In an attempt to prove that the alliance is turning defense expenditure commitments into actual firepower ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump, NATO leaders gathered in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday and displayed many military projects and arms purchases worth tens of billions of dollars.
Investment in Counter-Drones and New Capabilities
Secretary-General Mark Rutte declared at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum that, over the next five years, allies will invest more than $40 billion in counter-drone capabilities as part of a new effort known as “Drone Edge.” To ensure that systems are NATO-tested and compatible, the allies also pledged to create a counter-drone marketplace and to train five times as many drone operators by the end of 2027.
NATO’s European countries and Canada spent $90 billion more on defense in real terms in 2025 than in 2024, according to Rutte, who called European rises in defense expenditure “staggering,” on Monday. The summit’s main goal is to demonstrate how the pledges made at The Hague last year are being translated into more powerful armed forces and higher output.
Patriot and GlobalEye Deals
Plans to replace the alliance’s outdated fleet of Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS surveillance planes with Saab GlobalEye aircraft were confirmed by a coalition of NATO nations. According to Reuters, the contract might be worth about €5 billion. With deliveries anticipated starting in 2030, the Swedish platform’s selection over Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail represents a departure from decades of dependence on airborne early warning systems manufactured in the United States.
On the fringes of the summit, Poland, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden signed a separate agreement to build a European PAC-3 missile maintenance station for Patriot air defense systems. Dilan Yesilgoz, the Dutch minister of defense, told Reuters that her nation would unveil agreements and plans totaling more than €3 billion, including alliances with Britain on naval vessels and Belgium on air defense.
Greater Industrial Motivation
In order to improve interoperability and expedite manufacturing, nine allies decided to create a prototype for a generic NATO 155mm munition. Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall also signed a deal to co-produce ATACMS missiles in Europe. A contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase surveillance drones for allies was given by NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency.
With the summit continuing into Wednesday, the rush of announcements highlights the alliance’s attempt to meet Trump’s long-standing demands that European allies bear a larger share of the defense burden.