATO members agreed to
lift their share of spending for major new equipment and R&D to 20% of this 2%
target.
According to NATO estimates, Germany undershot this target last year
markedly with equipment spending estimated at 12.2% (or EUR 4.6 bn), also
below the 13.9% NATO median
EU Forecast
euf:ba18.d:81/nws-01