Several EU member states have strengthened their defence cooperation by announcing new projects at the NATO ministerial “defence” session on 3 and 4 October.
Defence ministers of 13 NATO member nations, ten of which are also members of the EU, thus signed a declaration of intent with a view to cooperating in the creation of unmanned maritime systems. Thus, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, as well as Norway, Turkey and the United States have decided to “pool their resources, their talent and ingenuity to create better, more flexible and more interoperable unmanned maritime vehicles and systems”, a NATO press release states.
The unmanned systems will “enable us to be considerably more effective in crucial areas such as detecting and clearing mines, and finding and tracking submarines”. Combined with traditional naval assets, they “will increase both our situational awareness and our control of the seas”, the press release indicates.
Maritime security is also one of the priorities of EU member states participating in permanent structured cooperation (PESCO). Thus, three projects out of the first 17 implemented relate to this, more especially with regards (1) (semi-)autonomous maritime systems for combating mines, (2) port and maritime surveillance and protection, and (3) modernisation of maritime surveillance.
Also, the defence ministers of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia signed a memorandum of understanding on the creation of a multinational programme for special forces aviation. The agreement provides for the setting in place of a training centre in Croatia, in Zadar, which will be exclusively dedicated to training teams responsible for the insertion and extraction of forces for special operations, a NATO press release states. The centre is expected to be up and running by end 2019. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)