"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.

FMI: www.mod.uk, www.defense.gouv.fr/english/portail-defense