Written by: Gonzalo Vidal
Edited by: Piotr Kosik
Supervised by: Cecilia Rosa Yáñez

The Russian war in Ukraine has reiterated the significance of air superiority in achieving war objectives. “The war in Ukraine shows what fighting without air superiority looks like – massed armies relying on ground-based artillery firepower for their lethality, with hundreds of thousands of dead in the first year”. So, preventing long and deadly campaigns for Land Forces is critical for Europe, which strong air capabilities can accomplish. The Western world and Russia have been on the vanguard of air combat technology for decades. Since the end of the Cold War, many further countries have embarked on developing their aircraft capabilities, with China putting together one of the most severe efforts to counter Western technologies. Nowadays, building advanced aircrafts requires heavy investment in technological warfare. It is also a simultaneous sign of geopolitical strength.

Thus, the possession of self-made aircrafts is proof of having not only the industrial and financial capability to reach higher levels of defence autonomy, but also the will and determination to achieve such goals. In that regard, it is worth to analyse whether Europe has the capability and determination to achieve such a milestone in defensive capabilities as having a standard combat air system.