Summary

U.S. officials have warned European allies against excluding American defense firms from EU weapons tenders, amid new EU proposals to boost domestic arms production.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized U.S. concerns in recent meetings, citing potential negative repercussions if U.S. companies are sidelined.

The EU’s €150 billion ReArm Europe plan aims to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers as Trump signals reduced U.S. NATO engagement.

Washington sees the move as conflicting with its goal of selling arms abroad. Tensions highlight diverging transatlantic defense priorities under Trump’s leadership.

  • @rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
    44•14 days ago

    Huh, it’s almost like EU powers have seen the problem with having an unpredictable outsider control thier means of defense.

    Imagine trying to preflight your fancy F35 and seeing the Tesla, “please wait for update” screen.

    • _cryptagion [he/him]English
      11•14 days ago

      That’ll probably be on the plane he named after himself, the F-47. Assuming Boeing doesn’t just take the taxpayer money for four years and then drop it as soon as the next president gets elected.

      • @TronBronson@lemmy.world
        4•14 days ago

        You already know that’s the plan for Boeing. Baby baby one more chance to build and scrap a worthless prototype that cost billions

        • _cryptagion [he/him]English
          3•14 days ago

          Best part is, they get away with it because they were just doing as they were told, even though the order is probably more than a little unrealistic. I’m not gonna pretend I know about classified military research, but the F-35 is supposedly top of the line. Do they even have the tech to make a more advanced fighter right now? Probably not, which means they’ll say they have to spend more developing it all.

          What Trump doesn’t get, is even if the next president is a republican, they probably aren’t gonna be interested in spending billions on expanding Trump’s legacy, when they can cancel it and make themselves look like a responsible budget manager.