US Allies without Americans: How and where to start a joint production of weapons

This means that their allies should be ready to rely on them much less than before. Allies will have to count on each other. One of the most complex areas in this respect will be weapons, where the US has long been the main supplier of systems that use the most complex technologies.

The unwritten point in the US Alliance was that the high costs of Washington included the development and mass purchases of large defense platforms, which then exported - thus foreign defense budgets helped the employment of US workers. In fact, in many market segments, including the most profitable segment of combat aircraft, allies have only tried to resist the formation of the US monopoly for the last 70 years. It may be difficult to change this course but not impossible.

Together, democratic countries in Europe, North America and the Pacific have money, national resources and human capital. They have a competitive defense industry, and in some sectors (such as combat surplus ships and land transport) they are clearly outperforming the United States. The problem is not in resources, but in their optimal use.

In the times preceded by Donald Trump's second presidency, the United States did not need to exercise the principle of "split and ruin": US allies divided themselves. And they still share, as French-German showdowns about the distribution of works and technical leadership in Future Combat Air System.

It is a short time: the development and production of military technologies in the world that does not rely on the United States can not be a sweet table where everyone comes with a casserole, two cookies, cakes and a cake. Specialization will be needed, and each country will have to rely on others, doing their own business.

Leaders in the non-American world are British aviation engines, French space launches, French-German and British-Italian helicopters, German and Finnish armored personnel carriers, Swedish means of early warning and radio electronic wrestling, South Korean and Japanese warships. No false accusations are required. I do not advocate for the creation of a Global Defense Agency, which Europeans view as another major workplace and triple profit for the Belgian economy.

But we all need a set of rules and protocols that will allow you to create a new network of defense technologies. There are several factors both within the defense sector and its periphery, which will help to expand international cooperation through incentives, not bureaucracy. The urgent is the most important of these factors.

As soon as it became clear that the Second World War is a serious problem, the British aviation industry is a fragile, condescending, and considered aristocratic - agreed to be headed by the right Canadian outline of Lord Beverbrook and the extremely left Staffrd Kripps. Further: in the growing business, changes are made easier, and if US export clients reorient their processes on each other, then they are expected to grow.

There are many unknown in defense technologies, but all agrees that cheap autonomy and accessible accurate commercial equipment will be important for a wide range of weapons, from shock drones to small winged missiles, which weigh less than a ton and cost much less than the current million. The warships are radically changing, becoming unconscious or demanding ambiguous, not three -digit of crew members. Viewed defense industry can focus on these new concepts.

The same applies to the manufacturing industry. Materials and processes designed for automation, recurrence and high quality are quite applicable to unmanned systems and modern ammunition, since such production lines can be created even with a minimal number of staff and to start high speeds in crisis. Anduril is developing this technology in the United States, but it is commercial and available in other countries.

One of the released achievements of the Global Combat Aircraft Program (GCAP) is Japan's cooperation with the United Kingdom and Italy. The generation of this was a very difficult task to develop Eurofighter Typhoon in four European countries with languages ​​that were at least related and used a common alphabet. However, GCAP seems to have been included in the project of Japan without much problems.

Today, engineers from all over the world can work on the same digital layout together through car translation and video conferences. Another link is visible between Italy and Turkey, which becomes the world leader in the field of unmanned systems. At the beginning of March, the Italian company Leonardo and Turkish Baykar announced the creation of a joint venture and told about Kizilelma unmanned combat aircraft as a potential GCAP element.

It happened a few months after Baykar agreed to buy the Italian company Piaggio Aerospace, which was put up for sale in 2018. The PIAGGIO commercial aircraft is sold slowly, but its option for maritime patrols with Baykar systems is an attractive option for shore guards. The US -free industry may and should avoid a suffocating US bureaucracy, which includes an export control system consisting of three state agencies.

Will the New Alliance win from the origins of the brains, especially in Canada, as well as in Australia and the United Kingdom, as some representatives of the US industry repel the social policy of the new administration? You may be able to attract talents from the US.