Wed, Sep 08, 2010
"Utterly Unrealistic" Says British Defense Minister
A trial balloon floated last week by the governments of Great
Britain and France to merge their aircraft carrier operations has
been quickly deflated, according the the British and
French Defense Ministers. "In terms of actually being able to
share an aircraft carrier, I would have thought that that was
utterly unrealistic," British Defense Minister Liam Fox told
reporters after speaking with his French counterpart Herve
Morin.
HMS Ark Royal (File Photo)
The international news service AFP reports that the two
countries are still considering a plan to share the cost of some
military aircraft programs. Fox said for operations like tactical
or strategic airlift, potentially sharing aircraft might make
sense.
The idea of sharing the nations' combined three aircraft
carriers surfaced last week as both countries look at ways to cut
their military budgets. Both ministers said that defense budgets in
their respective countries are "extremely tight," and that sharing
resources between the allies seemed like a good idea, and one
that still has merit. "We have some tracks we're going down: the
A400M, the refuelling planes, and perhaps cooperation on naval
capacity -- but not on aircraft carriers, just so things are
clear," said French Defense Minister Morin.
But details of any cooperation agreement won't be released until
late October, according to Morin. He told reporters that Europe's
"most powerful militaries" would look for ways to cut spending
through "mutualization" on procurement projects, as well as weapons
systems development. Meanwhile, both said they agreed that the
bureaucracy needs to be cut at NATO headquarters in Brussels, and
that they would would make that a key point for discussion at the
alliances' November summit in Lisbon.
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