Belgian Army History Pt 3: Cold War

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Dude has just casually, from memory, dumped like 4 centuries of Belgian military history in a few episodes. If he hasn’t committed this all to paper as a book, someone please do so for him.

[@Vtarngpb]

"The country everybody knows." My guy!😅 I sincerely enjoyed his sense of humor o7

[@M4xFr4gg]

The fun thing is how the Chieftain just goes ahead and comfortably mentions Ukraine on the other side.

[@DanielDracohun]

Maybe he wasn't allowed to mention Ukraine because he is still a serving member of the military so any "no politics" order or the like applies to him as well.

[@marijnnn4992]

?i dont get it?​@@M4xFr4gg

[@blogobre]

"Why do we need tanks" - politicians eh.

[@chrisschultz8598]

The US Marine Corps has come to the same conclusion. I have no idea how that is going to work out.

[@someonenamedbob]

They're getting their hands on lots of new vehicles that while no longer defined as "tanks" bear rather striking resemblances while being called "infantry fighting vehicles" instead.@@chrisschultz8598

[@geofftimm2291]

@@chrisschultz8598 The USMC depends on History, "Never in the history of Hollywood has the US Cavalry been too late!" Geoff Who notes a lack of lift, especially sea lift.

[@themoo12345]

@@chrisschultz8598Astute observers will notice that the USMC is not in fact the only ground combat arm of the US armed forces. Army tanks can and have done many amphibious operations. The marines just want to be smart with their funding.

[@chrisschultz8598]

Truly astute observers will note that the US Army and US Marines do not always agree on the distribution of forces in a combat zone, sometimes resulting to the detriment of both services. And besides, based on my Marine friends' comments, they hate asking the Army pukes for anything.

[@Markh73bers]

Very interesting to listen how our southern neighborhoods dealt with the change to a volunteer army. The struggle that came with it. Very similar as in the Netherlands. That corporal-chef spoke truly with emotion. Like that guy.

[@gusgone4527]

Me too, I like him. He described perfectly the delusional mindset of the modern civilian politician. The so called post Cold War "peace dividend." Meaning elected officials thought they could cut military spending and use it for other things. Mostly, projects to buy the votes of the sheeple and secure their re-election. Of course anyone with half a brain realised that the peace Europe had enjoyed was the product of NATOs conventional armed deterrent and nuclear MAD (mutually assured destruction). The implosion of the USSR/Warsaw Pact left a huge power vacuum. With all the very predictable, associated volatile instability that followed. The fall of communism and it's fear based strangle hold on the populace. Resulted in old dormant hatreds/prejudices resurfacing. They had not been altered/cured by communist totalitarianism just put on hold. Yugoslavia's post cold war troubles being an obvious example. Also Georgian, Chechen and now Ukrainian wars. All are the consequences of NATO's Cold War victory and the disarmament peace dividend MAD-ness. We can no longer ensure peace by superior firepower. It's gone and will take a decade or more to rebuild a fraction of what we had in the 1980's.

[@seanmccann8368]

Corporals (of all varieties) tend to be honest and straight speaking people.

[@matthewcoleman1919]

Mr. Testaert is a great interviewee, a lot of knowledge there. I hope that he and those of his experience will be consulted if and when the Belgian Army returns to a more "heavy" force structure. Institutional knowledge is incredibly important, and quite difficult to regain once lost.

[@JamesKintner]

All of this is just flowing out of this gentleman's brain in his non-native language. He probably should be on the general staff.

[@robertsolomielke5134]

I was thinking this fine sir would be fluent in 4-5 language's, with an understanding of 2 more; English (very well) Flemish, Wallonian, French, German, then other partners , Danish an Dutch. Yes sir Staff officer.

[@ErwinPommel]

@@robertsolomielke5134 You think he's not fluent in English?

