By Lan Shunzheng

The defense ministers of 14 NATO countries and Finland recently decided to form a unified alliance for air defense procurement and deployment named the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), which, spearheaded by Germany, aims to build a European air and missile defense system through unified procurement of relevant equipment and missiles. This shows NATO’s attempt to arrive at Europe’s independent defense through a meandering route.

According to the news release by NATO, the ESSI enables all participating countries to jointly develop an air defense system that uses available and synergetic solutions. German defense minister Christine Lambrecht said they are looking at several options, including Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system, America’s Patriot, and Germany’s IRIS-T SLM air defense system, with a view to building a multi-tiered air defense system.

It is predicted that ESSI will use missiles to deploy an integrated defense system to enhance Europe’s air defense anti-missile capability. NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană said the initiative “aims to enable European allies to procure these much-needed capabilities better and faster and to optimize their costs. It should also bring synergy among allies…”

Realizing common defense has been a long-term goal Europe has never given up. After the end of the Cold War, EU members have been trying to build a force – outside the US-controlled NATO – that can elucidate the security position of European countries and carry out the EU’s defense and security policies. Most EU members believe that if they have to always follow America’s lead on security affairs, they cannot become politically strong. Only by building an independent defense can Europe stand up on its feet as a key political force on the global stage and will it be able to independently command military actions in response to international crises without NATO’s involvement.

Main EU members like France and Germany have serious divergences with the US on issues including the Iraqi War, which further firms up their resolution to build their own armed forces. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 vowed to develop an independent military arm for Europe, the Helsinki meeting in 1999 decided to form a European Rapid Reaction Force, and the European Defense Agency was set up in June 2004 – Europe has taken a series of measures for defense independence, but this has been a rough road due to America and NATO’s restrictions and suppression.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has in a way accelerated the EU’s defense integration as it intensifies many EU members’ sense of insecurity, which will in the short term help them unite and act in unity for defense integration while shelving their divergences.

Soon after the breakout of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the EU summit held from March 24 to 25, 2022 approved the EU’s Strategic Compass for Security and Defence, which marked another milestone in the process of the union’s defense integration as it set the goal of reinforcing EU’s common defense capabilities and provided specific actions.

Russia waged large-scale missile and UAV attacks against Ukraine following the explosion of the Crimean Bridge, which catalyzed the formation of ESSI. The importance of air-defense anti-missile capability is self-evident in modern warfare. If ESSI is able to integrate Europe’s capabilities in that domain, that would be a major step forward toward defense independence on the continent.

Although American military products are still squeezing the EU’s defense industry (both Arrow 3 and Patriot are closely related to the US), the union will definitely develop its own products to gradually dilute and replace American elements in the future.

Besides, ESSI is spearheaded by Germany, the main advocate of the EU’s defense integration. German chancellor Scholz, French president Macron and Chairman of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen are all dedicated to that goal. If ESSI succeeds, it will undoubtedly further cement Germany’s position as the “bellwether” for Europe’s defense independence.

(The author is a special researcher at TECHXCOPE)

Editor's note: Originally published on thepaper.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.