Final Word from Wednesday, December 18, 2024

One of the top stories today on FT.com is about Elon Musk's criticism of the F-35 fighter. "His comments," the Financial Times said, "have added fuel to a debate gripping the defense industry and its customers: Does the military still need expensive piloted fighter jets at a time when budgets are pressed and increasingly sophisticated drones are deployed to devastating effect in Ukraine and elsewhere?" This comes just as Nato is considering increasing its 2% spending minimum. The 2025 Czech national budget that was signed yesterday by Pres. Petr Pavel includes about Kč 14bn toward the purchase of F-35s. That would buy a lot of drones. While in Australia, Pavel defended Norway against criticism from Donald Trump and said that it's able to do much more with 1.5% defense spending than some countries do with 3%. If Pavel truly wants to emancipate himself from the Fiala government, he can do it by using this same logic to oppose Czech defense spending that is merely designed to meet the numbers. [ Czech Republic most-read tweets GDP X Lowy Lecture ]