[@wout4yt]

Most Belgains are fluent in 2 languages, and fairly fluent or at least proficient in 1 or 2 more. FEN (Français, English, Nederlands) proficiency is standard for belgains in a professional job.

[@robertsolomielke5134]

I said Herr William Testaert speaks English "very well" and likely 5-7 language's also. I have family in Germany , and understand it is common to know multiple language's .....ZooEuropa is probably dozens of attitudes as well, as we have seen. I could fit all of Europe in my nation, yet we only speak 2 ways. W. Testaert is like 7X better at this, that is the point-TY. @@ErwinPommel

[@JamesKintner]

@@wout4yt understood, but recall, creating the narrative, and answering questions fluidly are all definitive traits in someone who has mastered the topic. Even at my best I would have to pause and gather my thoughts in my non-native speech. I was merely complementing the gentleman.

[@michaelamos4651]

So many people in the tank world who are great talkers. Seems we have found another one in this Belgian 🎉gentleman. Great stuff

[@larryjenkinson5525]

🇦🇺 Good to hear a current, honest opinion from a European/NATO viewpoint. Best part of the video!

[@mynerdythings]

As a Belgian born Australian, I found the challenge of recruiting from only 2 locations in Belgium, a country that fits 250 times in Australia, somewhat perplexing, all the while reminded that 150k (distance fron Brussel to German border) seemed far when I was Belgian.

[@OblongLevokker]

It's a mindset you like to stay close to your family, i remember when i was little going to the coast (Blankenberge) it's a 221Km drive i'm from Liège, but it seemed like the edge of the world i was interested in the army when i was younger but i didn't have the right mindset at the time and i was fat AF and i'm more of a tank guy and we also lost that.

[@davidburroughs2244]

Thanks for the chuckle... When I was in the us navy in '87-'96 , 101 miles was the distance from the home I owned outside of Riverside, California to pierside parking where my USN ship was moored on pier one at the San Diego Naval Station... made that drive four or five times a week for years.

[@MM22966]

Belgium's Motto for the Cold War/WWIII: Everybody that tried to use us as a speed bump didn't live to regret it.

[@Casmaniac]

Silly joke: Biggest lesson from 20th century? Don't mess with Belgium !

[@marijnnn4992]

Only germany did?

[@marijnnn4992]

​@@Casmaniacye they will colonize the Congo again

[@MM22966]

@@marijnnn4992 Royal France, Holy Roman Empire, Roman Empire, etc, etc.

[@thurin84]

that talk about belgian current events so to speak was actually pretty fascinating.

[@tacticalmanatee]

These videos are great. Mr. Testaert is a very compelling speaker.

[@indiecomics]

Your best interview ever. I love how candid he was.

[@brunowauters8787]

learned more about our army than when I did my my military service back in 76 with the 6t bn TTR in Lüdenscheid. Have a drink on me with Mr Testaert. You could try a tripel hop Duvel.

[@Hudsoncolo]

This historian is beyond belief. He knows more about Belgium military than I know about my genealogy. MAMa!

[@clydecessna737]

Monsieur Testaert does is country proud; very impressive talk.

[@jamesnigelkunjuro12]

This was a very enjoyable series to watch. I appreciate all the insights William provided, hope to see more of his thoughts on other Belgian vehicles and perhaps NATO topics as a whole.

[@Pyjamarama11]

" Hard to have defence in depth when your country is the size of a handkerchief " Brezhnev (Possibly)

[@jupiler02]

We had our defensive positions IN GERMANY! Half of our army was deployed there together with US, U.K., German and some other NATO troops. So, we had "depth" enough...

[@Pyjamarama11]

@@jupiler02 half your army were in Germany Where did they station the other platoon ?

[@timstatler7714]

I knew an Army recruiter in the late 80s, whp related this story. His unit was the aggressor in NATO exercises. While passing thru the Ardennes, first the front tank was "hit" , then the last tank in the column was "hit". Following until every tank was "hit". Only then the Belgian, or Luxembourger defenders revealed themselves on a wooded hill by the road. They had not been spotted during the entire "attack".

