European defense will make the American giants happy
War in Ukraine and the national defense industry: how to lose a strategic asset. The analysis by Pietro Batacchi, director of Rid
In addition to the economic and financial ones in the strict sense, the War in Ukraine has caused other negative consequences for Europe, which risk calling into question the most important manufacturing sector for its resilience over time, i.e. the defense industry .
THE URGENCY UNLEASHED BY THE RUSSIAN AGGRESSION
Yes, because the Russian aggression against Ukraine has created a sense of urgency throughout Europe – and therefore not only in the Eastern countries most exposed to the threat from Moscow – which is directing the procurement of new armaments towards means and systems of extra-European production. In other words, the perception of an immediate threat causes several European countries to increasingly look at the purchase of ready-made, or nearly so-called off-the-shelf systems on the market.
THE POLISH AND GERMAN CASES
The case of Poland is certainly limiting – apart from helicopters (AW-149) and missiles (CAMM and CAMM ER), Warsaw has bought and is buying hundreds and hundreds of American and South Korean vehicles and systems – but let us also think of Germany which, after the F35 , P-8 and CHINOOK, launched the initiative for a European anti-missile shield, ESSI (European Sky Shiled Initiative), where the bulk of the pie is made up of the American PATRIOT and the Israeli-American ARROW 3, thus giving a very strong blow hard to the strategic European HYDEF program for a new anti-hypersonic interceptor.
EUROPEAN DEPENDENCE ON WASHINGTON INCREASED
In this respect, in the last year and a half, Europe has seen its dependence on Washington grow further, a dependence which has also extended to the supply of LNG (Liquid Natural Gas, of which America is today Europe's main supplier). And then there is another aspect worth reflecting on.
THE TANK RACE
Ukraine has unleashed that "tank now" race which certainly rewards a European product such as the LEOPARD 2, but which risks jeopardizing the evolution and maturation of an innovative concept such as that of a system of terrestrial systems, to which it is tied the new generation tank, forgetting that it is not the platform that determines on modern battlefields but, precisely, the system of systems between ISR, dynamic and adaptive C2, add-ons (drones, loitering, electronic warfare, etc.) and the ability to synchronize and converge effects to desired points. Paradoxically, it is Ukraine itself that has demonstrated precisely this (evidently it was not understood … or, equally evidently, the writer is wrong …): see first and better, and strike first and better, in a rapid and coordinated manner, regardless of the platform.
THE CHOICE THAT IS UP TO ITALY
Then pass through Poland, and for those who are more exposed, but a country like Italy must necessarily take a completely different strategic viewpoint and think about how to systematize innovation with an operational model functional to the pursuit of its interests systematically favoring, when possible, the national defense industry: one of our country's strategic assets, together with the large energy utilities and the banking-insurance system, essential for guaranteeing Italy's competitiveness and resilience over time, in a world where prisoners, even among allies, are not taken.
Article published on rid.it
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-difesa-europea-fara-felice-i-colossi-americani/ on Sun, 14 May 2023 05:37:31 +0000.