Spain increases arms purchases from the US, reaching its highest expenditure ever

U.S. President Donald Trump is outraged that Spain is falling short of reaching the equivalent of 5% of GDP in defense spending agreed within the NATO framework, and has used this as his latest weapon to threaten another front in his global trade war. However, Spain has been increasing its arms and military maintenance budgets for several years now, and proof of this is that it will already exceed 2% of GDP this year, the figure committed to not so long ago in the halls of the Atlantic Alliance and a dramatic acceleration in just a few months from 1.4% in 2024, the last full year for which data is available and one in which the United States made a historic profit from arms sales to Spain.

Specifically, according to the Defense Ministry’s 2024 Procurement Report, the various affiliated bodies (the central government, the Defense Staff, the army and the navy) allocated €7.468 billion, split almost equally between the current year’s annual budget (€3.688 billion) and the funds deferred over several years (€3.78 billion from 2025 onward). Of the total €7.5 billion ($8.74 billion), almost a third, around €2.23 billion ($2.6 billion), went to the United States. Specifically, to pay for dozens of the latest model Patriot missile systems and the necessary auxiliary equipment over a period of several years, of which around €500 million would correspond to 2024.

In parallel, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) went a little further. According to its statistical yearbook, which compiles all U.S. arms sales worldwide, Spain purchased materiel worth $2.907 billion in 2024. A year earlier, the value of Spanish spending on U.S.-made military purchases amounted to $1.682 billion, with more than $900 million in exchange for a package of MH-60R helicopters standing out. In other words, between 2023 and 2024, Spain purchased more than ever from the world’s leading power: over $4.5 billion in the two years prior to Trump’s return to the White House. The difference between the Spanish Defense Ministry data and the U.S. data lies in the periodization or single-time recording of contracts.

According to the Department of Defense’s statistical yearbook, the United States has sold $16.973 billion in weapons to Spain since 1950 (shortly after the end of World War II). In nominal terms, the amount paid in the last two fiscal years represents almost a quarter of the total amount purchased in 75 years. In fact, between 1950 and 2019, total sales did not even reach $12 billion, confirming that Spain has not historically been a major customer of Washington in this area.

This dependence on the U.S. has emerged in the most recent period, as since 2015, the DSCA has only recorded nine major authorizations for relevant contracts with Spain, all of them for missiles or air equipment. Three of these were in 2022 and 2023 (which were finalized and consolidated in the following years), coinciding with the fear of an extension of hostilities following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, throughout 2024 and so far in 2025, there have been no further major purchases from the United States by Spain. In fact, as EL PAÍS reported, the Spanish Navy has put the purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. on hold.

Big clients

No European country has placed among the top five largest arms buyers from Washington in the last 75 years. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Defense, the list is headed by strategic allies across the world. At the top is Saudi Arabia, to which $181 billion worth of arms have been sold. Japan has spent more than $69 billion, and Israel, the third-largest military customer, totals $63 billion. Five years ago, Israel was the second-largest by a considerable margin, but Tokyo has shelled out over $20 billion in the last five years alone.

Australia, with $61 billion, Taiwan ($55 billion), South Korea ($53 billion) and Egypt ($45 billion) are all ahead of the biggest-spending European country, Poland, with $41 billion, although some $23 billion of that outlay was made between 2022 and 2024. In other words: after the invasion of Ukraine and faced with the need to strengthen NATO’s last frontier against Moscow.

Just behind Poland comes Qatar ($39 billion), followed by more European countries. First, the United Kingdom, which, with $37 billion in purchases, is one of the few loyal customers who have purchased at similar rates over the years and decades. The opposite is true for Germany, with $36 billion, but with a peak of $13 billion in 2023, also under the threat posed by the Kremlin.

A now-insufficient milestone

Trump’s repeated criticism of Spain’s defense spending coincides with a historic year for the national government’s military investment. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on April 22 that Spain would meet the 2% of GDP target for military spending this year, with an unannounced additional amount of €10.471 billion, bringing the annual total to €33.123 billion. This acceleration brings the previously set target of 2029 forward by four years, as agreed with NATO a decade ago during conservative leader Mariano Rajoy’s tenure.

To increase military spending without eroding public accounts, which have not been updated via the General State Budget since 2023, the government has reactivated all possible funding channels, including those not handled by the Defense Ministry but instead allocated through the Ministry of Industry and R&D funds. This is where the 31 Special Modernization Programs (SMP) launched in 2025 come in, adding to the 56 already existing ones. All of them are multi-year plans for strategic investments and multi-million-dollar purchases, from armored vehicles to frigates, aircraft, and satellites. On Tuesday, the Cabinet authorized the release of €6.89 billion, in addition to the more than €7.3 billion announced in previous weeks, in zero-percent interest loans to pay for nine of these SMPs.

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