[@ianwilliams9068]

Very good comments and analysis. Keep up the good work.

[@michaelguerin56]

Thank you Mr Moran and Mr Testaert. This video series is one of the best military history series that I have watched in quite a while.

[@CapnDan57]

Thanks for all 3, LtC Moran. Looking forward to the rest of your euro-tour.

[@dankorolyk5917]

Very enlightening and informative episode

[@coldwarrior78]

Absolutely excellent series. This corporal is more knowledgeable than most officers. Kudos to him and LTC Moran.

[@billbrockman779]

I did a training deployment to Jordan along with some Belgian AF guys and their F-16’s. Good bunch who managed to bring beer.

[@tonyvandermeirsch731]

The Belgian armed forces can’t function without beer. 😂 In the first gulf war we send a unit of minesweepers to aid in dessert storm together with the Dutch. When that little flotilla passed Spain they he’d to send 2 herc’s filled with beer because the stocks were gone already.

[@obsidianjane4413]

Cool I actually clicked on this before it stated... Got to listen to 20 seconds of elevator music.

[@allenm5443]

A great series - different from your takes on the British, French, etc., but extremely entertaining, as well as informative! For a small country, with a relatively small army, they are extremely active!

[@brunowauters8787]

Bedankt

[@TheChieftainsHatch]

Appreciate it!

[@reubendobbs8011]

That fella was really interesting, a great view of of how you form or not a new army. Really engaging gentleman i would love to sit and chat with. As a cold war veteran its great to listen to other cold warriors.

[@Jpdt19]

Nick genuinely thanks for a truly fabulous interview there with your belgian counterpart. Fascinating and wonderfully rich while also concise. Top work

[@marky657]

What a hoot, "The country everybody knows".

[@CGM_68]

Some body brought up the classic "Don't mention the war" sketch in the live stream.. KZbin : Will you stop talking about the war? John Cleese : Me? You started it. Mr. Putin : We did not start it! John Cleese : Yes, you did. You invaded [insert any of several country names here]. Choose from following list : 1991, 1992, 1993 Several conflicts in Caucaus and a border incident by the Moldova-Ukraine border. 1992_97 Tajkistan 1994_96 Chechnya (Which they lost) 1999 Dagestan 1999_2009 Chechnya again (Persistent bugger this Putin chap.) 2008 Georgia 2014 Ukraine 2015 Syria 2018 Central African Republic 2021 Mali

[@someonenamedbob]

And they wonder why no one likes them.

[@CGM_68]

@@someonenamedbob I am quick to point out, to Russians on-line, that I don't hate Russia. I hate the corrupt regime of the Kremlin and those who support it.

[@russwoodward8251]

I like Mr. Testeart! A very informative perspective on the Cold War. Thank you!

[@kathyroberts3905]

educational and entertaining I o longer watch tv , both of you were great.

[@davidlefranc6240]

I appreciate alot the honesty of m.Testaert he's not an ass licker for sure he say things like they are I HOPE the country involved listen !

[@warci]

super series!! love the take on organization and modern times

[@Trancefreakeh]

It's weird listening to these videos. Part of me is proud, another part me rolls my eyes ^^. Thanks for the focus on Belgium. We're a weird country, a political mess but I dare say that we can offer something valuable once in a while even being this dysfunctional and small.

[@Gliese380]

Hoe onzeker toch weer.

[@patrickford423]

I like this guy

[@tomhenry897]

Never knew had such a large army

[@luislealsantos]

Chieftain show, always great.

