Ever since 2017, the EU’s member countries have been able to band together under one scheme known as PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation), in a bid to upgrade and improve their respective military might.
Europe’s armed forces still march under their national banners, but they regularly go on manoeuvres together and, if crunch time were ever to arrive, would have to team up to counter attacks.
Compatibility issues have affected some of these joint missions in the past, including ammunition that does not work with all weapons, transport vehicle spare parts not fitting properly and so on.
PESCO was designed to correct those errors and help plug the gaps in Europe’s military capabilities. In November, the list of defence projects eligible for funding grew, as EU countries agreed to add 14 new initiatives.
They range from relatively mundane upgrades such as training facility improvements and cyber-security tweaks, to building a new ‘Strategic Air Transport...