Page 39 - Five Forces of Americanisation Richard Hooke 04072025 final post SDR1

The UK Defence Industry in the 21 Century
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The Five Forces of Americanisation

World’s Top Defense Companies 2024

Many other European contractors, including Thales, Leonardo, Saab, Airbus and Rheinmetall also
operate from facilities across the USA. Even so, the US still dominates the supply of defence equipment
to Europe. According to SIPRI, EU Member States’ arms imports increased by 38% in 2022. 78% of
procurement spending from June 2022 to June 2023 resulted in purchases from outside the EU. Even
when competitive European products were available, Member States preferred non-EU solutions.
According to the Center for International Policy, Security Assistance Monitor, US Foreign Military Sales
in Europe increased by 89% between 2021 and 2022. With emerging armament manufacturers in
Turkey and South Korea entering the EU market, this has increased the fragmentation of supply
sources, creating more “external dependencies” and reducing the potential for interoperability across
the region.
The concern is that this undermines the sector’s financial and economic efficiency and will limit the

effectiveness of cooperation between Member States’ Armed Forces. It also reinforces the EU’s
recent findings: whilst taking action to accommodate new members seeking increased security
through defence collaboration between members, the EU’s defence industry has become more
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domestically-orientated and fragmented since the start of the Russo-Ukraine war .
Back in 2006, it had indeed seemed that Europe was developing an increasingly collaborative approach
to defence procurement, exemplified by a range of initiative involving various combinations of British,
Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish partnerships addressing combat aircraft, frigates,
armoured vehicle programmes and the formation of the Organisation Conjoint de Cooperation en
matière d’armements (“OCCAR”) by Germany, Italy and the UK. Instead, 20 years later, EU countries
still prefer to select their defence suppliers on an individual basis. Now, in 2025, new US foreign policy,
forcefully promoted with provocatively blunt language, has stung Europe into action. Its publication
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of “Re-arm Europe - Readiness 2030”, an EU White Paper published on 28 March, 2025 set out a
clear path to defence and security self-sufficiency. In doing so, it addressed major changes in the EU’s
financial, legal and regulatory regimes to create a fund of over EUR 650 billion over the next four years
and an immediate EUR 150 billion loan facility (Security Action For Europe – “SAFE”) to accelerate
investment in production capacity, technology development and equipment supply.
The advance warning of this announcement prompted a further pronouncement from the US
government, with Reuters reporting that, notwithstanding its recent criticisms of Europe’s collective
defence posture, the USA wanted Europe to continue to acquire American defence equipment.

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07/07/2025 Richard Hooke 2025