This week’s NATO summit in Ankara was the most anticipated for some time. After five years of war on the continent, and two years of rancour from a confrontational White House, it was the moment for Europe to prove it's serious about its own defence.
At Tuesday’s Industry Defence Forum, European allies heralded $50 billion (€43 billion) of deals for defence production and procurement, covering submarines, Patriot missile defence systems, interceptors, ammunition, all presented as proof that the alliance is on a credible path to spending 5 percent of its GDP on defence by 2035.
Among the headline announcements was a decision by NATO to choose Swedish company Saab to manufacture surveillance planes to replace the Airborne Warning and Control System currently operated with US Boeing planes.
In addition, NATO’s Drone Hedge commits $40 billion (€35 billion) in counter-drone capabilities over the next five years to cover the whole of the alliance. It also focuses on hiring and training pilots, and will be fully interoperable across all allied states.
"Drones have fundamentally altered, as we all know, the character of modern warfare, said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Defence Industry Forum on Tuesday. "They have become a decisive factor on the battlefield. This is clear from what we see in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and across the alliance.”
