Ireland boosts defenses with record spending and new radar plan

Ireland is moving to close some of the sharpest holes in its defenses with a record €1.7 billion spending plan and a new radar system meant to detect threats it has long struggled to see. The push reflects a harder European security climate, but it also lays bare a deeper problem: a state that has protected its neutrality for generations now has to modernize around capability gaps in the air, at sea and on the ground.

The scale of the vulnerability was spelled out in the Commission on the Defence Forces report published on 9 February 2022, which concluded that Ireland’s Defence Forces could not meaningfully defend the state. That judgment highlighted the gap between Ireland’s stated ambitions and the resources actually provided. Official policy defines military neutrality as non-membership in military alliances or common or mutual defense arrangements, a principle rooted in the early years of the state and still central to Irish foreign policy.

The government’s answer is a multi-year modernization plan built around the Defence Sectoral National Development Plan for 2026-2030, approved on 11 December 2025. Minister for Defence Helen McEntee said the new Military Radar Programme is due to begin rolling out in 2026 and should be delivered by the end of 2028. The program has three parts: long-range primary radar on land, ground-based air-defense systems with counter-unmanned-aerial-systems capability, and ship-borne maritime radar. Government documents say France is the preferred supplier.

Those upgrades point directly to Ireland’s most obvious weak spots. The Department of Defence says the plan is meant to address longstanding gaps in air and maritime surveillance, as well as drone threats and the possible sabotage of undersea cables. Ireland’s active defense personnel are put at roughly 7,500, well below the 10,000 establishment strength discussed in policy debates, and its defense spending remains among the lowest in Europe as a share of GDP. That combination has left the country reliant on limited assets while Europe re-arms in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The pressure is not only strategic but political. Ireland will host the rotating European Union presidency in 2026, giving its security weaknesses greater visibility at a time when European governments are reassessing collective defense. Public opinion remains cautious too: an Atlantic Council analysis cited 19 percent support for NATO membership and 49 percent opposition. For Dublin, the challenge is no longer whether neutrality matters, but whether it can survive in a region that now rewards harder power.