The head of the largest German military contractor Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, called on EU countries to abandon the superiority of national champions and create larger and more specialized defense groups to compete with American companies .
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the Financial Times.
He stated that if Europe wants closer defense cooperation, countries need to specialize in different types of military technology.
“It doesn't make much sense if we choose, say, the second or third best technology, so that one country wants it. This is the most difficult discussion they have at the government level. We need big companies in Europe,” he said.
European arms companies compete with each other, military budgets are controlled at the national level, and individual countries seek to maintain control over strategic supply chains, factories, jobs and technological advantages.
One example of successful cross-border cooperation is the largest in In Europe, the MBDA missile manufacturer is owned by the British company BAE Systems and the European aviation concern Airbus, which own 37.5% of the shares, and the remaining share belongs to the Italian company Leonardo.
EU Defense
Questions the development of the defense industry has become very relevant for Europe recently. In particular, this is connected with the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and the need to help Kyiv.
At the beginning of January, the European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton proposed to create a fund worth 100 billion euros in order to develop the European defense industry.
Also, as Bloomberg wrote, the EU will aim for that by 2025, half of its defense systems will be procured within the bloc. Currently, most of the weapons are purchased from third countries.