This article is part of a series featuring Atlantic Council experts’ analysis and recommendations on the key challenges facing allies at the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, and beyond.
WASHINGTON—The recent US military campaign against Iran and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine have ratcheted up pressure on US and European defense companies to produce more and innovate faster. But to understand the origins of defense industrial cooperation among NATO allies, and what’s at stake at the upcoming Ankara summit, it’s necessary to start with a different war in a different region altogether.
On December 17, 1950, Lt. Col. Bruce H. Hinton, piloting his F-86 Sabre, shot down a Soviet-built MiG-15 over Korea, marking the first air-to-air engagement between the two types of aircraft. The Sabre’s effectiveness against Soviet MiG-15s quickly made it the main US jet fighter in the Korean War, which in turn fueled demand for the aircraft among NATO allies.
The United States could not produce enough of the jet fighter to meet demand, however, leading Washington to authorize manufacturing under license by Canadian and Australian companies to speed delivery. During World War II, the United States and Great Britain had cooperated on the development and production of some defense articles, but the Sabre was one of the earliest—and at the time, the most important—instance of defense industrial cooperation between NATO allies since the Alliance was founded in 1949.
