EU Combined Military Thread

[Ian Hall]

https://www.politico.eu/article/gaza-is ... i-attacks/

[R686]

https://www.politico.eu/article/gaza-is ... i-attacks/

EU commission should stick in its lane, defence is not one of them until the EU becomes a federation.

[mrclark303]

https://www.politico.eu/article/gaza-is ... i-attacks/

EU commission should stick in its lane, defence is not one of them until the EU becomes a federation.

Give them 10 years, then a big symbolical burning of national flags in Brussels, as the blue star banner of the European federation is simultaneously raised in every regional 'ex' capital ....

They are well on the way....

[Ian Hall]

https://www.euractiv.com/section/defenc ... n-defence/

[Ian Hall]

For our part, we are discussing options to help restore freedom of navigation, including the creation of a new European maritime operation alongside mission Atalanta, which is already operating off the coast of Somalia. Immediately after coming back to Brussels I presented this proposal to EU member states

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/urgency ... ng-gaza_en

Some observations:
*EU OP ATALANTA is an anti-piracy mission with relatively low risk to participating EU Member States' (MS) ships and personnel.
* British, French and US warships have apparently been targeted in the Red Sea by drones and anti-ship missiles.
* Out of 27 EU MSs, 5 have no coastline and thus no navy, 8 coastal MSs have only minimalist navies (essentially coast guards) which would likely be unable to operate in an air threat region, 6 have relatively aging vessels capable of blue water operations but without an area defence AAW capability, 2 have reasonably modern vessels but designed to operate regionally and with no area defence AAW capability, and 6 MSs have modern FF with matching area defence AAW.

[Ian Hall]

https://euobserver.com/opinion/157956

[Ian Hall]

https://www-boell-de.cdn.ampproject.org ... elpful?amp

[Ian Hall]

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024 ... 9-february

https://apnews.com/article/red-sea-hout ... 2c92221817

https://www.politico.eu/article/eus-red ... bruary-17/

https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/12304 ... n-red-sea/

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/st ... el-attacks

[Ian Hall]

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-plan ... a-mission/

[Ian Hall]

https://www.politico.eu/article/europes ... x-general/

[Ian Hall]

https://www.euractiv.com/section/defenc ... oss-warns/

[Ian Hall]

Since it was announced in Feb 2022 there's been relatively little information on the EU's aspirations for an RDC - Rapid Deployment Capability. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/europea ... apacity_en