During the NATO Summit, which opened in Ankara on July 7, Allied nations reached a series of agreements on joint investment in defense procurement and capability development. The initiatives cover air defense, long-range strike capabilities, artillery modernization, and defense-industrial cooperation.
One of the most significant announcements was a $40 billion commitment to counter-drone capabilities. The combined investment, to be spent over the next five years by NATO member states, is intended to rapidly expand the Alliance's ability to produce, deploy, and defeat unmanned aerial systems at scale.
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The Allies also committed to increasing the number of military drone operators by a factor of five. In parallel, NATO's Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) signed a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to procure additional reconnaissance UAVs.
NSPA also announced the procurement of 900 additional Patriot missiles. Of these, 700 will be PAC-2 GEM-T interceptors, which have limited capability against ballistic missiles, while only 200 will be PAC-3 MSE interceptors, the Patriot variant specifically designed for ballistic missile defense.
NATO also unveiled several initiatives aimed at improving coordination among the defense industries of member states.
The first focuses on establishing resilient supply chains for critical raw materials, components, and manufacturing inputs. Twelve NATO members have joined the initiative: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Türkiye.
The second initiative, NATO Front Door for Industry, will create a single access platform allowing companies to participate more easily in NATO procurement programs, research competitions, and other Alliance projects.
The third initiative, NATO Engine, is designed to establish a shared information platform that maps available industrial capacity and manufacturing expertise across Allied countries.
Finally, the Call to Action initiative aims to stimulate greater private-sector investment in defense manufacturing. It has already received backing from several major financial institutions, including Banco Santander, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, NatWest, PKO Bank Polski, Danske Bank, the Business Development Bank of Canada, as well as the NATO Innovation Fund.
Taken together, these initiatives demonstrate that NATO is making a concerted effort to mobilize its defense-industrial base.
At the same time, the actual defense budgets planned by most Alliance members paint a more restrained picture. According to current projections, 17 of NATO's 32 member states are expected to spend no more than 2.5% of GDP on defense in 2026, meaning a majority of the Alliance will remain below that threshold. Slovenia, for example, has currently budgeted only 1.61% of GDP, although it has pledged to increase defense spending before the end of the year.
It is also worth noting that some countries have formally reached NATO's 2% of GDP defense spending target through accounting practices rather than genuine increases in military expenditure. Italy, for instance, has demonstrated how actual defense spending of around 1.5% of GDP can be reported as 2%, while several other countries include expenditures such as pension increases within their defense budgets.
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