BELFAST — A 14 percent increase in European defense spending contributed significantly to global military expenditure increasing for the 11th consecutive year, reaching $2.89 trillion in 2025, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank.
Europe spent $864 billion on defense in 2025 and, according to SIPRI, was the “main” contribution to the wider global surge.
“Global military spending rose again in 2025 as states responded to another year of wars, uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval with large-scale armament drives,” Xiao Liang, a researcher with SIPRI’s military expenditure and arms production program said in comments accompanying the report.
The new figures come as Europe pushes ahead with a major rearmament drive in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine and warnings that Moscow could attack a NATO country inside the next three years.
Despite the upward European trend and a 2.9 percent global spending spike for last year overall, US expenditure declined by 7.5 percent year on year.
Washington’s falloff explained why the new, annual global outlay was “significantly smaller than the 9.7 per cent increase recorded in 2024,” the SIPRI report says. It further noted that the US slump was “primarily due” to the lack of new military assistance packages rubber stamped for Ukraine.
“This was in sharp contrast to the previous three years, when a total of $127 billion was approved” by Washington, added SIPRI.
Europe’s reliance on US weapon systems appears to be under strain in the wake of the DoD expending substantial numbers of expensive missiles during the war against Iran. Even prior to the war, Trump had consistently demanded Europe ramp up spending and do more for its own security.
The shift in policy to end financing by the Trump administration led to the establishment of NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, enabling alliance members to fund the supply of US-made weapon systems to Kyiv.
Undisclosed US-made weapons heading to Baltic and Scandinavian nations are likely to face delays, directly caused by the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported earlier this month, citing unnamed sources.
SIPRI stressed that the US remains the world’s largest weapons spender ahead of China and Russia — with the trio collectively doling out $1.48 trillion last year — more than half of the worldwide total.
Across 2025, Washington also beefed up investments in nuclear and conventional military power “to maintain dominance in the Western Hemisphere and deter China in the Indo-Pacific,” the report outlined.
“The decline in US military expenditure in 2025 is likely to be short-lived,” said Nan Tian, programme director of the SIPRI military expenditure and arms production programme, per remarks included with the report. “Spending approved by the US Congress for 2026 has risen to over $1 trillion, a substantial increase from 2025, and could rise further to $1.5 trillion in 2027 if President [Donald] Trump’s latest budget proposal is accepted.”
In a bid to rebuild stockpiles, the Pentagon announced a trio of framework agreements in March, designed to accelerate production of Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), seekers for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors and a variety of missile components.
The move followed a social media post from Trump asserting local industry had “agreed to quadruple Production of the ‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry in that we want to reach, as rapidly as possible.”
Elsewhere, Kyiv and Moscow both increased defense spending considerably in 2025. Russia reached $190 billion, a spike of 5.9 percent, as Ukraine hit a total of $84.1 billion, equivalent to a 20 percent uptick.
Beyond Europe, annual spending in the Middle East was almost flat, working out at an estimated $218 billion. Outside of Israel, most other nations in the region increased their outlays.
In the case of Tel Aviv, spending dipped to $48.3 billion, down 4.9 percent, “reflecting a reduction in the intensity of the war in Gaza during 2025,” noted the Swedish think tank. Even so, Israel’s spending sits at 97 percent more than in 2022.
Last year, Asia and Oceania spending grew by 8.1 percent to reach $681 billion — the largest year on year uplift since 2009. Notably, Chinese expenditure jumped 7.4 percent to $336 billion.
