{"id":40001,"date":"2018-06-14T11:22:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T11:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/06\/14\/transatlantic-rift-fuels-cry-to-make-european-weapons-great-again\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:13:24","slug":"transatlantic-rift-fuels-cry-to-make-european-weapons-great-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/eurosatory\/2018\/06\/14\/transatlantic-rift-fuels-cry-to-make-european-weapons-great-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans-Atlantic rift fuels cry to make European weapons great again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PARIS \u2015 Amid the alienation between the United States and Europe over trade, some industry leaders at the Eurosatory defense fest sense an opening to strengthen their position on the domestic arms market<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That type of talk comes amid a stated desire by European Union members to band together around the idea of a common defense<\/a>, though it remains to be seen what will ultimately come of it. But there was a hope here, at least, among many at the ground warfare exhibition \u2015 the first since the formal start of the EU Permanent Structured Cooperation initiative on defense and security \u2015 that the continent\u2019s newfound voice on defense matters would somehow reflect on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEurope should buy weapon systems in Europe, developed and manufactured in Europe, to make sure that if something happens they are capable in having the right answers for the threat,\u201d Frank Haun, chief of the German combat vehicles specialist Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, told Defense News in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company, under the banner of KNDS, a joint venture with France\u2019s Nexter, has its eyes on the tank market beyond the Leopard 2, which Haun said currently accounts for roughly 40 percent of the combined European tank fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSecondly, we are talking about taxpayers\u2019 money,\u201d he added. \u201cIt should stay within Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such protectionist talk is partly a reaction to the sense that Europeans have been getting the short shrift when it comes to dealing with the United States in weapons programs. Europe for a long time has been a customer of American weaponry, buying advanced systems birthed by U.S. defense spending many times more vast than military budgets in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\t