European countries lag behind the United States in the development of the defense industry by three to ten years in some areas.
This opinion was expressed in a comment to Ukrinform by Serhiy Zgurets, director of Defense Express information and consulting company, co-founder of the Defense Information Consortium.
“We are talking about lagging three, five and even ten years behind American manufacturers in basic things. Europe is trying to change its approach to rearmament,” he said.
The situation, according to the expert, can be changed by the implementation of the White Paper on European Defense – the plan “Rearmament of Europe/Readiness 2030” presented by the European Commission on March 19. It sets out the theses on the creation of a pan-European market for defense equipment.
“We are talking about a number of areas where we have to strengthen our capabilities (air defense, missile defense, artillery, AI, logistics, etc.), reduce our dependence on the United States and prepare for war with Russia. In particular, Ukraine should be involved in this. It is important what exactly will be done with those 150 billion and 800 billion, how will they be allocated,” explained Zgurets.
According to the co-founder of the Defense Information Consortium, it will be a challenge for European countries to transform funds into specific projects. This is difficult because until now, defense has been the only area that has not been regulated within the EU, and the planned projects should become pan-European.
“The previous experience of such cooperation was not positive. Let’s hope the EU will draw conclusions. Moreover, it will take into account Ukraine’s experience and the realities on the battlefield (we are ready to join),” the expert said.
According to Zgurets, we can count on assistance in the form of ammunition and armored vehicles in the near future. We will be able to receive air defense systems later, and the production of drones is planned largely in cooperation with Ukrainian manufacturers.
“The White Paper has a large section on UAVs, and it includes funding for Ukrainian projects and joint production. They don’t want to buy Chinese components either,” Zgurets said.
Earlier, on March 28, Ukraine Crisis Media Center hosted a roundtable discussion during which Zgurets spoke about attempts to assess the ability of European countries to compensate for the gap that has formed between them and American manufacturers in various areas. According to him, about 20 European experts were interviewed on basic weapons, and they concluded that it would take ten years to replace American participation in space exploration. It will take up to five years in the field of unmanned reconnaissance systems, and up to ten years to implement programs to create our own long-range missiles (over 1000 km range). It will take three to five years to create a command and control system for European troops without an American component.
As Ukrinform reported, during a special European Council held on March 6, 2025, EU leaders identified strategic directions for strengthening European defense, building the capacity of the European defense industry, and agreed on the need to significantly increase defense spending at both the EU and national levels.
On March 19, the European Commission presented a White Paper on European defense – the Readiness 2030 plan, which envisages creating conditions under which European countries will be able to increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP.
Source: Europe lags behind US defense capabilities by 3-10 years in some areas - Defense Express
