The EU intends to build its own aircraft carrier in case of war
The European Union has again raised the issue of creating an aircraft carrier. Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, spoke on this topic.
During his speech at the defense conference, Thierry Breton said that the European Commission should present a European program of investment in defense. This is necessary to support efforts to increase the production of ammunition and missiles.
In addition, the European Union should start discussing the creation of an aircraft carrier in connection with the return of a major threat to the European continent. In the event of war, most military bases can be destroyed by missile attacks. The presence of an aircraft carrier will allow deck-based aircraft to be removed from the attack.
One of the project’s problems may be finances. The European Union has only two instruments to finance such programs. We are talking about the EDIRPA and ASAP funds. Both were created in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but their total size is less than $1 billion.
Thierry Breton believes that EDIRPA and ASAP can be linked to the European Defense Fund of more than $8 billion. But even so, the construction of an aircraft carrier will require large additional investments. If we talk about European companies that can implement such a project on their own, these are only the French Naval Group and the British Aircraft Carrier Alliance.
