Belgium’s race to bring its military up to speed

Like many of its neighbours, Belgium is in a race to prepare its military for a potential conflict – but experts say the country is still lagging behind many of its European counterparts.

Belgium only recently increased its defence spending from 1.3% of GDP in 2024 to 2.1%. Today, it remains one of the lowest spenders on defence within the NATO military alliance. By comparison, countries such as Poland are spending over 4%, and most NATO allies have committed to spending 5% of GDP on defence by 2035.

“Belgium is one of the European countries that most heavily cut defence spending after the Cold War and is one of the few European countries that even continued to do so after 2014,” Belgian defence expert Michelle Haas explained, referring to the year Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, seizing it from Ukraine.

Now, with the security situation on the EU’s eastern border and in the Eastern Mediterranean increasingly fraught, Belgium is racing to catch up with the Europe-wide push for rearmament. But it must also reimagine itself.

Currently, the Belgian armed forces are in a difficult position, as they are both in a process of rebuilding and dealing with the rapid evolution in warfare, Haas said.

“Other European countries made this shift earlier,” she noted.

On the ground

At the moment, Belgium’s armed forces have 24,100 soldiers and 4,900 reservists.

Like most other NATO members, the country is struggling to increase that number. While recent recruitment figures offer a sign of hope, the real problem is long term stability, Peeters said.

“Retainment is difficult with today’s youth”, the retired major general said, as some of the young recruits leave shortly after their initial training.

Nonetheless, Belgium’s military personnel are one of its strong suits. According to the special forces general, their adaptability to different situations is what makes the armed forces formidable. The multilingual soldiers fit well into international organisations, which “helps in the context of today’s operations.”

Haas agreed that Belgium’s diverse culture has made the forces known for their adaptability in cooperation.

The country has established both Dutch- and French-speaking units, as well as some bilingual ones.

In the air

But while people are an asset, hard defence capabilities are lacking.

A continued downward spiral of lower defence spending has left Belgium with “nearly existential capability gaps for the Belgian Armed Forces,” Haas pointed out.

While Belgium contributes to international deployments with the UN, EU, and NATO, it can offer only limited capabilities in manpower and armaments.

Most strikingly, Belgium currently has no air defence. If Belgium were ever attacked by air, NATO allies would need to step in to support the country. The vulnerability drew attention in late 2025 after a series of unidentified drones were reported flying over Belgian military facilities and critical infrastructure, with suspicion in some security circles falling on Moscow amid a wider pattern of suspected hybrid threats across Europe.

To fill that gap, Norwegian NASAMS systems are set to arrive in 2027 to protect critical port infrastructure. The issue, Peeters said, is that many in the armed forces lack the expertise to manage such systems.

“At this point in time, the defensive capabilities are extremely limited,” he added.

(cm, aw)