All EU member states that have a navy are forced to equip
it as they themselves see fit.
In the absence of one unified EU navy there are no guidelines or orders telling
what navy a country should
develop and contribute to the EU navy. As such the navies of the EU member
states are designed to fulfill their
own needs. While the United Kingdom and France are still planning to
have ocean going fleets that can operate in both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans other states are
looking to operate closer at home. Italy and Spain have their main focus on the Mediterranean while Sweden and Poland are
looking to operate in the Baltic Sea. The tiny Baltic states invest in
protecting the coastal waters as well as in mine-countermeasure ships to clear the large minefields that
are a left over from both the
second World War and the Cold
War. Likewise Belgium has a main priority to keep its waters, and in extension
the North Sea clear of unexploded sea mines and bombs from the second World
War. The Netherlands on the other side are giving priority to their
expeditionary capabilities, being their marines and amphibious assault ships,as well as maintaining a complete
amphibious task force to escort and protect their marines in their zone of operations.
All these different tasks and missions result in the need
for ships that are best suited for these tasks. Ships built for service in the Baltic Sea are not ideally equipped for
operating in the hot Mediterranean environment and vice versa. Mine hunters and
minesweepers are too small to operate on
or transit the oceans and prefer to stay near the coast. European
shipyards therefore are specialized in building ships that suit the specific
needs of a nation. Even more than this, the direct competition between these
shipyards allow the EU member states to select or request the most optimal ships thy need.
All these different ship models, each with their own
specifications and limitations, are interfering with the creation of an EU
navy. Taking a logistics point
of view, any EU navy is in need of standardizing its ships not only for
providing repair facilities and delivery of spare parts in any EU naval base,
but for planning reasons as well. Operating with identical ships or ships with the same specifications simplifies
planning compared to taking in account a lot of different specifications like
range, endurance, weaponry, electronic capabilities, etc.
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| FREMM frigate: Both the French and Italian navy use the same basic design. Specific requirements defined by each nation makes that these ships are not completly identical |
Hence the EU’s greatest strength, being able to develop
and build a wide array of ships
tailor made to specific needs,
will in the end become its
greatest limitation in creating
one uniform EU navy. The EU is in need of standardizing its equipment in order
to allow the navies of the different member states to integrate more directly
and being able to form ad hoc task forces that can be managed easily. Already some member states are cooperating in attempts to create uniform navies. The
FREMM project is a type of frigate that is in joint use by the French and
Italian navies, allowing them to work more closely. Likewise, Belgium and the
Netherlands each operate two
M-type frigates to enhance their cooperation.
These projects are already a step in the right direction but what any future EU navy would need is an end to this wild diversity in ships and start streamlining its shipbuilding capabilities in only a handful of different types of ships to increase cooperation, logistics and simplifying planning of naval operations throughout the EU and the waters it has taken an interest in.
These projects are already a step in the right direction but what any future EU navy would need is an end to this wild diversity in ships and start streamlining its shipbuilding capabilities in only a handful of different types of ships to increase cooperation, logistics and simplifying planning of naval operations throughout the EU and the waters it has taken an interest in.
