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(Re)Building Muscle: Reducing Europe’s Dependence on the U.S. Defense Industrial Base Cover

(Re)Building Muscle: Reducing Europe’s Dependence on the U.S. Defense Industrial Base

By: Eric Gomez  
Open Access
|Mar 2026

Abstract

The article analyzes Europe’s dependence on the US defense industry and strategies for reducing this dependence. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war in Israel, and the protection of international shipping have strained the US industry and exposed the vulnerabilities of European stocks. The article concludes that strengthening the European defense industry is strategically beneficial for NATO, as it increases Russia’s deterrence capability and reduces political and military dependence on the US. It proposes increasing European production, cooperating on licensed sharing, purchasing equipment from other allies, and making sustained investments in the defense sector for long-term resilience.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cmc-2025-0031 | Journal eISSN: 2463-9575 | Journal ISSN: 2232-2825
Language: English, Slovenian
Page range: 57 - 71
Published on: Mar 10, 2026
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2026 Eric Gomez, published by General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.