Many politicians view “Sky Shield” as a highly effective initiative for maintaining security in the Western world. In fact, more and more countries are joining it each day. What does it represent and does it have a future?
A hopeful program
“Sky Shield” was launched In October 2022 in response to the aggressive actions and statements of the Russian Federation towards Europe and its countries.
The fact is that there are certain gaps in the European airspace protection system, which are well-known to NATO, Russians, and their allies. The project must cover these weaknesses to ensure that Europeans will be protected from potential threats of drones or cruise missiles.
Who has joined it?
Partners of the “Sky Shield” program include:
- the United Kingdom;
- Slovakia;
- Norway;
- Latvia;
- Hungary;
- Bulgaria;
- Belgium;
- the Czech Republic;
- Finland;
- Lithuania;
- the Netherlands;
- Romania;
- Slovenia;
- Germany.
In the last week, Austria and Switzerland have expressed their desire to be a part of the project called “Sky Shield”. However, their inclusion raised a lot of questions regarding the violation of their neutrality status. It’s worth noting that Austria has become the first non-NATO member to join the initiative.
Economy above all else
The main function of the project is to ensure reliable air protection for Europe. It aims to achieve this by establishing a collective air defense system, which would be cheaper than individual defense mechanisms used by each country. The project is continuously growing as the world becomes convinced that Russia is unpredictable and will stop at nothing.
Is it split?
But not everyone supported the initiative with the same enthusiasm. For example, such NATO members as France, Poland, and Italy remained on the sidelines. Macron expressed his position, stating that depending on weapons systems produced outside of Europe would be a mistake. In this way, the coalition is preparing itself for problems in the near future.
He was told that buying ready-made systems is better than long and very expensive developments, for which there is simply no time and money.
