F35

F35 | R.I.

Jason MoorePalma19/03/2022 09:20
TW
1

European nations have announced that they will be spending more on defence since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Germany has already said that it will be earmarking an additional 100 billion euros for its military and is buying start-of-the-art F35 jet fighters. It is widely rumoured that Britain may even increase the size of its army. Some Conservative Members of Parliament are calling for defence spending to be doubled. Britain and Germany have slashed spending on defence over the last two decades, despite warnings that it could be a dangerous error.

But, what amazes me is that there appears to be little coordination when it comes to buying weapons eventhough most European nations are members of NATO and have talked actively about a European Union defence force. Germany is buying F35 fighters to add to the F35s already in service with the Royal Air Force/Royal Navy and U.S. Air Force. With a more coordinated defence programme if all countries are going to work under the umbrella of NATO wouldn´t be better if each country specialised in a certain area.

Say Germany, instead of buying new planes, bought more Surface to Air Missile (SAM) systems and therefore, and became NATO´s SAM arsenal. Britain could specialise in antisubmarine warfare and therefore each member country would have their own specialty. Surely, it makes sence to do this rather than every country having their own rather limited resources in all fields.