Please think about this again: The forgotten Achilles' heel of European defense

When high-tech doesn't fill your stomach: Europe's dangerous defense gap

At its summit in Brussels at the end of October 2025, the European People's Party presented an ambitious defense concept designed to prepare Europe against the ongoing Russian threat by 2030. This concept includes four large-scale flagship projects 🔵 the European Drone Defense Initiative, 🔵 monitoring the eastern flank, 🔵 the European Air Shield and 🔵 European space protection The strategy paper outlines a comprehensive military response to the changed security situation. The total cost of this rearmament offensive is estimated at up to €800 billion by 2030, with the European Union's defense spending projected to more than double from its current level of around €392 billion annually to over €800 billion by 2035. These figures are impressive in their sheer scale. Europe is taking this military paradigm shift seriously and responding to the persistent threat from Russia with a historic investment offensive in armaments and technology. However, despite all the admiration for the technical precision of the planning, a fundamental gap is revealed, one that is symptomatic of the strategic thinking of European security policymakers: The provision of supplies to the civilian population in the event of an attack is, at best, mentioned in passing, but nowhere defined as a central strategic objective. Yet this is precisely the core of any serious defense planning.