Europe needs to own its own weapon production pipeline, rather than depending on a supplier who may cut them off at any time.
This is something that’s always boggles my mind as an American.
Why would any other country rely on us for military equipment instead of working on their own? Yeah it costs money to setup, but even in highschool I knew enough to know the US has, to put it lightly, done shady shit to its allies. Hell, it’s own people.
Why would anyone trust that they’ll always be an ally? Especially when Republicans are in charge and make international cooperation even more of a joke than usual.
I want the EU to be self sufficient not because I think they suck and should be paying out the ass, like the magats do, but because when the US government decides they don’t want to play with the other kids anymore, they can’t take the proverbial ball home with them.
Why would any other country rely on us for military equipment instead of working on their own? Yeah it costs money to setup
It costs a ton of money, especially research and development into high tech weapons. Very few countries for example even have the technology to build blades for jet turbines. There’s half a dozen companies world wide that have the capability to make jet engines. Or even seemingly much simpler: making good ball bearings is surprisingly difficult and are required for lots of things. High quality optics? Extremely hard.
A weapons system pretty much all countries can assembly is the technical: a pickup truck with a heavy machine gun bolted to it. Making a car or a machine gun is already difficult and few countries have the metallurgy, precision engineering, trained workforce, etc. to make all the parts for them. The microelectronics and chips in the radio? Also not easy to make.
The supply chain is long, even for relatively simple systems. The more advanced the system, the fewer parts the local industry will be capable of producing.
R&D costs will be spread out over all production units. So if research costs 100 million, but you only build 20, it will be a hundred times more expensive than if you build 2000. That’s how the F-35 is more capable and cheaper than previous generation fighter jets.
So to build your own stuff, you need to a fairly advanced and diversified industrial base in the first place. On top of that you need money and a big enough number of units for it to be financially viable.
Sweden makes its own fighter jet JAS 39 Gripen. However it imports the engines, electronics, radar, and some other essential parts from the USA. That somewhat better for Sweden because it keeps some of the money spent in the local economy and keeps a trained workforce around. It doesn’t create strategic independence from the US though.
I am aware of the massive setup costs, and exactly 0 of what you said invalidates anything I said.
I answered your question, you silly person.
Why would any other country rely on us for military equipment instead of working on their own?
It’s not just about cost but industrial infrastructure and engineering expertise. There are rich and stable countries, that are unable to make their own advanced arms because their society and culture doesn’t value scientific study, education, and manual labor highly.
Saudi Arabia has a limited ability to make arms (assault rifles, armored trucks) while swimming in money. North Korea is dirt poor, but has the culture and determination to build tanks, artillery, ships, submarines, guided missiles, even ICBMs and nuclear bombs.
Which brings me to a point I didn’t mention earlier. Buying arms from abroad also buys good will and diplomatic relations. That’s a major reason why the Saudis buy mostly American and European arms.
France is self sufficient since during WW2 the US tried to force Churchill to stop supporting Charles De Gaulle and instead support a more easily controllable puppet (François Darlan). US was really close to succeed but Darlan’s murder forced the US to finally accept against their will De Gaulle.
De Gaulle learned it and after the war he turned the country into anti-US politic with a complete and self sufficient army and a completely autonomous nuclear program ( UK still need US approve to use their nuke).
We’ve got it all at the Europoruium war machines emporium
The Europorium – Where Power Meets Precision!
Your One-Stop Shop for the Best European Military Vehicles!
We got leopards, bulldogs, zippy french boy, zippy Swedish boy, cv90,mlrs, zippy franko German tiger, cv90, hail Caesar boom boy,cv90.
All at the low low price of fuck around and find out
Cv90 sold separately
I have no idea what this means but I appreciate the non-credibility of whatever it’s trying to convey 👍
The first panel shows US made weapons such as the M1 Abrams tank, the Patriot surface-to-air missile system (here mounted onto a German made MAN gl truck), M142 HIMARS system (mounted onto a US made M1140 truck), the F-16, the
F-35F-15 or a Virginia class submarine, systems that “the US” thinks the European nations will buy when they invest into their military.The second panel shows European made weapon systems, such as the Leopard 2 tank, the IRIS-T SLM system (again on MAN), the SAMP/T Aster system (mounted onto a Renault 8×4 truck),
Saab Jas 39 GripenRafale, Eurofighter Typhoon or the future French SNLE 3G submarine, systems, that the Europeans probably will buy instead.Also, the Dutch army has indicated it has no fucking clue where to spend all that additional money. They would quite literally drown in money. (NRC, mirror, both Dutch sources)
Edit: but yes, if the EU is to spend more money on defense, it should be spent in the EU, not sent to the American weapon lobby.
Buy Ukrainian drones
you made an huge error: it’s not a Gripen but a Rafale… Our french lady has two engines and the special french touch, can’t be mistaken with the sweden lady :P
Thanks. I was at the army. – For me they all look somehow the same. :p
I was searching for Mirage at first. So my first guess, France, was at least correct.
Does Airbus, now Eurocopter, still do military stuff? I heared somewhere they dont anymore
They still do, they do military aircraft, drones and helicopters.
Airbus is still active in the military industry: https://www.airbus.com/en/products-services/defence
A400M is a beauty :)
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