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I mean, the issue is that most of the rest of the so called free World (and in my opinion correctly so), especially Europe, depends on the US for defence, specially weapon production. Despite France constantly whining about it, insisting on strategic autonomy, as far as I am aware, when it comes to ammo production and air power, we very much depend on the US for production and designs (the design when it comes to aircraft)
If the American empire falls, it's not going to reduce weapons production or arms sales. Decline into fascism requires more guns and bullets, as they get turned against domestic targets, while guns and oil are among the US's best sources of external currency.
The United States military should scale way back, but the European military would have to increase because of what you mentioned with designs for specialty weapons.
We have reasonable designs for almost all weapon categories, except maybe for airplanes, with the latest being the Eurofighter which is by now a bit dated. Regarding Tanks, the German Leopard is as far as I am aware a fine piece of engineering as well as the belgian FN-SCAR. However we lack the ammo capabilities (especially when it comes to artillery shells) to ever have hope of winning a protracted war (or simply keeping Ukraine alive). (also, quick side note, France also spends a great deal of money maintaining their own nuclear arsenal and weapons delivery system, which kinda makes the UK seem a bit puny with their dependence of the US for weapon delivery)