MILAN — Nine European countries have partnered with Ukraine to create a new anti-ballistic coalition, envisioned to create a pan-European capability to counter adversarial ballistic attacks, leaders said at the program’s inaugural meeting on Monday.
The new platforms “will complement existing ballistic missile defence systems, including sovereign European solutions already acquired, or to be acquired by participating countries,” the group said in a joint declaration. “By bringing together our defence industrial base, our research, and our operational experience, we aim to build a shared antiballistic missile capacity for Europe and support relevant contributory activities. We do this not against any people, but in defence of our own.”
The United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Germany officially joined the project in response to the shrinking availability of anti-ballistic missiles on the global market.
Country leaders, as well as industry, gathered in Paris to sign the joint declaration outlining the group’s current priorities, which are focused on establishing common operational requirements, joint technical working groups, and a roadmap towards initial capabilities in this field.
Though the declaration doesn’t identify any particular country as a threat, it does “acknowledge the unique experience of Ukraine, gained in defense against Russia’s war of aggression.”
At the NATO Summit in Ankara last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia’s ability to deploy ballistic missiles at scale “its last major advantage” in the war and a challenge against which Europe urgently needs its own defensive capability.
“We all value the [American-made] Patriot system. It is an excellent system. There are others [in Europe] as well. But today’s wars have shown that current Patriot production is not enough to meet the growing demand for protection against ballistic missiles; that is a fact,” he said during his address on July 7. (Later at the summit, American President Donald Trump said Ukraine would receive a “license” to produce Patriots on its own.)
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The Ukrainian government said the coalition’s flagship project will be based on the Freyja anti-ballistic system, developed by the Ukrainian company Fire Point, which is built on its FP-7X interceptor.
Zelenskyy specified on Monday that while Ukraine can provide the system itself, partners could supply radars, tracking, command-and-control systems, as well as other critical components. He added that countries will be able to decide how many systems Europe needs and where these should be located. The goal would be to see it operational within the next 12 months, he said.
Also in attendance at Monday’s meeting were representatives from major European defense companies including Leonardo, MBDA, Saab, Safran, Thales, Kongsberg, Hensoldt, Eurosam, Diehl Defense, and Destinus.
On the sidelines of the coalition meeting, Thales, Airbus, Destinus, MBDA and Safran signed a Letter of Intent to establish the Bliksem EXO, a multinational European industrial partnership to develop and scale production of an extremely high-altitude interceptor.
“The Bliksem EXO is conceived as a sovereign European exo-atmospheric interceptor system designed to counter medium and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats, including the [Russian] Oreshnik-class systems,” a Thales press release said.
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