WHAT FUTURE EUROPEAN DEFENCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL INDUSTRIAL BASIS (EDTIB) DO WE WANT/NEED?

To avoid excessive dependency on a single partner nation, it has opted for a geographically balanced portfolio of strategic partnerships, with the Netherlands in the maritime domain, with France in terms of motorised land forces, and with the US in the air combat and nuclear domains. [...] The document explicitly sought to complement the setting-up of the European Defence Fund with national co-financing instruments that can link up the 4 defence establishment with the country’s knowledge institutions and help reposition Belgian enterprises at the European level. [...] The main objective of Belgium’s expressed interest in the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) consortium is to allow Belgian companies to better position themselves in the aerospace supply chain, building on an R&D-enabled innovation edge and a corresponding reduction of the development risks inherent to the programme. [...] The Belgian force structure that was designed by the previous defence plans clearly lacks the necessary depth to meet the capability targets that Belgium gets apportioned in the NATO Defence Planning Process. [...] In line with the commitment made by Prime Minister De Croo at the Madrid Summit that Belgium will meet the 2% of GDP target by 2035, one can expect the next government to push ahead with rapidly growing the numbers of the capabilities already purchased and adding new systems to the inventory.