The United States led a rise in Western defense spending in 2018 as it moved to keep ahead of Chinese and Russian pushes into advanced military technology, a report said on Friday.
Published : 15 Feb 2019, 05:15 PM
And US President Donald Trump will likely press European states to spend even more at a NATO conference in April, the International Institute for Security Studies (IISS) said. European powers would together have to find an extra $102 billion to meet his latest demands, it added.
Worldwide outlays on weapons and defense rose 1.8 percent to more than $1.67 trillion in 2018 - with the United States on its own responsible for almost half that increase, according to “The Military Balance” report released at the Munich Security Conference.
Western powers were concerned about Russia’s upgrades of air bases and air defense systems in Crimea - the peninsula it seized from Ukraine in 2014, the annual report said. Its stationing of an S-400 air defense system there increased Moscow’s reach in the Black Sea, where it seized three Ukrainian ships last year.
But “China perhaps represents even more of a challenge, as it introduces yet more advanced military systems and is engaged in a strategy to improve its forces’ ability to operate at distance from the homeland,” it added.
China’s stated ambition to modernise its People’s Liberation Army by 2035 was “supported by defense spending that has been on a relentlessly upward trajectory”.
Slower Chinese economic growth had caused a slight deceleration in spending - but the defense budget still grew nearly six percent between 2017 and 2018.
MISSILES, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
“Chinese naval capability is entering a new phase,” as it launched cruisers and began sea trials for its first indigenous aircraft carrier, the report said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arms-global/west-ups-defense-spending-to-keep-ahead-of-chinese-tech-conference-report-idUSKCN1Q416O
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