NATO has agreed its common-funded civil and military budgets for 2026, committing around £2.5 billion to strengthening Allied readiness and collective defence as security pressures across Europe continue to grow.
At a meeting of the North Atlantic Council on 16 December, Allies approved a Civil Budget of about £455 million and a Military Budget of roughly £2.1 billion. NATO said Allied defence spending is on an upward trajectory, with nations increasingly investing in both national forces and shared Alliance capabilities.
According to the Alliance, “Allies’ continued commitment to common funding is both politically visible, and practically valuable,” highlighting the role of collective budgets in sustaining NATO’s ability to deter and respond to threats.
The 2026 Military Budget will support NATO’s ongoing military adaptation, Allied interoperability, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security. It will continue to fund the integrated NATO Command Structure, NATO-led training and exercises, Alliance operations and missions, and capacity-building support for partner nations.
The Civil Budget will maintain support for Allied consultations and decision-making and fund the work of NATO Headquarters in Brussels. NATO said the agreed budgets will “support critical capabilities and promote readiness, making the Alliance stronger, fairer and more lethal” as it enters what it described as a new era of collective defence.
More meetings, more words, more money spaffed away.
What we spending our budget up lift on? Welfare? Empty words, with nothing ever happening just endless long winded press releases, meetings, projects going no where and defection. As it has been for well over a year.
More non stories, Germany and Poland ordering vast amounts of kit, us a few spares and some service contracts and re hashed stories about investment with out investing. And more stories about how knackerd Ajax is after 10 years of trials.
£2.5 billion on nothing?
Plenty of common NATO infrastructure, IT, facilities, and then the civil side too, not to mention the Otan AWACS and other shared assets.
Spilt between nations it is chicken feed.
For example, NATO have an EW unit at RNAS Yeovilton that I assume is funded by this, and I’d guess some of the Northwood IT and infrastructure is also NATO funded given that it’s a major NATO Headquarters.
Back in the day, I read that NATO funded HAS complexes at RAF Stations.
A breakdown of items UK side would be interesting.
Are the NATO AWACS fleet funded from this ?
Yes, in part. NATO’s AWACS fleet operations, sustainment and command structure are funded through NATO’s common-funded military budget.
Personnel costs are obviously nationally funded, while major upgrades or replacement programmes are typically financed separately through multinational arrangements.
In short, the common budget keeps AWACS operating and integrated, but it does not cover the full lifecycle of the fleet.
Thanks for the confirmation. So yes the money is been spent on capability. there is also the The Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet as well
Despite the US claim that they contribute massively to NATO, they actually put very little money into the NATO Common Budget/CivilBudget/ Military Budget…no more than Germany does.