Europe ‘faces window of vulnerability until 2030,’ Dutch chief of defence warns – Europe live | Europe– www.theguardian.com

The chief of defence of the Dutch armed forces, Gen Onno Eichelsheim, said that Europe urgently needs to learn from the lessons of Ukraine, as Europe is “facing a window of vulnerability until 2030” as it races to rearm itself.

Speaking at the Euronews Defence and Space Summit, he said there is “a gap between today’s threats and an armed force that will only be ready several years from now.”

“Within that window, we must ensure that strong deterrence is in place, and if deterrence fails, we have to fight,” he said.

Eichelsheim also spoke about the need to make the right decisions on procurement and industrial cooperation and work together, not in solely national interests, to move at pace required. “We don’t need 27 different drone programmes,” he said.

“The success of European defence cooperation will not be measured by the number of programmes we create, but by the equipment we put in the hands of our soldiers,” he said.

He said the EU’s tools “only work if we use them in the right way,” whereas the European defence matchmaking programmes at the moment are “like Tinder, with all the same frustrations.”

“To make a match, you need a sufficient number of participants on the platform and once a match is made, someone must take action. And it is clear that member states, my own included, are not putting all of our project projects on that platform.

Furthermore, the information provided is often not detailed enough to enable meaningful matches, just as on Tinder. Profiles do not always reflect all reality, and even when you do get a match, someone has to respond.”