Sometimes new government strategies really aren’t newsworthy. The 2026 National Defence Strategy (NDS) is like that.
The biggest headline from the document is the additional defence spending of $53 billion over the next decade, which the government claims (with some accounting sleights of hand) will reach 3% of GDP.
While this technically meets US President Donald Trump’s demands for America’s allies in NATO and elsewhere to spend more on their militaries, there’s more to it than that. In particular, NATO measures are based on how much cash is spent annually, rather than the future spending laid out in long-term plans.
