Ten EU Countries Jointly Develop Air Refueling Capability

The ten countries – that is, besides Hungary the EU members Belgium, France, Greece,
the Netherlands, Poland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain as well as the non-EU member
Norway – signed a letter of intent on the topic at the meeting of EU Defence Ministers.
Norway, which does not belong to the EU but is a member of NATO, had earlier actively
cooperated with the European Defence Agency (EDA) in other projects too.

The lessons learned in last year’s Libyan air operations have made military-political decision-
makers in Europe fully realize the importance of air refueling capability. Although the
European participants of the operation had the sufficient number of modern aircraft, they had
to use US assistance to refuel them in the air, while it was necessary to keep them airborne for
as long as possible.

Under the newly signed letter of intent, they will jointly procure – either buy or lease – air
refueling tanker aircraft. They have not decided on the type and other details as yet. The
cooperation of the ten countries illustrates a model that the EU countries are trying to develop
in the present period of financial crisis: they are economizing on the resources, and several
member states form groups of different composition to generate certain common military
capabilities in an efficient and at the same time cost-effective way.