The recent agreement between France and Germany to develop a new multimillion-dollar tank was hailed by Boris Pistorius, the German Defense Minister, as “a historic moment.”
His enthusiasm was understandable. For seven years, political infighting, industrial rivalry and neglect had stalled the project to build a next-generation tank, known as the Primary Ground Combat System.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine shook Europe. After defense budgets were cut following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the war has reignited Europe’s efforts to increase its own military production capacity and nearly empty arsenals.
But enormous obstacles stand in the way of a more coordinated and efficient military machine. They threaten to undermine a rapid strengthening of Europe’s defense capabilities.
“Europe has 27 military industrial complexes, not just one,” said Max Bergmann, program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization still sets overall defense strategy and spending targets for Europe, but does not control the equipment acquisition process. Each NATO member has its own defense institution, culture, priorities and favored companies, and each government has the final say on what to buy.
“Even when they buy the same German tank, they build it in different ways so that a national defense company can be involved,” Bergmann said.
That is what has hampered the development of the Franco-German “tank of the future,” which will be operational — with drones, missiles, cloud computing and more — by 2035 or 2040, the countries hope. Disputes have extended to whether the main gun should be a 130-millimeter gun, favored by Germany, or a 140-millimeter gun developed by France.
The disjointed defense market makes it difficult for Europe to optimize costs and ensure that everything is interchangeable across national borders.
There are also competing political visions.
France and Germany, the European Union’s two largest economies, have the two largest defense budgets among member states and will spend a combined total of 120 billion euros this year. However, they are on opposite sides of the debate.
France, which has its own nuclear arsenal, has been the one that has put the most pressure on Europe to invest in a self-sufficient Army. President Emmanuel Macron has called for “European sovereignty” and “strategic autonomy” to balance US dominance of NATO. And he has expressed concerns that European governments have about being too dependent on the United States for their security.
Germany, which lacks its own nuclear weapons and depends on NATO, feels more comfortable with Europe’s unequal partnership with the United States. The vigorous pacifist current that followed the Second World War remains deeply rooted in German culture.
Today, the effort to replenish Europe’s dwindling arsenal is happening at two speeds: Countries like Poland and Germany are buying fighter jets, missiles and munitions from the United States and its Asian allies, and France is pushing for a “Made” defense industry. in Europe” is encouraged to increase self-sufficiency.
In the past two years, 78 percent of defense equipment purchased by EU members was purchased outside the bloc — mainly from American arms manufacturers. The new EU strategy calls on countries to spend half of their defense budgets on EU suppliers by 2030, and 60 percent by 2035.
With a patchwork of defense companies that rarely collaborate, Europe operates more than five times as many weapons systems as the United States in categories such as tanks, aircraft, submarines and munitions. The industry cannot compete in such a fractured state with American arms giants such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, said Kurt Braatz, a spokesman for KNDS, a French and German conglomerate. “Consolidation is really needed,” he said.
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