Top EU official wants European aircraft carrier, missile shield

Thierry Breton wants Europe to get serious about its defence — including by developing an aircraft carrier and missile defence shield.

Speaking at a defence conference, EU Internal Market Commissioner Breton — whose portfolio also includes defence — said the European Commission “must present an ambitious European defence investment program” that makes sure fledgling efforts to build out production of ammunition and missiles can be sustained while also developing flagship initiatives like naval vessels and next-generation missile shield programs, Politico reports.

A European defence industrial strategy is planned for November 8, a Commission official said, but Breton said it’s time to start discussing an aircraft carrier vessel to patrol the seas, a so-called Eurodome air defence system and a space-based “European threat detection and identification capability.”

“With the return of high-intensity conflict on the European continent, we have no other choice,” he told defence industry titans at the third European Defence and Security Conference in Brussels on October 10.

The grand ambition, in areas once taboo within European policy circles, comes as Breton looks to set up sustained support for the bloc’s defence industry owing to Russia's war in Ukraine.

The EU currently has two main, and relatively modest, short-term instruments for financing arms deals — the EDIRPA joint procurement fund of €300 million and ASAP, a €500 million cash pot to finance munitions and missiles. Both funds were launched in response to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, but Breton wants to tie them together with the €8 billion European Defence Fund, which he says should be strengthened in the next mandate.

“We need a program crystallizing this ambition, to be the precursor of a genuine industrial program for defence in the next multi-annual financial framework [EU budget],” the French commissioner said.

“Our objective is clear: we must sustain and broaden the ASAP and EDIRPA approaches,” said Breton. “We must avoid a ‘defence shut down’ in 2025 [when current funding programs cease] and build a bridge towards the next EU budget.”

“But you need to be ready for new deals and new requirements,” he warned the European defence industry.