- Russia, China boost defence
- Military spending hits $2.2tn
- Global tensions escalate
A new analysis predicts a rise in military spending next year as the world enters “a more perilous period.”
A recent estimate shows that worldwide ammunition and nuclear weapons spending has reached a record $2.2tn (£1.7tn) up 9%. Furthermore, as the world enters “a more dangerous period,” expenditures will increase once more in 2024.
Russia, which is embroiled in a conflict with Ukraine, allocates more than 30 percent of annual government expenditures to its armed forces, according to a Tuesday publication by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on the balance of global military power.
According to the report, the Russian military has lost over 3,000 main battle tanks in Ukraine, which is approximately the number of tanks that were operational prior to the invasion’s full-scale operation two years ago. To restock depleted supplies, Moscow is presently “exchanging quantity for quality.”
The increase in expenditure has been influenced not only by the NATO alliance but also by China.
The analysis stated that in the past decade, NATO allies have increased their collective defence expenditures by nearly one-third. This excludes the United States, which possesses the most formidable military in the world. This reorientation was instigated by Vladimir Putin’s initial incursion into Crimea in 2014.
Defence Gaps and Global Tensions
Nevertheless, it cautioned that “glaring gaps” in capability persisted due to decades of defence budget cutbacks. Over the weekend, Donald Trump incited controversy. He lambasted the bulk of European NATO partners and Canada for not spending 2% of GDP on defence. He threatened to launch strikes against member states that failed to invest adequately in their armed forces.
According to the IISS think tank, the United States and Europe are resuming production of ammunition and missiles, with a renewed emphasis on artillery and air defence systems – domains that have been neglected since the end of the Cold War, when industrial capacity and stockpiles were depleted.
Nations, including China and Russia, are also concentrating on new technologies such as unmanned attack boats, which Ukraine utilised effectively against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and hypersonic missiles, which travel at a velocity exceeding five times the speed of sound and are extremely difficult to intercept, according to the IISS.
“With China adding missile silos and the United States modernising warheads and delivery systems, nuclear weapons are also very much back on the agenda,” the think tank said in a statement issued prior to the publication of the annual Military Balance.
In 1965, the report assessed every military force globally for the 65th time.
The think tank asserts that “over the past year, the world has entered a more perilous period.”
This occurred during the Ukraine conflict, the Hamas-Israeli battle in the Middle East, and rising West-China tensions.
Global Power Dynamics Shift
According to the think tank, the Chinese Communist Party is showcasing an expanding capability to project power. This development is forcing the West and Asian militaries to cooperate more to resist the threat.
Furthermore, it underscored the growing sway of Iran, as evidenced by the provision of Iranian anti-ship missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are launching assaults against vessels in the Red Sea, and the sale of Iranian suicide drones to Russia, which are currently being employed with catastrophic results in Ukraine.
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According to the IISS, global defence expenditure is projected to increase by an additional 9% in 2024. This is in line with previously disclosed spending commitments, compared to the previous year.
Bastian Giegerich, chief executive officer and director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, stated, “The publication of the IISS Military Balance coincides with a critical juncture in which the legitimacy of the rules-based order is being called into question.”
As Western defence expenditures increase and initiatives to upgrade equipment persist, we contemplate the obstacles that have been posed, such as the ongoing incursion of Russia into Ukraine, the modernisation of the Chinese military, and developments in the Middle East.
