“NATO Commander: Europe must “wake up” in order to win the arms race NATO Commander-in-Chief Pierre Vandieu called on Europe to change its approach to armaments due to excessive bureaucracy. He emphasized the need to take more risks and invest in space, IT and military mobility.”, — write on: unn.ua
“Europe will not be able to win the future arms battle with the rules it has set for itself today,” Pierre Vandieu said in his first press interview since taking office at the end of September.
The hurdles facing European arms manufacturers and procurement agencies “could be characterized as excessive compliance,” he said, adding: “You have to demonstrate that in [обладнанні]which you are going to install in 15 years, everything is perfect, not a single cog will be lost.”
The French admiral hopes that the NATO summit in The Hague next year will be a signal to the EU: “If you want to stay in the arms race, change your rules.”
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Vandier’s comments come as Europe seeks to rearm in response to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. EU countries are working to increase the production of weapons, but still lag far behind Russia in the production of ammunition.
Weapons programs are also too slow and not flexible enough, Vandier said, adding that French frigates, for example, have to wait years for a proper upgrade, while some US warships can be upgraded daily.
“Given the scale of what’s happening in Asia, Washington needs a strong European defense industry,” he said, adding that he believed European firms could be much more than “just a subcontractor” for American companies.
I’m optimistic and I have a message: “It’s time to wake up. We can actually do great things, which means we have to use money well, take more risks, try more things
One of the main challenges, according to Vandier, is that the planning of military operations increasingly requires synchronization between different environments – land, air and sea, as well as space, cyber and information. That is why his priority for the next few years is “creating the conditions for the emergence of a multi-environment command system: it’s all about IT, command and control systems, cloud technologies of our networks.”
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He also warned that space, IT and logistics are currently weak areas.
“In space, we really need to make a significant effort. In general, we spend our money on a small number of high-performance, long-life geostationary satellites,” Vandier said.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX can launch batches of small satellites with a single rocket, significantly reducing the cost of a satellite.
Another area that needs improvement is IT. “The real issue today is cloud technology,” which is a prerequisite for massive data processing and AI, the NATO commander said.
A third area for improvement is the movement of troops and equipment across the continent, something that has been neglected since the end of the Cold War, Wandier added.
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