NATO finds gaps in Europe's security

The war in Ukraine and the US presidential election dominated the NATO summit in Washington this month, but the alliance's military planners have been focused on assessing the high cost of overhauling Europe's defense.

NATO leaders approved plans last year for the biggest renewal of defense capabilities in three decades, reports "Reuters".
Officials have met the minimum defense requirements to achieve the plans, which were sent to national governments in recent weeks, according to a military planner who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The minimum requirements detail the shortcomings of NATO's armies in key areas, calculating how many billions of dollars it could cost them to fix, the military planner said. NATO aims to transform these requirements into binding targets for individual governments, thus ensuring the defense of Europe until the fall of 2025, when it holds the regular meeting of defense ministers.

Reuters interviewed 12 military and civilian officials in Europe about the classified plans, which identified six of the alliance's areas as needing to be addressed quickly.

These include a lack of air defense and long-range missiles, troops, ammunition, logistical problems and a lack of secure digital communications on the battlefield, according to NATO officials. NATO has not yet estimated the cost.

The US presidential election has raised concerns that NATO's top power could be led by a man who is critical of the alliance — former President Donald Trump — and has accused European partners of taking advantage of NATO's military support. s.
At the Washington summit, some European lawmakers publicly noted that, regardless of the winner of the November election, the continent needs to increase military spending.