Defense News
PARIS — Belgium will buy more F-35s, a third frigate and spend billions of euros on air defense as part of an updated strategic plan approved by the government on Friday, with the country seeking to fix capability gaps after decades of being one of NATO’s lowest spenders on defense.
Belgium’s military requires a “thorough transformation” to create a force fit to deter and for high-intensity warfare rather than expeditionary missions, Defence Minister Theo Francken wrote in a foreword to the 100-plus-page Strategic Vision 2025 report. In addition to more hardware, the plan calls for raising the number of military personnel by around a third by 2034.