[@jeremywilliams5107]

These ones are really the William Testaert show 😮

[@RobertWillis-c8f]

love the Belgians, they punch well above their weight, especially in the Korean war.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

ah the piranha with a 90mm gun, fun story, essentially the minister of defense at the time (flahaut) was good friends with the ceo of John Cockeril so they decided to opt for the 90mm underpowered cockerill gun rather than a much more suitable 105-120 mm higher velocity one. it's been swept under the rug quite a bit but the PS has a long history of militairy expenditure corruption

[@michaelscaplis]

Suddenly nobody found the spare parts 😂

[@cedhome7945]

Any chance you could do a follow up on the war in Ukraine, thought's and observations as there's lots of information to consider

[@patrickwentz8413]

Well Uncle Sugar has around 3700 M1 tanks in storage depots. I guess we could possibly spare a few for a few gallons of Belgium beer or hard cider. We drive a hard bargain these days.

[@Monkey-ud8bw]

He took a while to warm up, but when he did there was no stopping him (other than naming “the country that everyone knows”).

[@SportbikerNZ]

Very interesting. William speaks well.

[@janwitts2688]

I like the real take of this channel...

[@---nb7ll]

22:14…Santaannderrr, eres tierraaa del maaarrr… buen homenaje de nicholas moran a jorge Sepúlveda 👏👍

[@fransdebruyne8643]

Very,very good and interresting story how it go's in Belgium ,as a Belgian I can say his guy tell the truth .

[@michaelscaplis]

There is one M46 at Gunfire Brasschaat (not shown in the footage - it's located outside in front of the hangar where the video was shot). Formerly on Gunfire scrap yard. Moved to front of hangar I27 in June 2022. Belgian Army had 10 of these as training tanks to convert crews from M26 to M47. They were briefly slated to be used by the short lived NATO JTTC (Joint Tank Training Center) at Leopoldsburg. The JTTC would be training Belgian, Dutch and Danish tank crews on the M47. The US needed the M47's for their own army due to the Korean War, therefore the Dutch and Danes were supplied with Centurion tanks (bought by the US from the UK under the MDAP). This meant there was no longer a need for a JTTC. This particular M46 at the museum was later used for C.R.A.C Combat Rapproché Anti-Char training.

[@justforever96]

"we paid for it of course" That's national pride speaking right there. I like it.

[@johnmc703]

Maybe the new M10 Booker would make a great fit for the Belgium plans

Excellent Video. From a german tank nerds point of view with a littel envy, because there are a lot of vehicles in that hall that the german tank museum lacks :) Would be nice to have a Chieftain. After all it spend a good deal of its time not far from the Panzermuseum.

[@kalaharimine]

Very interesting talk, Voila et merci!

[@micumatrix]

It gives a very good overview of most Western Europe armament programs since WW2. Getting new tanks can be an issue now, but Rheinmetall finished new production plants in Hungary and Germany is buying some Boxer made in Australia by Rheinmetall. I think some Abrams are better than nothing or get a small number of K2 from Poland (or their Leo2 or Abrams, when the K2 arrives).

[@geertdecoster5301]

The one good thing out of the story that shouldn't be mentioned is that the country that everyone knows is using decent material. During the second decade of this century the lack of ready available infantry battalions to police the country has already been shown up. Any future for the Belgian Army is once again the regional attachment of large enough units to specific regions or towns, and thus also the maintenance of decent enough overal armament. Perhaps more permament militia based and spreading the tanks around a bit then too

[@jeromethiel4323]

Jaeger Cannonen looks like a hetzer. And as we all know, hetzers gonna hetz! ^-^ Please don't kill me, i just wanted to say "hetzers gonna hetz" because i find it hilarious.

[@ratscoot]

More a modern descendent of the WW2 Jagdpanzer IV. In the eighties Germany converted KJp 90’s to launch TOW anti tank rockets naming it Raketten Jagdpanzer.

[@jorenbaplu5100]

Belgium deserves a light tank line in the tank games, with the Cobra and with belgian versions of these British, german and american tanks (Scorpion, Scimitar, Leopards, M41 bulldog, M47, firefly, etc....)

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

I wonder if the design of the M75 influenced the British FV432? Very similar in shape.

