Ukraine war fuels record global military spending

European states and the US have spent or pledged about $130 billion to Kyiv

Military aid to Ukraine accounted for 2.3 per cent of total US military spending in 2022. AFP

Defence spending around the world reached record levels in 2022, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has said.

Expenditure around the world rose to $2.24 trillion, an increase of 3.7 per cent in real terms, it said.

The surge has been driven largely by the Ukraine conflict, with countries sending military aid to the country following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

Kyiv's allies have so far spent or pledged $128 billion worth of aid, much of it involving military assistance.

European states have provided about $55 billion in aid, sending German Leopard 2 tanks, British Challenger 2 tanks, a host of artillery systems, portable anti-tank weapons and air defence systems to help Ukraine.

Compared to the Middle East, only Saudi Arabia's defence spending increases come close to the surge in Europe, Sipri said, with defence expenditure in the kingdom rising by 16 per cent to $75 billion, its first increase since 2018.

In total, the European figures put defence expenditure on the continent back to Cold War levels, when Nato was in a standoff with the Soviet Union and its East European Warsaw Pact allies. The rival military coalitions deployed tens of thousands of armoured vehicles, thousands of nuclear weapons and hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the border of a divided Europe at the height of the crisis.

"Military expenditure by states in Central and Western Europe totalled $345 billion in 2022," Sipri reported.

"In real terms, spending by these states for the first time surpassed that in 1989, as the cold war was ending."

In the current crisis, Germany has sent Patriot air defence missile launchers to Ukraine, with the ammunition supplied by the Netherlands.

A Patriot launcher costs $10 million and missiles are priced at about $4 million each, but the system has a proven ability to shoot down ballistic missiles, low-flying cruise missiles and drones.

Some of the biggest increases in military spending have been recorded in eastern Europe.

Spending in Finland has increased by 36 per cent, Lithuania's spending is up 27 per cent, while in Sweden and Poland it has risen by 12 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, said the institute, which tracks military budgets and the import and export of arms.

Observers say countries that were under Soviet occupation during the Cold War, such as Poland, have pushed harder to send weapons to Kyiv.

But the challenge of supplying military aid amid a high-intensity war has strained Nato’s defence capacity.

Europe and the US have struggled to produce artillery rounds quickly enough, with Ukraine firing about 5,000 artillery shells a day during the peak of the conflict.

Most of the artillery and air defence systems used by Ukraine date back to the Cold War and were made by Soviet companies, making it difficult for Nato to resupply them.

Russia is also reportedly running low on shells, having fired between 20,000 and 50,000 a day at the height of fighting last summer, according to an EU estimate.

European military spending increased by 13 per cent last year and many countries across the continent raised military budgets as tension grew.

"This included multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments," said Diego Lopes da Silva, a senior researcher at the institute.

"As a result, we can reasonably expect military expenditure in central and western Europe to keep rising in the years ahead."

Ukraine's military spending rose 640 per cent in 2022, the largest annual increase recorded in the institute's data going back to 1949.

That total does not include the military aid provided by its allies.

Military aid to Ukraine accounted for 2.3 per cent of total US defence spending in 2022, the institute said.

Meanwhile, Russia's military spending grew by an estimated 9.2 per cent, although the institute said those figures were "highly uncertain given the increasing opaqueness of financial authorities" since the Ukraine war began.

"The difference between Russia's budgetary plans and its actual military spending in 2022 suggests the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia far more than it anticipated," said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of the institute's military expenditure and arms production programme.