The war in Ukraine and the looming U.S. presidential election dominated a NATO summit in Washington this month but, away from the public stage, the alliance's military planners have been focused on assessing the enormous cost of fixing Europe's creaking defenses. NATO leaders agreed plans last year for the biggest overhaul in three decades of its defense capabilities, amid growing fears of Russian aggression.
Behind the scenes, officials have since been poring over the minimum defense requirements to achieve those plans, which were sent to national governments in recent weeks, according to one military planner, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The minimum requirements detail the shortfalls in NATO armies in key areas, providing a rough indication of how many billions of euros it could cost to fix, the military planner said. NATO aims to convert these requirements into binding targets for individual governments to provide for the defense of Europe by autumn 2025, when it is set to hold a regular meeting of defense ministers.