[@1BigBen]

today with LIMA gearing up Belgium could get 50+, but LIMA has around 500 backlog so they could need to wait till 2027 Belgium could get South Korea K2 Main Battle Tank and Plug into Poland system as they are gonna make their own part moving on and PGZ will be making also K9PL variant IF they like 155 with tracks

[@BR-nh9ki]

I would be very much interested to hear Monsieur Testaert talk about the challenges the Belgian Armed Forces face that originate in the trilingual nature of Belgium.

[@thomasvan7738]

As a Belgian (not military), I can anwser that for you: all soldiers are required to learn the other language, meaning French or Dutch. Most units are split by the native language of the soldiers, but there are billingual units too (Special forces for example). And English is also widely used, specially in the airforce. I'm not sure about the policies regarding German.

[@jupiler02]

At the time I would not have had a lot of problems switching from a Flemish/Dutch speaking tank platoon to a French, English or German speaking tank platoon...from a language perspective.

[@BaronSamedi1959]

@@thomasvan7738 Mmmm, that is not correct. Officers from the rank of Major are required to be bilingual (Dutch & French); everyone else below that rank is officially mono-lingual, and units are staffed on a mono-lingual basis, with the very few exceptions of some bi-lingual regiments, such as the Horse Artillery Regiment (Rijdende Artillerie - Artillerie à Cheval - "RACh"). But even in the RACh, for example, there were two Dutch-speaking batteries and one French-speaking battery. The Staff & Services battery used a mixture of both languages. From a practical point of view, however, most speak or at least understand both languages. (The above was my personal experience until 2004 when I retired.)

[@peterjanvanbijnen226]

what a good video

[@Stuart-e6y]

Trained and worked with Belgians good lads 😊

[@edl617]

Looks like a lot of functional tanks

[@koenvangeleuken6544]

very interesting, you were lucky to get this guy.! about the recruitment problems, the spanish have a nice solution: south americans who join the spanish army,all speaking spanish of course, get a spanish passport after so many years! several years ago i read 30% percent of the spanish soldiers are from south america.

[@GeneralGayJay]

Well Belgium has always been the speed-bump of Europe ❤

[@DeepDez]

To describe him as a Corporal Chef in your opener, does him an injustice. The Chef in his title is the belgian for Chief. A corporal is not always a 2 striper. Think. In the british army, A Corporal of horse is a Very Senior Sergeant Major. Guillaume is in regular contact with staff officers all over the world & is a positive force within the WHI.

[@BaronSamedi1959]

In the Belgian Army, a "Corporal chef" (or "Brigadier chef" in the cavalry and artillery) was the highest non-NCO rank.

[@henrikoldcorn]

Text at the start of the video says "Testaert William ", but the reverse is said aloud and is in the description. He has a LinkedIn account under both names!

[@patttrick]

Very good. Who's the company everyone knows? I don't

[@ratscoot]

OIP land systems

[@patttrick]

@@ratscoot cheers

[@avilhelm1697]

What kinds of ammo did the Belgian jag panzer use? The Germans pretty much only used HEAT and smoke as far as I know. Would be interesting if the Belgians went about it a bit different.

[@pourlemerite]

Might need to reach out to Jingles at the Moment 🙁

[@Werkplaatsvlog]

Are you still in Belgium? You're welcome to visit our workshop if you like!

[@TheChieftainsHatch]

No, long gone. But I could be back.

