Between 1999 and 2018, the number of frigates and destroyers in European navies dropped by 32 percent, and the number of submarines by 28 percent. As the German Council on Foreign Relations noted in an April 2020 policy brief, “Even though defense budgets slowly recovered toward pre-crisis levels after 2014, capabilities did not. Nationally as well as at EU and NATO level, significant gaps still exist.”[5]
