I just watched another interesting conversations on Polish news channel (TVN24)
So there was this expert that was talking about military equipment. Europe buys a lot of military equipment from the US. According to this site nowadays it's around 55% of European military imports:
sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/european-arms-imports-nearly-double-us-and-french-exports-rise-and-russian-exports-fall-sharply
This expert said that Trump wants European NATO countries to spend more on military, but not on just
any military equipment. He said Trump wants it to be
American military equipment. And as far as I understand American military equipment is expensive and high-maintenance. So, I imagine, American military industry is getting a lot of money from this and keeping a lot of jobs.
Now, that expert said that if European NATO countries decided to produce their own military equipment and ditch American one completely then it may turn out that this "exchange deal" is the only thing that keeps the US in NATO. So, basically, we're paying the US for being in an alliance with us.
A fragment from the link:
"Around
55 per cent of arms imports by European states in 2019-23 were supplied by the USA, up from 35 per cent in 2014-18. 'More than half of arms imports by European states come from the USA,' noted SIPRI Director Dan Smith, 'while at the same time, Europe is responsible for about a third of global arms exports, including large volumes going outside the region, reflecting
Europe's strong military-industrial capacity.
Many factors shape European NATO states' decisions to import from the USA, including the goal of maintaining trans-Atlantic relations alongside the more technical, military and cost-related issues.
If trans-Atlantic relations change in the coming years, European states' arms procurement policies may also be modified.'"
In case someone wondered why we buy so much expensive sh1t from the US...