[@Werkplaatsvlog]

Excellent, make sure to let me know if you're in the area again and you would like to drop by.@@TheChieftainsHatch

[@VitaminsB1212]

It's interesting to me that Canada went into Afghanistan with the idea that we'd get rid of all of our tanks and replace them with wheeled vehicles because why would you need tanks (same thinking as Belgium) but then we deployed some C2 Leopards and discovered, oh hey, tanks are actually really useful maybe we should get more of these and we ended up in a weird hot-potato of lending then trading then buying Leo 2s. Whereas Belgium didn't come to the same conclusion and change their minds, despite operating in the same environment. Interesting how two rational actors in the same environment can come to two different conclusions. There's more than a few parallels between the CAF and Belgium - both small militaries, asked to do a lot by its politicians while being chronically under funded and under manned and also being neighbors to giant arms manufacturers/military powers. Sure Canada has a bit more military manufacturing capability but it's not actually that much (LAV/STRYKER, some Small Arms and supposedly but not really a Naval building capability) neither country is able to meet their own demands domestically outside of small arms meaning they are both required to enter into the murky world of Foreign Military procurements with Governments notorious for not wanting to spend money. The Belgians have probably done a better job integrating into wider defense framework to maximize their capabilities - Canada is still masquerading as an independent full spectrum military power

[@hansulrichboning8551]

The german army wants to create so called "medium forces" that are all based on wheeled tanks (Boxer as APC,IFV,self propelled Artillery and engineer-vehicles). A MBT-variant like the italian centauro is unfortunately not planned.With the well known speed and efficiency of the german military bureocracy the concept may be outdated before it even started.😂

[@UnNuclear]

I bet the Koreans would love to sell their Panther to Belgium.

[@stitch626aloha]

10:57 "The Americans were very good at doing what we wanted..." Might that be due to the fact the American military has learned MORE by LOSING to our ALLIES than those countries we consider near-peer enemies could ever learn???

[@bebo4807]

I was in a Belgian park when a tall man on a horse tried to trample me. I think it might have been this guy. He was yelling in the same heavy Australian accent.

[@TheChieftainsHatch]

Australian?

[@seanmccann8368]

Politicians are the same the world over; they always try to appeal to the loudest and most 'entitled' people in the country.

[@rc666]

A Corporal Chef with great knowledge, English isn't even a Belgian language. I wonder what a Colonel knows?

[@jarink1]

The US military's recruiting problems are most certainly NOT due to a good economy!

[@jeromethiel4323]

I know this is an armor centric channel, but armor alone is a disaster waiting to happen. You need combined arms. Tanks support the infantry, and the infantry support the tanks. And the airforce support both (or they should). The US learned this the hard way in Desert storm. The M1's could sprint in, so the enemy infantry just waited for the fuel trucks they knew had to be right behind, because the Abrams guzzles fuel like a drunken sailor. Just because the tanks can go very fast, they need to be supported and support in turn, the infantry.

[@conneroliver5001]

What are you talking about? "In 100 hours, U.S. and allied ground forces in Iraq and Kuwait decisively defeated a battle-hardened and dangerous enemy. During air and ground operations, U.S. and allied forces destroyed over 3,000 tanks, 1,400 armored personnel carriers, and 2,200 artillery pieces along with countless other vehicles. This was achieved at a cost to the United States of 96 soldiers killed in action, 2 died of wounds, and 105 non-hostile deaths." The US (not including every other nation involved) flew 40,000 air to ground sorties and 50,000 support sorties.

[@conneroliver5001]

What I'm getting at, Is what did the US learn the hard way exactly? Or what was done to teach them and what what taught?

[@jeromethiel4323]

@@conneroliver5001Yeah, we got away with it. Analysts later found that if the enemy had used better tactics, it would have been devastating. If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid. You cannot count on the opfor being stupid.

[@datadavis]

generic misinformed AI comment.

[@residentgeardo]

"The country that everybody knows" ... Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦

[@happymonkey7068]

The war that bankrupted the west, but made the rich richer.

[@johndoe-so2ef]

Strange term for money laundry, but I will allow it.

[@merlinwizard1000]

38th, 24 February 2024

[@davidmeek8017]

Aloha; outstanding! Mahalo. Noticed that the Belgian Congo did not come up.

[@BenjaminDamien]

Why should it?

[@alanrogers7090]

Why did the Army go from M-48 to M-60? Where are all the in-between?

