this chart shows how much the US contributes to NATO's total budget and yes you're seeing it right the US literally makes up 2/3 of it the same pattern repeats across every metric from Personnel numbers to tanks warships aircraft and more the United States single-handedly makes up most of NATO's combat strength and this reality has set to perception that the US essentially is NATO with the other member states providing little value thus when former president Trump recently called into question the United States desire to remain in NATO it triggered alarm Bells everywhere with many assuming that
NATO would be doomed without his only trly combat effective member if this were to happen the outcome would be complex and disturbing obviously there would be chaos but perhaps not the complete collapse you'd expect see it's clear that if the United States were to leave NATO the Box capabilities would be dramatically diminished but it's a bit more nuanced than that as without the United States NATO would still have the second largest military budget in the world with over 410 billion us at its disposal this figure would still Place NATO's budget over1 billion US above third
parties China and over four times that of Europe's closest adversary Russia and that's without considering any military budget increases after a US exit but that's not the end of the story NATO would undeniably suffer a lot just because they have the money doesn't mean they can use it effectively they may have the men and the tanks but that doesn't mean they are ready to fight for example European ammunition production tends to rely on private companies with national armies placing orders for ammunition at a set price meanwhile in America the Army owns the factories and contract
manufacturing companies to operate them this approach allows the Army to preemptively invest in their factories if they expect to require more ammunition unlike the European producers if the expected orders never come such a scenario took place surrounding artillery shells with the ongoing war in Ukraine with the US showing a much better ability to scale up operations when needed let me put this into perspective with an M&M quote what good is a machine gun when it's out of ammo if you don't have any bullets you might as well wave the white flag now before the war
begins and it doesn't end there you see member countries purchase a lot of weapons from the United States from equipment like guns and helmets to cornerstones of the military like state-of-the-art M1 abam tanks and F35 lightning 2 fighter jets it is unknown whether an exat America would continue to sell spare parts and provide training on such equipment but the loss of trust alone would push these nations towards European Alternatives forcing them into a very costly transition a US Retreat also threatens the balance of mutually assured destruction as you may already know mutually assured destruction is
a military strategy that prevents war between nuclear armed Nations by ensuring it would result in the complete annihilation of both countries with such a horrible inevitable fate starting such a war becomes completely foolish so peace is the only alternative thus a nation must guarantee its ability to shoot nukes back at the aggressor to ensure that mutually assured destruction Works through sheer numbers anti-missile defense systems or Advanced missiles capable of evading the enemy's defenses this idea is a core pillar of modern European peace as proven by the war in Ukraine Putin's Russia has no qualms about
attacking neighbors for the land and NATO nukes have been crucial in dissuading Russia from invading the Baltic countries if the US were to leave they would take 87% of NATO's nuclear warheads with them leaving the block with only 515 nukes split between the UK and France and that's not all the UK's portion 225 of them are attached to American Trident 2 missiles like the other American supplied military equipment these missiles require American spare parts and expertise to keep them in working order the fuel inside the boosters has a shelf life of just 35.8 years putting
a hard cap on their lifespan even if the UK managed to keep every other system working without American assistance which is already a very tall task France's nuclear missiles are however completely homebuilt requiring no American help unfortunately France has refused to take part in NATO's nuclear command structure doesn't follow NATO Doctrine regarding nuclear weapons and hasn't participated in nuclear exercises so it's unknown how well prepared they would be to take the role of the United States as the nuclear protector for all members there's also the concern that current nuclear technology will become obsolete as the
race for Hypersonic missiles is in force swing these missiles promise new capabilities like avoiding detection until the very last moment before impact giving the attack country little to no time to intercept or react to the attack essentially ending mutually assured destruction except for nuclear submarines of course NATO would need its own Hypersonic missiles to maintain the status quo and they are well aware of this dependency France has been developing the missiles and a European program called EU hiev is currently working on a method to intercept them overall NATO should still have decent nuclear offense and
defense capabilities without the United States however it will have to scramble to prevent them from falling apart and continue developing them for the future the United States has much greater resources to develop badly needed advancements so without the US NATO would be under pressure to avoid falling behind nukes are the most critical topic for NATO member security but they're hardly the organization's sole purpose the block has intervened militarily in conflicts and provided logistical and reconnaissance support it has also supplied peacekeeping forces security for events like the Olympics in Greece and Aid during natural disasters with
all the issues a US exit would cause NATO will have to scale back these operations we can't know how bad the cut bag would be but it would likely prevent NATO from projecting power abroad and would largely confined to operations within the European Mainland still competent leadership can manage all these problems the reaction to the war in Ukraine has shown that Europe can act United when necessary and the entire block is eager to prevent Russian aggression as for the United States they won't come out on scath the US currently has personnel and Equipment stationed in
Europe including nuclear weapons these will have to be removed supply lines will have to be reworked and bases in North Africa and the Middle East will have to be refitted to take on operations previously performed by European bases they would also have to abandon all the military bases in NATO territory as all NATO members collaborate on intelligence losing such axes could leave the us more vulnerable to terrorist attacks and make it harder to keep Taps on Russia but by far the biggest blow would be to its reputation the United States projects power around the wild
intervening in conflicts to pursue its national interests by abandoning its closest allies it would send a strong message that the US is not to be trusted this in turn would push weak nations in the Asia specific towards the Chinese sphere of influence and embolden China and Russia to take more aggressive measures to reach their goals believing the US won't be bothered to react after causing all of these problems a US exit from NATO would leave little benefit the US would lose invaluable intelligence and influence and face millions of dollars in restructuring all for the privilege
of abandoning its closest allies and weakening the security of All American Allies around the world it wouldn't even save money America has plenty of room to lower its military budget or restructure its priorities without leaving the alliance if they wanted to they could overall it seems like a terrible idea but what do you think can you think of a convincing reason why the US shouldn't be in NATO anymore I'd love to read your comments down below but that's it for this video thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one [Music]
