NATO allies unveil multibillion-dollar defense deals in Ankara as Rutte seeks to reassure Trump

NATO allies on Tuesday announced defense industrial agreements worth tens of billions of dollars to acquire surveillance aircraft and advanced unmanned aerial vehicles.

“This is money well spent,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at the opening of a historic NATO summit held in Türkiye.

US President Donald Trump, who landed in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon for the summit, has previously characterized NATO as a “paper tiger” that could not function without US leadership and weaponry.

According to the Financial Times, Rutte announced the agreements on a stage featuring impactful videos and loud techno music, as he sought to convince Trump that European allies are serious about taking greater responsibility for the continent’s defense.

While several of the initiatives announced by Rutte involved major contracts with US companies, many were independent of them.

One of the most expensive items was an agreement to purchase up to 10 surveillance aircraft from a consortium led by Sweden’s Saab and Canada’s Bombardier.

The “GlobalEye” aircraft, which cost between $400 million and $450 million each, will replace NATO’s fleet of 14 AWACS early warning radar surveillance aircraft.

Micael Johansson, President of Saab, stated that the aircraft, early versions of which are already in service, could be delivered starting in 2030 if the agreement is finalized soon.

However, Rutte also announced that allies would purchase a maximum of five Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton high-altitude surveillance drones.

Norway, Finland, Germany, and Denmark signed a letter of intent to purchase these drones, which cost approximately $270 million each, according to recent procurement figures from the US Department of Defense.

“We need a transatlantic defense-industrial revolution. The hum of machinery must become a roar. The money is there, and much more is on the way. But this money needs to work… the security situation demands it,” Rutte said.

These high-profile defense industrial agreements follow Rutte’s visit to Washington late last month, which aimed to address US concerns that several European and Canadian nations were falling short of their defense spending commitments.

At the White House, Rutte presented a chart titled “The Trump Trillion,” which demonstrated that European and Canadian allies had increased their defense spending by $1.2 trillion since 2017.

However, Trump appeared largely unimpressed by Rutte’s presentation and expressed frustration that some NATO allies had refused to participate in the war with Iran. “We don’t need their money. I just want loyalty,” Trump said.

Ahead of the NATO summit, a senior US official noted that Trump had “pre-assessed the extent to which our allies are failing to meet their defense commitments, and he will deliver this message in person.”

The US official added that NATO allies must “be more capable” and “implement the Hague defense commitment as quickly as possible.”

The Hague commitment mandates allocating 5% of GDP to defense by 2035. Rutte stated on Monday that allies would be asked to present “clear, concrete, and credible plans” to achieve this target during the summit. He also warned that if there are countries that need to be persuaded, “we have our ways of doing so,” though he did not elaborate.

In addition to reassuring Trump, a senior European official said the objective behind this surge in defense agreements is to “increase our capacity, ensure interoperability among allies, and generally make progress in deterring anyone who intends to attack us.”

Nevertheless, some of the agreements highlighted the difficulties encountered in NATO’s efforts regarding the transatlantic co-production of new weapons.

German defense company Rheinmetall and US defense giant Lockheed Martin announced progress on a plan to produce rockets and missiles in Germany.

However, after months of discussions, this development fell short of the expectations expressed more than a year ago by Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger.

Those expectations included the licensed production of PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems, which have proven vital in protecting Ukrainian cities from Russian ballistic missile attacks.

Instead, the two companies only announced progress on ATACMS missiles, which represent a less high-tech product. The US is currently phasing out these missiles to replace them with a more technologically advanced successor.

In a separate announcement, plans were unveiled to establish a dedicated PAC-3 maintenance facility on European soil. However, the goal of producing PAC-3 interceptor missiles under license in Europe remained an elusive ambition.

Rather than offering a firm commitment, US Under Secretary of Defense Michael Duffey told reporters, “We remain open to the possibility of production outside the US.”

In a statement issued by London, the United Kingdom noted that 12 European nations, including the UK, France, and Germany, will spend more than $50 billion over the next decade to develop long-range precision weapons to strengthen NATO’s defense capabilities.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will announce the UK-led initiative in Ankara today, and the participating nations will issue a joint declaration containing additional details.

Turkish defense companies to cooperate with Palantir

ASELSAN, ROKETSAN, STM, and TÜBİTAK joined five major new multinational NATO programs during the 2026 NATO Summit held in Ankara.

Haluk Görgün, President of the Defense Industry Agency of Türkiye, announced that ASELSAN, ROKETSAN, STM, and TÜBİTAK will participate in the following five large-scale NATO programs:

• Strike Capabilities
• Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD)
• Space and Surveillance
• Critical Materials for Defense Industry
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Superiority

In the strike capabilities program, Diehl of Germany and ROKETSAN of Türkiye are understood to be the primary suppliers. Participating countries in this program include Türkiye, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) program is viewed as a massive initiative with a budget of $26.27 billion. The IAMD program will contract ASELSAN, Raytheon, ROKETSAN, Anduril UK, Rheinmetall, Palantir, and Athea. The participating countries are Türkiye, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Greece, and Romania.

Under the Space and Surveillance program, valued at approximately $4 billion, ASELSAN, Isar Aerospace, MLS, ROKETSAN, and TÜBİTAK have been contracted. The participants in this program are Türkiye, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.