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As European NATO countries rush to strengthen their armed forces, large pension bills threaten to divert funds from urgently needed military hardware.
European NATO members are racing to boost defence capabilities amid growing security concerns over Russia and doubts about long-term U.S. support. But generous military pensions are quietly eating into defence budgets, complicating efforts to strengthen firepower.
Reuters analysis of budget data from 13 NATO members shows that pensions consume an average of 12% of defence spending - reaching nearly 20% in Belgium, Bulgaria and Italy, and 16% in France. These costs, while included in NATO’s spending figures, do not translate into new equipment or operational strength.
Germany, with a lower pension share at 11.5%, appears better positioned to expand its military capabilities, while countries like France and Italy risk falling short of NATO targets if pension costs are excluded.
Although 23 of NATO’s 32 members claim to meet the alliance's 2% of GDP spending goal, that number drops significantly when pension spending is excluded. For instance, France barely meets the threshold, and Italy has reclassified pensions to meet NATO expectations.
Some countries, such as Belgium, are considering reforms like raising the military retirement age from 56 to 67. However, adjusting pension systems is politically sensitive and may affect recruitment and morale.
"If you don’t invest in the people behind the weapons, you’ll end up with empty tanks and no one to drive them,” warned Emmanuel Jacob, head of European soldiers’ rights group Euromil.
As NATO eyes even higher spending benchmarks - up to 5% of GDP, as demanded by U.S. President Trump - Europe faces a hard choice: fund more missiles and drones, or continue supporting costly military pensions that deliver no combat edge.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
A federal jury in Marshall, Texas, ruled on Friday that Samsung Electronics must pay nearly $445.5 million in damages to patent holder Collision Communications for infringing patents linked to 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi communication standards.
Gold prices rose above $4,000 an ounce for the first time on Wednesday, fuelled by investor demand for safe-haven assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts.
U.S. shares ended Tuesday in negative territory as investors, cut off from official economic data due to the ongoing government shutdown, looked to alternative indicators and comments from Federal Reserve officials for guidance on economic weakness and monetary policy.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is targeting a $20 billion capital raise linked to Nvidia hardware, Bloomberg News has reported.
Türkiye’s benchmark stock index, the BIST 100, closed Tuesday at 10,814.11 points, up 0.74% from the previous session.
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