The EU is dealing with a “deep crisis” in its house launch capabilities and has fallen behind Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, the EU’s commissioner for protection and house mentioned Friday.
Speaking on the Forum Europa occasion in Brussels, Commissioner Andrius Kubilius mentioned that whereas Europe “is really good” in sure house packages like Galileo, Copernicus, and the brand new IRIS² satellite tv for pc system, it’s lagging in launch know-how.
“We lost competition, really, to Elon Musk, and now we need to catch up,” mentioned Kubilius.
“We are looking to new industries, new space industries, that can bring new ideas, new ways to develop our launching capabilities.”
Stressing that the world is now dealing with a revolution in house, the commissioner mentioned the approaching a long time might carry “a lot of new developments.”
‘LIFE WILL NOT BE THE SAME AS IT WAS BEFORE THE CRISIS’
Turning to protection, Kubilius mentioned the EU will unveil a roadmap by 12 months’s finish to handle functionality gaps, increase manufacturing, strengthen strategic enablers and advance joint European protection tasks.
The roadmap will emphasize rising applied sciences similar to synthetic intelligence, quantum know-how, and navy mobility.
“If we unite as Europe and mobilize our economic mind, we can deter any aggression,” he mentioned. “But if we don’t, our union is at risk, our way of life is at risk.”
He went on to say that the member states “must now act” and take the choices wanted, not just for their very own protection, however to guard all 450 million folks within the union.
“After this crisis of security is over, life will not be the same as it was before the crisis,” mentioned Kubilius, including that Europe can be “much stronger” in its protection “together with a strong Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian nation as part of our family.”
“We will need to take more and more responsibility on European defense, on our shoulders, and having in mind also that it will demand perhaps some kind of new approaches into how we’re organizing our defense,” he added.
Last month, the European Commission unveiled proposals to handle navy functionality gaps and increase protection business cooperation.
The plan consists of permitting extra budgetary house for nations to extend protection spending, with a cap of as much as 1.5% of GDP yearly for 4 years.
Source: www.anews.com.tr