the European Union is getting its defense industry back on track

To rebuild defense Europe, the European Commission is proposing a long-term industrial plan on Tuesday, a small revolution for the EU. If Poland continues to buy ultra-modern weapons from the United States, it also invests in Europe, this is the strategy to be strengthened according to Brussels.

For the European Commission, the urgency is to get out of a past situation, where 30 years of disinvestment have slowed down Defense industrial capacity. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Europeans have lived in the “peace dividend” and found themselves somewhat deprived when it was necessary to supply arms and ammunition to Ukraine, particularly to replenish stocks. In its long-term industrial plan proposed on Tuesday March 5, the EU therefore wants to finance and coordinate the production of weapons and ammunition on the territory, in order to strengthen itself and limit supplies outside Europe.

Within the Union, there has long been a tension between neutral countries, NATO members, supporters of true European defense and those who considered the security guarantee of the United States sufficient. Ten years ago, NATO member countries decided to increase their defense spending to 2% of their GDP, but this rate has not been widely respected until then. Since the war in Ukraine, two countries have abandoned their neutrality, Sweden and Finland, and since the declarations of Donald Trump, the security guarantee of the United States seems less reliable.

Guarantee orders to European manufacturers and source less elsewhere

As a result, the Commission wants to revive the European arms industry. It is far from idling but we need to increase its capacities. Since the war, the Union has triggered two tools, one for joint acquisitions of arms via public procurement, the other to support the production of munitions. But to go further, we must guarantee arms manufacturers that orders will be there for decades to come. And this will involve joint financing.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine,

68% of the arms purchased comes from the United States. The objective is for Europeans to be able to acquire half of the necessary weapons from their own industry by 2030. A fund will be set up to guarantee loans to manufacturers, in particular SMEs. Likewise, the Commission proposes that the European Investment Bank facilitate access to financing for the defense sector. Industrial sites must be allowed to permanently maintain a state of production of munitions or weapons systems.

In Poland, the new government buys Swedish planes and invests in the production of armored vehicles

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Poland has multiplied arms contracts to modernize its army. The government of ultra-conservative and nationalist PiS has spent billions of euros on weapons, mainly American and Korean. But since the elections at the end of last year, and the arrival of the new pro-European coalition in power, the lines seem to have shifted.

The new Polish Defense Minister met his Swedish counterpart yesterday.
They announced that a contract had been signed to deliver Swedish reconnaissance aircraft to Warsaw. The opportunity for the Polish Minister of Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, to show his attachment to the European Union’s project for a European defense industry. Although he made it clear that Poland remained very attached to NATO and its great American ally, he maintained that Europe should also have more weight. Last week, Warsaw signed a contract with a Polish company for almost 300 armored personnel carriers. And proof of his attachment to the EU, he castigated the previous government which had broken a contract with Airbus for combat helicopters.

Poland is also equipping itself with ultra-modern American weapons

Yet Poland continues to sign contracts with the United States. The new government is not burying its American ally, however. In parallel with the contract with the Polish company last week, it reached an agreement with the Americans for the delivery of air defense systems. Poland is expected to pay nearly $2.5 billion for these state-of-the-art weapons. It would thus become the first country in the world, other than the United States, to use these air defense systems. It must be said that faced with the threat of a Russian invasion, Poland is struggling to modernize its army. And American industry appears very reliable on the ground and has proven itself in Ukraine.

Some Polish defense experts have also criticized the Swedish planes it has just purchased, “reconnaissance planes for the poor…”, because a little outdated. So if the new government assures that it wants to change course and go more and more through European companies, faced with the urgency of the situation and a hypothetical Russian invasion, it continues to supply itself with modern weapons almost everywhere, and especially to UNITED STATES.