Why France and Germany do not agree on air defense
The conference promoted by France on European air defense on 19 June is an opportunity to examine alternative proposals to the "Sky Shield" led by Berlin according to French and other media
Will France challenge Germany's "European Sky Shield" plan for Europe's air defense?
This is the question raised by foreign newspapers – from Le Monde to the Financial Times – according to which a conference on air defense strategy in Paris scheduled for today, June 19, aims in part at formulating an alternative to the European Sky Shield initiative supported by Berlin , whose launch took French officials by surprise last year.
Convened by President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show, the conference on Europe's air defense being held today at Les Invalides in Paris in the presence of around twenty European ministers will make it possible to "learn the lessons of the conflict in Ukraine" and “Working with our partners to collectively better protect the European sky,” French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu explained in an editorial in the newspaper Le Figaro .
“But Macron's push also reflects more fundamental differences between Paris and Berlin on how to promptly bolster military defenses against Vladimir Putin's Russia, while boosting Europe's industrial base,” comments the Financial Times.
All the details.
THE SKY SHIELD SYSTEM PRESENTED BY SCHOLZ
The massive use of drones and missiles in the war in Ukraine has prompted countries like Germany and France to spend billions on revamping air defenses.
Last October, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz presented Sky Shield, an anti-missile shield that will have to strengthen NATO's integrated air and missile defense. On October 13, the defense ministers of 14 NATO allies and Finland therefore met in Brussels to sign a letter of intent for the development of a 'European Sky Shield Initiative'. Led by Germany, the initiative aims to create a European air and missile defense system through the joint acquisition of air defense equipment and missiles by European nations. A total of 17 countries have since joined.
THE POSITIONS OF FRANCE, ITALY AND POLAND
But key countries like France, Italy and Poland have remained on the sidelines, the FT points out. Paris, in particular, was taken aback by the Sky Shield announcement and postponed a Franco-German summit in part to signal its pique. ( Here Startmag 's insight into How and why France and Germany fight over energy, defense and more ).
Eight months after its launch, the planned European missile defense shield is still causing significant tensions on the continent, especially between Paris and Berlin, remarked Le Monde .
THE FRICTIONS BETWEEN PARIS AND BERLIN
While the two countries have refrained from publicly criticizing each other's plans, President Macron has implicitly criticized Sky Shield for relying too much on weapon systems manufactured outside Europe, while failing to adequately consider how best to deter Russia, even by potentially acquiring long-range missile strike capabilities, the Financial Times recalls. Air defense "is first a strategic issue before an industrial one, but obviously it must be based on a balance between offensive actions and defensive actions," Macron said in a recent speech. “When I see some countries increasing their defense spending to massively buy systems from outside Europe, I simply tell them: 'You are preparing for tomorrow's problems!'”.
WHAT IS HAPPENING BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY ON AIR DEFENSE
And the reference, not so implicit, of the tenant of the Elysée is precisely to Germany.
To move quickly, Berlin has proposed acquiring a German short-range system (Iris-T), an American medium-range system (Patriot PAC-3 from US-based Raytheon Technologies) and an Israeli very long-range (Arrow 3). As Le Monde explains, the idea behind the Sky Shield initiative is to achieve economies of scale by jointly purchasing existing ground-to-air defense systems, in order to rapidly build a comprehensive protection bubble, including anti-missile systems.
What really wouldn't go down well with the French on the Sky Shield is the total lack of European solutions with respect to the promotion of American and Israeli products.
In Paris, the exclusion of the French-Italian SAMP-T missile defense system made by MBDA and Thales, which has a similar range to the US-made Patriot, proved to be a sore point, the Ft reiterates.
“France is appalled that Sky Shield is largely based on US and Israeli technology when there is a European alternative and that the project has effectively excluded southern Europe,” Shahin Vallée, former Macron adviser who works at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
THE COMMENT OF THE GERMAN STUDY CENTER SWP
Finally, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), a German think tank, also thought about prodding Berlin on the criteria of the European Sky Shield initiative.
“Germany's proposal does not sufficiently take into account European security interests, has failed to convince partners and leaves many unanswered questions at the strategic, military, industrial and economic levels,” the SWP think tank wrote in a recent report . By choosing US and Israeli technology rather than European, the German-led plan is also “at odds with the goal of strengthening Europe's technological and industrial defense base,” SWP concluded.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/francia-germania-difesa-aerea/ on Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:35:16 +0000.