At least eight NATO members start buying defence equipment outside the United States

At least eight NATO members have begun diversifying away from American weapons, technology and defence companies in response to pressure from President Donald Trump, The Japan Times reported. The shift shows up in administrative decisions rather than public declarations: procurement offices are writing requirements that non-American suppliers can meet.

The capability argument leads to the same conclusion. Writing in the Financial Times, analysts say Western militaries trail Ukraine in artificial-intelligence-enabled combat, where cheap autonomous systems built in months have replaced platforms designed over decades. Buyers who accept that argument have little reason to wait years for an American programme when a European or Israeli manufacturer can deliver an equivalent capability sooner.

The supplier base is reorganising to match. Globes reported that an Israeli drone manufacturer has identified Eastern Europe as a target market and that the United Arab Emirates agreed to supply Angola with unmanned helicopters in a deal valued at about one billion euros, in the same defence industry briefing that described Iran recovering an intact American unmanned submarine it intends to reverse-engineer.

Two separate dynamics are happening at once. Alliance members are hedging politically against an American partner they consider less predictable, and they are buying a different class of equipment because the war in Ukraine changed what works in combat. Both trends reduce the share of European defence spending that reaches American prime contractors, even as total European spending rises.