By Barbara Erling
KRAKOW, Poland, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Europe’s five biggest defence powers are set to announce a plan to invest in military drones, as part of wider efforts to boost the defence industry in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and concerns about the U.S. commitment to NATO.
According to a document seen by Reuters, and a Polish defence ministry source, the five aim to cooperate in developing autonomous drones.
The war in Ukraine has shown how autonomous interceptor drones can provide an effective alternative to costly air-defence missiles, and Kyiv’s European allies are keen to learn from its experience.
The European Group of Five Defence Ministers, which meets in Krakow, Poland on Friday, brings together the continent’s biggest military spenders – France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain.
They are meeting as European leaders work to boost defence capabilities amid increased European doubts about Washington’s commitment to protect the continent through the NATO alliance.
The statement seen by Reuters – still subject to change – said ministers “support a real increase in the production capacity of the European defence industrial base” and “welcome the EU’s commitment to providing Member states with increased fiscal flexibility for defence spending and to create lending instruments”.
However, it says that the EU’s role is to support defence capabilities which remain at the national level.
The ministers also pledge to work together within NATO and the EU to counter Russian hybrid threats, and to continue supporting Ukraine and efforts to find peace, the statement said.
“We agree to launch the Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms (LEAP) initiative,” the statement seen by Reuters said. It said the aim was “to increase our cooperation on the development and procurement of low-cost effectors and autonomous platforms to deliver military effect.”
In military terminology, “effectors” are the components of a system which produce a physical effect, while “autonomous platforms” are unmanned systems capable of independent decision-making.
(Reporting by Barbara Erling in Krakow and Lili Bayer in Brussels: Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by David Holmes)
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