With new radar planes and drones, the involvement of the military industry of the Old Continent is growing but breaking away from the USA is impossible. And it’s not even worth it.
Decidedly innovative decisions were made, in terms of acquisitions, at the NATO summit in Ankara: if on the one hand the European allies of the USA declare that they want to equip themselves with weapon systems and vehicles built in Europe, on the other for some supplies they cannot help but choose American products, such as Germany, which has just confirmed the purchase of Tomahawk missiles. But when it comes to abandoning historic suppliers, something is moving: some nations have committed to strengthening their early warning systems by abandoning the idea of buying E-3A and E-7 Awacs aircraft built by Boeing and instead choosing Saab Globaleye and Airbus A400M military transport planes. As regards the first, it is however an aircraft built by Bombardier (therefore still American, albeit Canadian, and not American), which was born as a high-end business aircraft, the Global 6000, and on which the Swedish Saab installs radar and electronic systems coming from various nations, including the USA and Italy. After all, none of the European aeronautical manufacturers have a similar product ready and validated, neither the English BAE System, nor Airbus and certainly not Dassault. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Alliance members will jointly purchase up to ten Globaleye systems which will be supported by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Sweden. Italy is not interested in them as we already have the Gulfstream E-550 Caew with Israeli electronics, even if they are not completely comparable to the former in terms of mission capacity. Indeed, considering Leonardo’s business in the USA, where the helicopters designed here are built but which are then supplied to the US Navy, and considering the open tenders for other programs (one of which concerns our M346 aircraft), reducing collaborations with Washington is not convenient for anyone. Therefore, some purchases of US assets remain, such as the Northrop Grumman Mw-4 Triton drones, because although Europe had started well with the Neuron and Euromale drone programs, as always, when it comes to community projects, they are very slow and end late. It doesn’t take a geopolitical analyst to understand that the Defense sector has always been hyper-globalized and therefore the USA and Europe, but also Taiwan and Japan (they cannot do without each other). Naturally at Saab they are jumping for joy and declared that they will proceed with formal negotiations with the NATO Support and Supply Agency to finalize the contract. Deliveries of the Globaleyes to the Alliance could therefore begin as early as 2030, as Saab CEO Micael Johansson said. The contract is worth approximately 440 million euros for each aircraft that will be built in the Linköping and Gothenburg factories, but also through a new industrial agreement involving the Canadian plants and those of Sabena Technics in France. The program is called Crewed Airborne Warning Initiative (CAWI), and the participants include, in addition to the countries already mentioned, Poland, Spain and Türkiye. As for the five Northrop Grumman Mq-4 Triton drones, the initiative is led by Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway. These will be part of NATO’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) force and will operate together with the RQ-4 Global Hawks in various European military bases including Sigonella. Finally, with the collective Airbus A400M fleet in mind, Airbus said it will provide Europe with specific capabilities that go beyond simple airlift, such as in-flight refueling, disaster relief, medical evacuation and firefighting. This will be joined by the A330 Mrrt multi-role aircraft which also act as tankers.
