But some Europeans worry that the U.S. could be less willing or able to provide weapons, parts or other support in the future, including if American defence companies need to prioritise U.S. military needs in other regions.
Europeans no longer want finished products, they want access to enough of the underlying technology to build, modify and maintain equipment themselves, industry insiders and specialists say. They want “a significant IP transfer,” said Fabio Dal Pan, a Milan-based senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm.
While Europe remains heavily reliant on the U.S. defence industry, the worry for U.S. companies is if the shift towards greater autonomy becomes a long-term trend. That’s “of huge concern,” said Tom Waldwyn, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a UK-based think tank.
There is some equipment that Europe can’t quickly substitute, such as F-35 fighter jets and Patriot air-defence missile systems.
But in other areas “there are European capabilities that may well be good enough,” and where there is a massive advantage in terms of sovereignty — they may in some cases even be cheaper, said Sash Tusa, an aerospace and defence analyst at UK-based research firm Agency Partners. That includes medium-range air defence missile systems, he added.
Europe is making progress in weaning itself off U.S. equipment in some areas, such as early warning aircraft, analysts say. NATO recently announced a roughly $4.5 billion plan to buy up to 10 Saab SAABb.ST GlobalEye surveillance planes to replace aging AWACS early warning aircraft, backing a Swedish system over a rival solution from U.S. planemaker Boeing.
Meanwhile, Europeans are looking to develop some newer technologies themselves. At the airshow, UK-based BAE Systems BAES.L revealed a new unmanned fighter jet that the British government said it is adopting as its “operational concept demonstrator.” That comes despite a number of U.S. companies already developing similar aircraft, several of which were on display at Farnborough.
Britain’s program will have multiple vendors associated with it but it will be “sovereign,” Air Vice-Marshal Jim Beck, the UK Royal Air Force’s director of capability and programmes, told Reuters last week. “We need the right to do what we want with our kit at the point of our choosing.”
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