China can teach Europe how to become geopolitically independent
My latest opinion piece at Reuters is out. In it, I argue that just increasing defence spending is not going to be enough for Europe. Europe needs to take its silk gloves off and learn from China (and the US) how to deal with geopolitical adversaries:
China can teach Europe how to become geopolitically independent - Klement
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-china-can-teach-europe-about-geopolitical-independence-2025-03-04/
Hi Joachim, for a couple of decades I covered Aerospace & Defence on the sell-side, so I probably think that I know it all! One thing is just that the Kiel Institute's table of the years to replenish Germany's military equipment inventory is potentially a little bit misleading, if anyone interprets it as implying that production rates are too low and can simply be ramped up. There are big differences with different types of platform, especially high-ticket, high-complexity ones like combat aircraft compared to, for example, artillery, in terms of planned successor platforms, build cycle times, available production slots, economic production rate plans, and production lead times. So many factors play into the rate at which military equipment inventory can or should be replenished, even without adjusting for the increased capability and greater military effects generated by newer generations of platforms.
The 2004 and 2021 stocks data seams to have been inverted in the Kiel Institute's table for the Main battle tank and Infantry fighting vehicle lines.