Ukraine war is transforming fortune of Europe’s defence sector
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is benefiting Europe’s defence sector amid proposals for greater collaboration on military programmes and the streamlining of weapons manufacturing.
Hoping to benefit from the war in Ukraine, hundreds of defence and aerospace executives have assembled for the Farnborough International Airshow.
In order to bolster Europe’s status as a cohesive global military power and confront a newly aggressive Russia, members of the European Union are boosting their expenditure on defence projects.
“In the past . . . people have been saying this in the context of [defence] budget cuts. And now we are saying it in the context of budget increases,” said Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch minister of defence.
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Before considering new hardware, stockpiles of weapons that have been depleted need to be replenished along with boosting the salaries of the armed forces.
After announcing it would launch a €100bn military modernisation fund, Germany’s first big purchase was the American-made F-35 fighter jet.
Michael Schoellhorn, chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space said “I see an inherent risk that we focus too much on satisfying short-term demands by predominantly buying non-European off-the-shelf equipment.”
Not only would this create “additional dependencies” but also undermine Europe’s “long-term technological excellence”, according to Schoellhorn.
The success of the Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon, designed by Sweden and assembled by the UK, is one of the most visible examples of how the war could boost the European defence industry.
In comparison with the US (66 per cent, the bloc’s combined spending on defence rose just 20 per cent between 1999 and 2021.
To help deter the Russian advance, European countries scrambled to find multiple rocket launch systems and artillery from national stockpiles, exposing their general lack of preparedness.
(With inputs from agencies)
