European Union countries are buying too much of their defense equipment abroad and failing to invest in joint military projects, a landmark report warns.
At the moment German companies are cooperating with US ones to produce yet another MLRS system competing with existing ones.
At the moment Norwegian companies are cooperating with the US to develop their next iteration of air defense based on German missiles even that is part of a complete system already.
At the moment UK is cooperating with Italy and Japan to compete with the French-German jet project you already mentioned.
At the moment Poland is heavily cooperating with South Korea to develop huge parts of their modernized vehicle fleet while buying the rest from the US.
See how they all prefer to either buy from or develop with countries further away to avoid their neigbours perceived as competition?
As far as I remember, Poland chose to cooperate with SK, as the German companies did not allow technology transfer and manufacturing of components in Poland, while South Korea did. Additionally it was also about the manufacturing capacities and the time frame of delivery. So, they didn’t chose SK over Germany, just because Germany is their neighbour.
The coordination between France and Germany in developing the FCAS was already a mess and only improved as the current MoDs harmonize on a personal level. Germany would take the leading role in developing the future MBT, while in exchange France was allowed to lead the development of the FCAS. Involving even more countries doesn’t improve that aspect.
Personally, I also would prefer, if the competences would be coordinated on EU level to avoid this haggling. While some competence is beneficial to the outcome, a lot resources are wasted as too much work is done redundantly.
At the moment German companies are cooperating with US ones to produce yet another MLRS system competing with existing ones.
At the moment Norwegian companies are cooperating with the US to develop their next iteration of air defense based on German missiles even that is part of a complete system already.
At the moment UK is cooperating with Italy and Japan to compete with the French-German jet project you already mentioned.
At the moment Poland is heavily cooperating with South Korea to develop huge parts of their modernized vehicle fleet while buying the rest from the US.
See how they all prefer to either buy from or develop with countries further away to avoid their neigbours perceived as competition?
As far as I remember, Poland chose to cooperate with SK, as the German companies did not allow technology transfer and manufacturing of components in Poland, while South Korea did. Additionally it was also about the manufacturing capacities and the time frame of delivery. So, they didn’t chose SK over Germany, just because Germany is their neighbour.
The coordination between France and Germany in developing the FCAS was already a mess and only improved as the current MoDs harmonize on a personal level. Germany would take the leading role in developing the future MBT, while in exchange France was allowed to lead the development of the FCAS. Involving even more countries doesn’t improve that aspect.
Personally, I also would prefer, if the competences would be coordinated on EU level to avoid this haggling. While some competence is beneficial to the outcome, a lot resources are wasted as too much work is done redundantly.
That would only work in a perfect world. In the real one you just replace haggling with lobbying…