2023-07-01 18:22:11
Austria plans to join the European airspace defense system “Sky Shield”, as announced by the Federal Chancellery and the Ministry of Defense on Saturday. “The threat situation has increased massively due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine,” said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP). Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) spoke of a “milestone” in defense policy. The neutrality is not endangered by the project, both stressed.
“We must and will take precautions to protect our country from the threat of drone or missile attacks,” Nehammer said, according to a press release. In airspace surveillance, this is best done together in a European association with other countries.
“For Austria, this is a milestone in the history of defense policy,” emphasized Tanner. “Negotiations are currently underway to examine this cooperation and to clarify how Austria’s participation in this project can look like in concrete terms.”
The neutrality remains unaffected: “It is regarding participation in a protective shield that serves to avert danger,” said Nehammer and Tanner. “The joint implementation of this project is organizationally and financially only possible and sensible in a European association. No European state can afford the ability for effective airspace defense in view of the new danger situation alone.”
On Friday, Defense Minister Tanner will travel to Bern, where she will meet her counterparts from Germany and Switzerland, Boris Pistorius and Viola Amherd, as part of a trilateral DA-CH meeting. Austria has considered this meeting as a possible date for signing accession to the “European Sky Shield Initiative”, as a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense announced when asked by APA. It is now planned that Tanner will sign the necessary declaration of intent in the presence of Pistorius. However, they did not want to reveal any details before the meeting.
The “European Sky Shield Initiative” (ESSI) came from the EU and NATO country Germany and currently includes 17 countries. Since last October, the NATO members Great Britain, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Estonia and Norway have also been involved. Denmark and NATO candidate Sweden also joined the project in February. Against the background of the Russian war of aggression once morest Ukraine, “Sky Shield” is intended to help close existing gaps in the current protective shield for Europe.
France is not part of the German initiative. Paris does not like the fact that non-European technology – including the US Patriot systems and the Israeli missile defense system Arrow 3 – is to be bought. Germany’s Defense Minister Pistorius said: “Macron’s view seems to be that French President Emmanuel is not in such a hurry that we have to rely on bridging technologies now, but we can wait until what we are developing in Europe is ready. We and many others are not convinced of that.”
According to the press release, “Sky Shield” will place a satellite-supported protective shield over the participating countries, which will be able to detect and ward off drones and missiles at an early stage. The increased threat situation is reflected in three factors once morest which “Sky Shield” is intended to offer the necessary protection: attacks by drones or threats from misguided drones, threats from military aircraft in European airspace, and threats from ballistic or nuclear missiles in European airspace.
Military expert Walter Feichtinger welcomes Austria’s planned participation and sees no problem with neutrality: “It has nothing at all to do with neutrality, because we can always decide autonomously,” he explained on Saturday evening in ZiB1. It’s regarding “not missing the connection and not buying anything wrong”. Participation in the defensive screen “does not mean that you shoot together, but that you plan and consider together which systems fit together best.”
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