How Europe hopes to turn Ukraine into a “steel porcupine”
Investing in the country’s defence industry is the best way to keep it in the fight. A CEASEFIRE BETWEEN Russia and Ukraine remains a distant prospect, and Europe has made slow progress towards creating a “reassurance force” to help support one. American military aid is dwindling and will soon run out altogether unless renewed by Donald Trump, which looks unlikely. The best way to guarantee Ukraine’s security, its supporters say, is to ensure it is armed to the teeth, ceasefire or no. To that end, on March 19th the European Commission outlined a two-part “porcupine strategy” for Ukraine.
First, Europe would procure more munitions and weapons systems on Ukraine’s behalf, including crucial air-defence missiles. Second, it would boost Ukraine’s own defence industry, which it calls “the most effective and cost-efficient way to support Ukraine’s military efforts”. The plan is the brainchild of Kaja Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister who is now the European Union’s top diplomat. She wants to double military aid to Ukraine this year, to €40bn ($44bn).
he case for investing in Ukraine’s indigenous arms industry is compelling. Ukraine was a big weapons-manufacturer during the Soviet era, but the industry largely vanished after independence in 1991. Nonetheless, there was an engineering base and a thriving new tech sector to draw on when Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago. The country had the foundations: a solid manufacturing sector and loads of engineering schools and universities from which people with highly specialised knowledge transitioned to defence, says Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former defence minister who chairs the Centre for Defence Strategies, a think-tank in Kyiv. “Since 2022 the development has been extremely active. There is a constant innovation process,” he adds. Whereas arms procurement in the West typically takes years, in Ukraine an idea can be translated into a weapon in a soldier’s hand within months...
https://archive.ph/zfzs9
https://www.economist.com/europe/202...teel-porcupine