Has Trumpism nudged the EU towards Federation - and becoming a truly competing global superpower?

This is a complicated story - but the punchline is worth it! We'll look at the setup of the EU military - and then the political ramifications below.

Why do 450 million Europeans need 330 million Americans to defend them against 160 million Russians?

DIVISION CAUSES DUPLICATION
The EU is divided. The EU’s military is bespoke, chaotic, ineffective, and eye-wateringly expensive. In a very literal sense, they need more ‘bang for their buck.’ Their 27 national militaries build their own artillery guns and tanks and fighters and bombers and ships. They have an 178 different weapons platforms! The sheer duplication is incredible!
Infographic: Europe Has Six Times As Many Weapon Systems As The U.S.
America’s VAST military only has 30 streamlined and standardized platforms! This means each is manufactured with huge economies of scale. In contrast - the EU does relatively TINY manufacturing runs at an ENORMOUS cost per unit!

CONFUSION
Imagine being a soldier in the field when one of the unit's tanks breaks down. The engineer that got dumped with your unit at the last minute says “I’ll try - but it’s not the one I’m trained on!” Duplication of complex equipment means that in the field, soldiers stuck on the ground can be stuck with incompatible parts, procedures, and people. It's not only extra expense in the supply chain - but can cause catastrophic confusion in the theatre and fog of war. Standardization cuts all this waste.

CLARITY
Instead - America has the one streamlined command structure running streamlined supply lines that support a streamlined military. Production, purpose, and power are all aligned. Robert Baratheon from Game of Thrones was right! (2 minutes.)

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS
The EU’s fragmented military stems from historical national interests, divergent threat perceptions, bureaucratic complexities, and deep-rooted national political sovereignty. Genuine unification of their MILITARY demands genuine unification of their POLITICS. Europe must Federate!

TRUMPISM

The astonishing news is that Trumpism has finally forced some EU countries to do something previously unimaginable for domestic political reasons. The EU is a Confederation of Federations. But even they have taken their first baby steps towards harmonizing military procurement. Different countries pooled money together to let the EU buy kit, trusting the EU to get the right things from the right places! Imagine America handing over money to an All-America-Alliance to buy their own military kit - but not knowing if it was going to be purchased from the USA, Mexico, or Brazil? That's why this is so astonishing - and could easily break down.

NUKES?
Even today, the French President is the one who controls their nuclear arsenal - and might not launch to protect some other nation if it is not in their national interest. Even though the EU's mutual defence treatise is stronger than NATO's article 5!
France and the UK have nuclear weapons. One needs the US to use them

For clarity of procurement, production, purpose and power - the EU must Federate - even if it only starts with a tiered system involving the core 5 or 6 countries at the beginning.

Then they can build their own true military industrial complex - which will have other spin off benefits.

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

The reason is twofold. Firstly, ordering weapons from local firms, rather than mostly importing them as the EU has been doing, would increase domestic production, lifting GDP, as well as create jobs, with the salaries spent in the European economy.
Secondly, when cutting-edge military equipment is designed locally, the knowledge gained in the process spreads locally too, rather than staying abroad, generating so-called technological spillovers across the economy.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/06/business/europe-military-spending-economic-growth-intl/index.html