Faced with those restrictions imposed by Brussels, U.S. companies are turning to lobbying — U.S. NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker has been scathing about ‘Buy European’ provisions — and are also racing to shift some production to the continent under license.
An industry forum in Ankara saw a raft of announcements including European production of RTX’s Stinger air defense missile, a feasibility study to expand production of Raytheon’s AMRAAM in Europe, a European maintenance facility for Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Patriot interceptor, and a Lockheed Martin-Rheinmetall effort on ATACMS missile production in Germany.
Brussels has been wary of non-EU arms makers taking an end-run around its rules. During negotiations over the European Defence Industry Programme — a €1.5 billion cash pot to boost the bloc’s defense industry — member countries clashed for months over whether EU money could finance foreign-licensed military equipment, made in the bloc.
In the end, EU institutions agreed that EDIP could fund licensed missiles and ammunition under the condition that the European company obtain design authority in a reasonable time and no later than by the end of 2033.
“There is a tension within the EU, obviously it’s not fully consistent with the ‘Made in NATO’ approach, but there’s a happy middle,” said Dan Kliman, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund. “Many European countries are part of NATO, so by definition, if they’re going to create these platforms, it’s going to happen in the EU.”
Many countries near Russia are more concerned with buying off-the-shelf weapons to quickly equip their militaries than with long-running investment programs. In one example from Tuesday, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway agreed to acquire Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones.