Airbus slams EU as UK plans to quit key defense programme

Bloomberg

Airbus SE blamed the European Union for the UK’s decision to quit the Galileo satellite-defense programme, after the country was denied a central role in the 10 billion-euro ($11 billion) project after Brexit.
The move will deal a “serious blow to the EU’s common security and defense ambition,” Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders said in an Airbus Twitter post.
Airbus’s UK arm has carried out extensive work on Galileo since its inception and Britain has plowed $1.5 billion into the system’s development.
“Don’t those talking about a European army know that the UK is one of only two serious military powers in Europe?” Enders said. Britain and France are the most active military players in the region, while Germany and others have limited their role in outside conflicts.
Britain said it won’t use Galileo for defense or critical infrastructure applications, and will instead develop its own system to guide military drones, run energy networks and provide location services for civilian cellphones. It will also continue to access the US Global Positioning System, which Galileo aims to rival when fully operational in 2026.
Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, has previously been critical of the UK on other Brexit-related issues. Galileo emerged as an area of friction after the EU sought to exclude Britain from its most secure elements, and bar UK companies from bidding for contracts.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this year announced a 92 million-pound, 18-month programme to design and develop Britain’s own satellite navigation system, possibly via the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance with the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.