NATO chief Mark Rutte recently made a brutally honest assessment, arguing that European defense is basically “helpless” without the United States providing key military assets. His statement comes from a worrying reality: while Europe can produce the equipment, it still relies heavily on American intelligence, logistics, and command-and-control capabilities systems to coordinate all that firepower.
According to Politico, without those crucial elements, experts agree Europe has little hope of successfully deterring Russia. Detaching from the U.S. will be extraordinarily time-consuming and expensive. Some estimates suggest replacing the American contribution would cost at least $1 trillion over the next quarter-century, or perhaps even 10 percent of the continent’s collective GDP.
