The US didn't want the autonomy part though, just the well-armed part. Putin made an undeniable case for that already in 2022, well, also in 2014 but we took that less seriously, and the proper arming of EU got kicked into gear. With US stuff, as the US likes to see, but then Trump came along to make his undeniable case to not do that in 2025, well, also in 2016 but we took that less seriously, again, and the EU is now kicking into gear to invest in strategic autonomy and buy EU&UK instead of US.
(Also funny that you name the whole "strategic autonomy" remark by Macron during Bidens because that sure kicked up a storm and from what I remember the US and people here did not like that at all because it distancing from the US a bit, and now, well, here we are)
It's also a bit funny how Trump recently threatened to stop/pause the PURL initiative where Europe funds buying of US equipment for Ukraine... Talk about shooting yourself in the foot if that was paused just to try to spite Ukraine. That's someone else funding your military complex and you'd threaten to stop/pause it...
Well, if he wants even more focus on European strategic autonomy, that would be one way to do it.
Nah that is just peak Art of the Deal way to go about it. He just gets so much leverage out of this one thing, to both sell and whithold the privilege to unless demands are met!? You don't need to know how to get others to want to work with you if you can hold those in dire need of your help hostage.
And well as an euro my teeth are gnashing every time I hear about it, that is how you know it is a good deal! I wish we had the arms manufacturing to tell him to suck an urethra, but at least it is being worked on. The euro Patriot equivalent in the Asters for the SAMP/T is having its productionrate upped, so is the euro APKWS equivalent the FZ275 LGR/FZ123 guided rockets(which name it is isn't entirely clear to me)
(this strongly looks to be thanks to a helpful past US, or the Brits, as the same Belgian Thales had an unguided rocket tested to be compatible with the APKWS kit), and Ukraine recently got manufacturing rights for both the Patriot and APKWS equivalents. The EU+UK is making do with what it got, but sadly it is not enough for Russias current war industry. So, we are stuck getting Art of the Deal'd for now.
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u/GripAficionado 7d ago
So do we think the latest dose of shortsightedness from the US pushed Canada one step closer to buying Gripen rather than simply getting more F-35s?
Capability wise buying more F-35s makes the most sense, however with allies as good as the US... Maybe Gripen is starting to make sense...