Protection of Europe: What's the security situation?

Russia's fight against Ukraine has awakened Europeans from sleep on security policy issues. More money will be provided for the defense. But money alone is not enough, says European Defence Report.

Europe is not immune. This is the main lesson learned from the Russian attack on Ukraine. And Europe reacts. Mostly by giving money. The German government, for example, has provided special 100m-euro funds to close the biggest gaps. And in the future Germany will provide two per cent of the national product to the military -- a task that NATO member states have established in 2014. In 2022 four European NATO member states achieved the goal of two per cent. As a reaction to the Ukrainian war, now 20 European Union states, the EU, have promised to greatly increase their military budget.

But, warns the new European report, European Defence Report, published by the Munich Security Conference, adding financial means is really very important. But the question is how to use money in the most efficient way.

Lessons From the Ukrainian War

To compile its report, the Security Conference in Munich, MSC, has initially seen how war is taking place in Ukraine. The report's authors have released three main lectures from the war, says Leonard Schütte, who has made a big contribution to the report: “First says that the so-called old military junk “” -- tanks, artillery, antiaircraft protection -- will continue to play a major role. ”

The second lesson seems to be just as incorrectly contrary to the first lesson, because it's “new military equipment: “we're looking at just in Ukraine, that at the same time very economic fears and Loitering Munich (reservations) are playing a huge new role.” As the third editor of MSC says satellite-based <x4mmunification is very important to maneuvering the premises but also to ensure communication between different parts of the body, <5>%%%&gt says in an interview for Deutsche.

The Ukrainian Army, for example, uses many networks built by American entrepreneur Elon Musk, satellites near the land of the Star-Link System. MSC expert Schütte explains that in the medium term The EU will become dependent on private enterprises. “There is a European initiative to launch 170 satellites in this close orbit to Earth. So the EU will also fill this specialisation gap. ”

Crushed weapons industry

If this is accomplished, then this would be a rare example of co-operation achieved within the EU. On arms issues, co-operation is difficult to achieve. The EU does not have a European army; 27 member states have their national armies. And not even a dozen EU countries have their own weapons industry. As a result, the fragmentation is huge, says Social Democrat politician Hans-Peter Bartels. The large “Penge is industry sectioning. We have many systems companies in Europe, companies that get so few orders that they have a hard time surviving. And now that they're giving them more money, they don't really need to blend into each other. But this costs it all and makes it emotionally confused. ”

Bartels knows what you're talking about. For five years, until 2020 he has been in charge of the German Parliament on defence issues. In conversation with Deutsche Welle, he says: “We really need European firms! Like Airbus in the civil sector, a European firm that produces aircraft for the world market. We should have the same thing at least for large complex weapons systems, having at most two or three European firms able to compete at the highest level.

Co-operation? Yeah, no, a little bit.

European cooperation is always promised in talks that are delivered. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for example, requested in the June 22nd government statement: our “efforts in the field of defence in Europe should be linked to each other, we should give a long-term perspective to the defence industry in Europe and accelerate its production,” the German Chancellor stressed.

But good ideas clash with national egoisms immediately. Security Issue expert on M SC, Schütte says: “under the research done to write the report we saw in the past to find out if there was any positive example of cooperation in the field of arms, an example of where lectures can be drawn. But we found very few cases. ”

The large statement does not only make spending greater, without need, says the report's author Schütte. He also worries about the military's enormous costs: “We see this in very simple things, such as artillery ammunition. The ammunition purchased in Germany cannot be used by artillery from other countries, because standards are different. This is absurd. ”

But even where cooperation is written, division is often inside. For example, the German-French-Spanish project F The CAS for the joint development of a future antiaircraft defence system has become the square of endless disputes over patent rights, for part of work and responsibility, says defence issue expert Bartels. This must end! Such projects should be in the hands of a truly European firm, taking over all responsibility,” says German Association for Security Policy Chairman G SP, Bartels.

Major problems exist in the German-French joint project to build together a modern combat tank known as M cuts. GCS, a cut from Main Ground System initials. The project is dragging on and the German arms industry is already producing alternative tanks.

When, if not now

The Ukrainian war has finally made clear to all the need for better and especially more effective co-operation. Leonard Schütte sees a possibility here: “If we don't change our cooperation now, then when do we do it? ”

Schütte sees the first changes. “Responding to the war in Ukraine, The EU has for the first time started to provide financial tools to make common product insurance interesting. This has never happened before. ”

The European Defence Report report speaks of another problem: The gaps in the creation of reserves over the past decades are so large that some countries are delivering large arms orders to countries outside the EU. Because the required weapons goods are available there more quickly. But this weakens the European arms industry, and creates long-term dependence.

A dilemma arose between speed and European sovereignty. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has made the decision. And he decided on the tempo. “The time factor”, says in a directive of the Ministry of Recent Defence of April, “has a major priority, and it is immediately the crucial factor in all existing projects and new German Army weapons projects to make the products available for troops as soon as possible.” / DW