Industry sceptical on idea of European alliance

Published: Feb 28, 2006
Source: news.ft.com



European collaboration on defence research is an idea being enthusiastically promoted elsewhere in the European Union.

But comments on Tuesday from Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE Systems, and Lord Drayson, the defence procurement minister, indicated deep scepticism on the part of both the government and industry.

Mr Turner said: “The fundamental problem Europe has is lack of R&T [research and technology] funding,” and argued it was “obviously of great concern how we maintain the capability to serve alongside the US military”.

He implied that getting the US to share sensitive military know-how with the UK could offer more promise than collaborative research across Europe, even though it so far has proved difficult to arrange such technology transfer on the Joint Strike Fighter project.continue..