August 3, 2018 | International, Land
These Baltic nations could build Europe’s next ground drone
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — As European Union nations look to step up their defense-industrial projects, a trio of states on the Baltic Sea are looking to make a breakthrough in unmanned ground systems. Estonia, Latvia and Finland are pushing to develop land-based drones under the EU's Permanent Structure Cooperation framework, or PESCO, the nations announced Thursday. Between €30-40 million (U.S. $35-47 million) has been earmarked for use from the European Defence Fund to work on the project, while each of the three countries will contribute additional funds. The start date for the planned project is the first half of 2019. Launched in late 2017, PESCO seeks to help develop European-wide defense industries. Groups of nations can pitch the EU on different developments in order to secure initial funding from pooled resources. Although in its early stages, PESCO has been the topic of American concernover the potential of protectionist actions taken by the European defense market that could lock out American firms. EU nations are now looking to carve out market areas that could benefit their domestic defense-industrial bases, something acknowledged directly by Kusti Salm, director of the Estonian Defense Ministry's Defence Investments Department. Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/08/02/these-baltic-nations-could-build-europes-next-ground-drone