Almost two-thirds of the arms imported by European members of Nato over the past five years were produced by the US, according to new research that underlined the continent’s deep reliance on American-made weapons.
Arms imports by the European nations more than doubled between 2020 and 2024 compared with the previous five years, as the region responded to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The US supplied 64 per cent of these arms, up from 52 per cent between 2015-2019.
Mathew George, director of the Sipri Arms Transfers Programme, said states moved forward with decisions to buy US arms despite public calls “to take steps to reduce their dependence on arms imports and to strengthen the arms industry in Europe”.