Ireland - lack of air and naval defence.

The Irish military buys very little from US companies to be worried about.

The Javelin missiles are the only major pieces of equipment because they're the best in their class, but the French MMP might be just as good, although very heavy.

A few 30mm guns were recently purchased for Mowags.

ACOG sights and slings on the Steyr rifles.

A few bits on the FN sniper rifles, which are being replaced.

The Sincgars radios are being replaced, and maybe the Harris and Motorolas at some stage.

There are lots of Ford vehicles, but there are plenty of European and Japanese companies that could supply alternatives.

The Learjet will be disposed of.

P&W engines on aircraft and a lot of sensor equipment might be hard to avoid using with few alternatives.

IT equipment, hardware and software are the biggest issues as there are few to no alternatives to the US and China.

You could potentially taka a gamble on the large amount uf US citizens with Irish ancestry in the US to lobby for the Irish back home every now and then, but it's a risk, a risk which is getting huger and huger by the hour and by the minute…

in the online Foreign Affairs records there’s mention of the issue post WW2 between the US secretary of the Navy and the Irish delegation, seems attempts were made to buy US surplus, but the U.K. had already talked the US out of citing concerns that such weapons would be use against the North. There was even offer that US troops could be stationed to ensure that didn’t happen, but nothing came of it.

That's some interesting takes.

We've had weeks of the US Administration being actively and openly hostile towards Europe for no other reason than an ageing President liked the look of sovereign territory of a European nation and demanded it for no reason. In the process, being more hostile and threatening towards European nations, than Russia who's actively bombing the crap out of Ukraine. This coming on foot of a National Security policy that treats the EU and European nations as more of a threat than Russia or China or NK, and which stated directly the intent of US policy was to actively manipulate European politics to favour US "Right wing" views and destablise/disrupt/dissolve the EU.

None of that has anything to do with the arguments of Defence spending over the decades, or the impact of Global Free Trade that the US was the major driving force behind for decades.

But it's Europe and Europeans that are being "anti US" as a response…

It's really simply, for Irish needs for defence the European industrial capacity has everything we need, so why buy from the US currently, or trust them in the future?

We have been sponging security from them for decades.

The US has spent trillions protecting Europe since December 1941.

And in that time has made trillions out of trade and defence spending, far more than they would have if Europe had been hostile to them. And since we haven’t ever been in a treaty with the US that’s irrelevant anyway.

it’s particularly funny given the U.K. blackballed us from US defence procurement post WW2 anyway.

Exactly. It's not simply the UK protecting Ireland. It's the UK removing any need for Ireland to scale up it's military. That's a obsolete mindset that everyone needs to move past.

UK could have been a military partner with Ireland if this wasn't the case. Theres so much shared military history (Irish in the UK armed forces) that a new narrative to enrich Irish history in this.

Good Question. I'm old enough to remember that during the Korean war both the UK and Ireland boosted their Civil Defence organisation and a booklet was posted to every household in the country informing how to protect yourself and family from a nuclear strike.

Me aunt was in the Civil Defence…

And the latest US security plan basically says “not our problem” for either Russia or China, so what’s your point?

positioned where were were geographically we had no real threat to defend against. Governments govern on the basis of national interest, not morality. During those years a relatively low defensive capacity was more than enough to protect the state because of the low threat levels. Your “morality” is a foolish guide. Ireland gained much from its stance. Times change and now Ireland must look to a much more aggressive defensive posture, but that is based also, on self interest. Who cares about what it looks like to filter feeders on the internet, right or left.

Unless it's a Swiss style form of neutrality, I don't think that the current Irish version of it is credible. Even worse if the RAF from Scotland is doing the job for the Irish and Ireland still insisting and finding excuse like explanations that it's a neutral country.

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