If it is of any concern to you, I voted to remain in the EU, for a multitude of reasons, Defence being fairly high up the list (and I'm sure others here were influenced by similar issues, regardless of how they voted).Gtal wrote:
At least it explains how Brexit ended up happening I guess! I'll leave you guys to your echochamber circlejerk!
So, the fact that Germany acted selfishly, rashly and jealousy against the creation of a strong unified European defence industy is now a bonus because Merkel magically predicted Brexit three years before a referendum was promised? Unfortunately it was behaviour like this that made the arguement to leave stronger.Gtal wrote:Just two substantial points for the sake of it. 1.The continent is glad as f*ck BAE and Airbus didn't merge. Merkel showed some real forsight there.
It would have beenn an even bigger clusterfuck than we already have.
The European Defence Fund, which currently stands at €90m, from 2020 will have €500m a year to spend on all defence research projects (air, land, sea and space) across Europe up to 2026. Even with an increase after 2027 to factor in acquisition costs, it's going to mean modest sums of money available for a nuclear-armed 6th gen jet capable of landing on a 40k ton carrier. As Meriv9 notes above.Gtal wrote: no non-EU country can be project leader,[/b] so you will have to let the swedes take over and become a junior partner. How you like that?
Of course this all depends on whether they can overturn the small issue, that EU central funding for military equipment or development is explicitly banned by the Lisbon Treaty.
If that can be circumvented by team France/Germany/Spain, I'm sure something clever could be worked out by Team Tempest. Outsourcing whole elements of the project to the other primes for example.
I'm sorry your heart is broken. Brexit has done that to a lot of people but we still share a continent, with external issues far bigger than this. Be grateful you have the freedom to move as you wish between two rich countries.
Most in this world don't.
Jensy