[@geofftimm2291]

The US Army went that way, just following a good example, or at least a budget friendly one.

[@tomhenry897]

Was none The M48 was improved to the A5 model before replaced by the M60 Or in the the guard the M1

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

At least they became a bit more logical. Alongside the M4 Sherman you could find the 37mm M4 autocannon fitted to many aircraft and the M4 bayonet. God help you if you were specific in what you ordered....

[@phil20_20]

Sounds liike it's a good thing Western manufacturing is waking up finally. 👋🏻🤠👍🏻

[@phil20_20]

🛢 the first tank

[@alvinbryant6709]

P r o m o s m

[@karlbrundage7472]

With approximately 3000 M-1s in storage, why can't the US offer to upgrade all of them to the -A2+ standard and give them to our NATO partners, in exchange for them giving all of their Leopard Is and IIs to Ukraine. Seems like a no-brainer, but I have no idea how western politicians and bureaucrats think.

[@mahbriggs]

It cost money! We are already footing the cost far more than most European nations. Step up and pay your share!

[@jeffreypierson2064]

@@mahbriggs Hahaha... The NATO former Soviet bloc countries are poor, so they don't match the US in absolute dollars, but they are providing "the country everybody knows" with 30% or greater of their defense budget. They know that bleeding Russia dry in another country prevents Russia from invading NATO.

[@gamarus0kragh]

@@mahbriggsthat was true for '22 and first half of '23 but has changed since then. In absolute terms the US has provided around 75B$, more than any one nation, but less than the ~100B$ the EU organization has provided. Granted, that is mostly financial aid to run the Ukrainian state and must be including the 55B$ bill that was finally passed by the EU leaders recently. Germany is the 2nd largest national contributor with better than 30B$ from a smaller nation. 3rd is UK with ~20B and 4th is Denmark with ~9B from a nation of 6 million to the US 340 million. That means, in terms of GDP, Denmark is 2nd (after Estonia with 3.55% of GDP), Denmark at 2.40%, Norway 3rd at 1.72%. Germany is at 10th place with 0.57%, UK 11th at 0.55% and the US 19th at 0.32%. You could add the contributions through the EU and the percentage would go up by 0.5% or more for each of the EU countries. Those numbers do not account for the refugees many EU nations have provided for - for Poland that number is close to 25B$ and slightly higher for Germany. The US has had minuscule expenses in those categories. These statistics are from two sites tracking the support: Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Statistica. If you delight in statistics, the Kiel Institute has a wealth of ways to break down the numbers. Now, this isn't to say the EU countries hasn't had failures esp. with regards to military aid. Mainly with regards to not having the stockpiles so most of the big donors are now scraping the barrel, whereas Uncle Sam still can draw on those. And an absolute failure on the European side to write tenders for production and thus have the munitions plants spool up their output. The US will by years end ( '24 )be able to produce 80.000 155mm shells/month. European plants (from a survey in late '22) could produce between 300 and 500.000 shells per month with existing lines (aggregate for 105, 122, 152 and 155mm). But EU countries has not been able to provide more than 530.000 shells between March '23 and March '24 (all 155mm iirc).

[@johndoe-so2ef]

We are tired and supporting the entire NATO, support the money laundry yourselves.

[@justforever96]

Belgian military historian, worlds easiest job! No, I'm joking. All respect to Belgium, they punch over their weight.

[@davor3219]

very funny story about how france can't supply enough tanks to belgium which is otherwise known as a great military power. i'm sure it has nothing to do with a political decision 😏

[@xxxlonewolf49]

The US recruiting problems are political, we are sick of being social experiments.

[@obsidianjane4413]

?!?!

[@cedhome7945]

I guess nobody wants to for the woke country when they won't defend the rest of us

[@xxxlonewolf49]

@obsidianjane4413 Look up the last several US recruiting videos, all about 2 moms, & strong women b/s. Women's bodies can NOT do the things a man's can do, period. Hell, the CIA was "looking" for people with mental issues to be "inclusive" instead of EFFECTIVE.

