UK defence industry targets EU cash

With US support for Nato waning, Britain's influential arms companies eagerly anticipate a shower of treasure from soaring European military budgets, writes

- Tamzin Booth

Two decades ago, BAE Systems, the world's sixth-largest defence supplier, jettisoned its 20% stake in Airbus, a European aerospace champion, in a drastic step later explained by its then boss Mike Turner in stark terms: "I saw no future in [Europe]. I just didn't see Europe as committed to defence expenditure. The only place that really was, was America."

That view has radically altered. A long-awaited EU-UK summit on Monday is expected to prise open European defence markets for the UK's industry. The Russia-Ukraine war and doubts about American support for Nato has sent the continent's defence spending soaring.

Europe has caught the eye of a UK armaments industry more accustomed to frequent business trips to Washington and Riyadh than to Berlin and Brussels.