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

European governments are redirecting procurement toward drones and software-defined systems, the areas where Ukraine, not Washington, sets the standard.

- Published: 2026-09-18T05:18:24.383Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-09-18/at-least-eight-nato-members-start-buying-defence-equipment-o
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: geopolitics
- Sources: [The Japan Times](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/18/world/politics/trump-nato-europe-defenses-alliance/), [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/5b08fae3-51b5-465b-acb5-e842c30ebd0c?syn-25a6b1a6=1), [Globes](https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001555457#utm_source=RSS)

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](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/18/world/politics/trump-nato-europe-defenses-alliance/). 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](https://www.ft.com/content/5b08fae3-51b5-465b-acb5-e842c30ebd0c?syn-25a6b1a6=1), 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](https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001555457#utm_source=RSS) 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.

## What this means

European defence budgets are growing while the American share of them shrinks, which favours European primes, drone specialists and software firms over established United States platform makers in new contract awards. It also fragments standards, because equipment bought from many suppliers is harder to integrate across the alliance, raising the long-run cost of joint operations. Iran's capture of American unmanned technology adds a second channel: captured systems shorten the copying cycle for adversaries.

## What to watch

- Contract awards in Poland, Germany and the Nordic states over the next quarter, which reveal whether diversification is reaching signed orders rather than policy statements.
- Order books at European drone and counter-drone manufacturers, the clearest measure of the shift from platforms to autonomous systems.
- Whether Washington relaxes technology-transfer terms to keep allied buyers, which would show the pressure working in reverse.