... First in line for collective repudiation is Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet. Mark Carney ordered a review of Canada’s order for 72 of these advanced aircraft within hours of becoming prime minister. It will determine whether “other options could better meet Canada’s needs”. ...
... PNuno Melo, Portugal’s conservative defence minister, says the F-35 is no longer considered a safe choice to replace his country’s ageing F-16s. “We have to know that an ally will be on our side whatever the circumstances,” he told Publico.
“The world has changed. This ally of ours, so predictable over the decades, could limit the use, maintenance, components, and everything needed to ensure that the aircraft are operational in all scenarios,” he said. Portugal is looking at a European alternative. Germany may be next ...
... Europe does not strictly need the US Patriot missile defence system either. The upgraded Franco-Italian SAMP/T rival is more or less “equivalent” ...
... Europe should also move fast to escape the clutches of Elon Musk’s Starlink. Enders said Eutelsat’s OneWeb could do much of the job if buttressed by the medium-orbit satellites of SES ...
... There have always been restrictions on how US weapons exports can be deployed, but the rules were clear. Trump has turned every form of vulnerability into a means of extortion.
He has shown that he will not hesitate to cut rough with military kit to get his way – in Ukraine’s case to force capitulation on Kremlin terms – or “dividing up certain assets” as he put it.
Those terms will probably be close to the Istanbul Protocol: neutrality, a skeleton military like Germany in the 1920s, Russian control over four annexed (but unconquered) oblasts, cultural re-Russification of Ukraine, plus a Vidkun Quisling-like figure to replace Volodymyr Zelensky ...
... Two of the irresistible selling points of US arms exporters have long been that a) the dependency would not be abused and b) countries were implicitly coming under the US security umbrella by aligning their fortunes with America.
Neither has currency in Trump’s Hobbesian world. (The end, but there is a link to 202 comments on the page)