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Quote by: rmnunez The British and Spain also have aircraft carriers, but they don't venture far. The EU could field a comparable force, but they've atrophied their MIC through Cold War reliance on US military force and equipment. Building up such a force would take at least a decade and cost a fortune the EU doesn't have and would rather spend on other things. The size of the EU economy as a whole is important, but remember its a bunch of separate countries cutting their own deals in competition with each other too. Pacifism has worked for the Europeans because all along they had the US military to back them up. |
Britain and Spain do not have full-deck aircraft carriers, just by the way. They have small carriers for VSTOL fighters with limited aircraft compliments. Mini carriers, you might call them. Full blown carriers are expensive. That's why the Charles de Gaulle (why do the French name everything after him? Is he their only popular figure, besides the mass murderer Napoleon?) is a lot smaller than the American counterparts.
By the way, have any of you seen the designs for the next generation of American carriers? Holy crap. They're gonna start building them right after whichever carrier thats in production now is done. (if I remember correctly)
Europe probably won't need a military, though it would be nice. If anyone (can't think of who, really) attacked Europe, America would be there, because that's what we do. I wonder if they'd be complaining about American hegemony then?