"the average American military satellite project took nearly nine years to be built and fully deployed" [nine years]
The nine-year development cycle for a single satellite class quantifies the time-lock dimension of the dependency, showing that even with unlimited funding Europe cannot rapidly substitute US enabling infrastructure.
Reasoning from this article
The article's catalog of US enablers—satellites, encrypted networks, ISR, cyber, command hierarchies—illustrates a general dynamic: when one alliance member monopolizes enabling infrastructure over decades, the capability gap becomes structurally irreproducible on short timescales regardless of political will or funding. This pattern applies beyond NATO to any asymmetric alliance where one party provides the 'connective tissue' of modern warfare, making exit costs prohibitively high and creating durable leverage for the provider even after political relationships deteriorate.