EU Ministers Pursue 'European Air Transport Fleet'
By JULIAN HALE
Published: 17 Nov 2009 11:56
Brussels - Fourteen of the EU's 27 defense ministers have signed a letter of intent to establish a European Air Transport Fleet based on the A400M military transport plane and other aircraft such as the C130. The central idea is to make existing aircraft available to those countries that do not own them themselves.
Various options are being considered, including allowing countries to exchange or buy flight hours from each other. Officials hope to achieve initial operating capability by 2014, said European Defence Agency (EDA's) Chief Executive Alexander Weis at a press conference Nov. 17.
Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden have all signed the letter while two other unnamed countries are set to sign in the coming weeks.
More immediately, a joint investment program in unmanned underwater systems has been launched. The EDA expects to deliver a set of concrete proposals by the end of 2010. It is expected to be a three-year program worth about 60 million euros ($89.8 million) that is likely to include new sensors and maritime mine detection capacities.
Defense ministers also agreed to carry out two helicopter training exercises in 2010 and backed the idea of creating common requirements for European military airworthiness certification "to reduce the costs of air systems and speed up European aircraft programs." They also asked the EDA to recommend how to correct market distortions, such as state aid and subsidies, that stand in the way of creating a fair and transparent European Defence Equipment Market.
As for the Franco-German idea of developing a 32- to 35-ton "future transport helicopter" by 2020, Weis said that the EDA was "in close dialogue with the Pentagon" and that the European Union needed "an emerging military requirement on the U.S. side similar to France and Germany."
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