European Union governments today agreed to pursue two initiatives to address the shortfalls in transport aircraft and helicopters which have created challenges for existing and future EU military and crisis management operations under the European Security and Defence Policy.
A meeting of the Steering Board of the European Defence Agency agreed to create an EDA Project Team to investigate how to develop the concept of a European Air Transport Fleet through some form of pooled ownership of A400M transport aircraft, which several governments have ordered or plan to acquire.
The meeting of Capabilities Directors of the 26 EDA participating Member States also agreed to pursue a U.K. initiative to share information about helicopters available for missions under European Security and Defence Policy, which could lead to cooperation among countries operating the same type of helicopters and improve their availability.
“These issues are at the heart of the challenges Europe faces if it is to match its ambitions with the capabilities required,” said Lo Casteleijn, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the Head of the Agency, Javier Solana. “The EDA has a crucial role to play by helping Member States to identify where they can collectively be more effective through collaboration.”
The European Air Transport Fleet Project Team will gather information from countries interested in the initiative and develop a Common Staff Target, the first step towards pooling resources. The team will look into the commercial and legal issues as well as how such a pool could be managed and its missions prioritised.
“For governments with smaller budgets, this could offer a way for them to meet their strategic requirements within their resources, while for those with larger budgets, it could offer a way to maximise the efficiency of their investments,” said EDA Chief Executive Alexander Weis.
EU operations, such as in Chad and the Central African Republic, and NATO missions such as Afghanistan, have suffered from a lack of helicopter availability. This is primarily due to the assets of European countries having limited deployability and sustainability on expeditionary missions. The EU and NATO have a common interest in addressing the problem so governments will provide to the EDA data on helicopters already submitted for a NATO study.
The Agency then will investigate the potential for cooperation of Member States who operate the same types of helicopters, to create upgrade and/or support programmes to enhance deployability. It will also investigate the opportunities for Member States to share training and maintenance facilities for existing and new helicopters.
An EDA conference (“Commercialising Logistics”) scheduled for 27 February on the role of the private sector in providing logistical support to EU operations will provide a further forum to examine the problem.
In addition to any short or medium-term remedial action by NATO and the EU to improve the situation, the Agency is looking into longer-term solutions, including a possible broadening of the emerging Franco-German Future Transport Helicopter project to include other countries.
On other issues, the Steering Board heard a progress report on work on the Capabilities Development Plan (CDP), a comprehensive study of the capabilities required in the future and practical measures to improve cooperation to help deliver them. The CDP is due to be published in the middle of this year.
The Capabilities Directors welcomed the results being achieved by the Tactical Imagery Exploitation Station project, conducted by the EDA in cooperation with the EU Satcen in Torrejon, Spain, with the aim of developing a technological demonstrator for the analysis of images from multiple sources, another important capability gap.
“There are no quick answers to the problems of capability shortfalls,” Weis said. “But today’s meeting demonstrates again that there is widespread agreement that while each government will decide how and how much to spend on defence, many of these problems may be better addressed by working together.