[@dongiovanni4331]

Has the US tried, raising wages?

[@xxxlonewolf49]

@dongiovanni4331 Raising wages raises costs too. There is NO MAGIC MONEY TREE. Do you understand ANYTHING about BASIC economics? EVERY SINGLE TIME WAGES are just RAISED, ALL PRICES GO UP EVEN MORE.

[@horstmuller7512]

Never heard about a belgian army. This county is so small, that rifle barrels have to be sawn off, otherwise they would reach into neighboring countries.

[@Gliese380]

Funny stuff. Would it surprise you that most of NATO has been using Belgian firearms like the FN FAL, FN Minimi (known as the M249 SAW in the USA) and FN MAG (M240 in the USA) for ages? The FN SCAR, FN P90, etc are also not exactly unknown. Anyway, if you're German, you knowing pretty much nothing about a country right next to yours is not the flex you think it is. Also, Belgium had its own occupation zone in Berlin until the end of the Cold War, and during the Cold War Belgium had a larger air force than West Germany, etc.

[@horstmuller7512]

@@Gliese380 Who did not have an occupation zone in Germany? Even the gypsies had occupied a goat barn. And having a bigger air force in cold war than Germany was also not an art in the days of the Starfighter - this junk fell from the sky faster than the pilots could say "not again".

[@Gliese380]

@@horstmuller7512 We had Starfighters too + Mirages and then F-16s after that. These will be replaced by F-35s from 2025 onwards. And apparently you're not aware of the NATO forces that guarded West-Berlin against the Soviets. But whatever.

[@horstmuller7512]

@@Gliese380 In 2025, the world's largest mass and genocidal machine, NATO, will no longer exist. And if everything goes as planned, most of Europe's shithole capitals have been wiped out. If you still have a spark of understanding, you will now start learning Russian and Chinese.

[@johnfisk811]

This is why the EU needs a single army.

[@5Ring]

The Belgian Army has the same number of combat victories as the Afghan Navy. (Afghanistan is a land-locked country).

[@cmck472]

I’m glad you explained that 😅

[@stevecausey545]

Belgium is like the windshield wipers of the allied forces...nice to have em, but never there or needed in combat...so why the fixation with Belgium? If you have loved ones and memories I apologize

[@hazzardalsohazzard2624]

Belgium exists to force Britain to care about the continent.

[@gagamba9198]

'Let someone else shoulder the burden. We nominate...erm... the Estonians.'

[@CGM_68]

Elbonia spend way more than 2% of GDP on arms procurement. Hasn't helped them much on the world stage.

[@Jpdt19]

Because this is a series exploring it. Is that hard to grasp. None of the NATO forces in Germany ever saw combat? Why pick on the Belgians. 😂

[@stevecausey545]

@@Jpdt19 not picking on them all. I guess I was being myopic...didn't even know they had an army until after the war

[@bruces150]

Spent time with the Belgian Army during Reforger 1984 while serving with the 3rd Armor Division

[@MrFluidwill]

What a treasure this man is, excellent.

[@jorenbaplu5100]

As a belgian i'd indeed prefer if we buy european instead of american. We already spend a ton of money on the F-35, which could end up being a massive waste if they decide to elect their annoying orange again

[@johndoe-so2ef]

As an American, I can tell you that we have no concern about what you think. Only democrats give a f*** about euro trash.

[@PDVism]

@@johndoe-so2ef sure, until it's the Euro trash that have to help you out, again. Remind me what war as the USA ever won without help from other countries? Heck, you even needed French, Dutch etc.. help during your civil war. *ponder* Ah yes, I recall now, you won the war against Grenada all by yourselves. A nation with less people that people in the Marine Corps. How gallant and brave of you.

[@tedgalacci8428]

I like his direct frankness.