The Russian invasion of Ukraine kicked off a significant increase in military spending across NATO with the vast majority of NATO members hitting their spending targets by 2024.

The diplomatic fissures with the United States in 2025 however, have prompted an even more dramatic response and many allies now seem to be prioritising greater independence from the U.S. and U.S. products alongside the goal of greater military readiness.

With the EU introducing the ReArm Europe plan, Germany moving to exempt most defence spending from debt restrictions and many alliance members now planning defence ramp-ups, today we look at some of those plans.

This episode covers a few of the initiatives and efforts we’ve seen announced so far, what they could achieve, what the dynamics of alliance members attempting to reduce their often long-running reliance on U.S. arms and equipment.