Austria plans to join the European airspace defense system “Sky Shield”, as announced by the Federal Chancellery and Ministry of Defense on Saturday. “The threat situation has increased enormously 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. Neutrality is not threatened by the project, both emphasized.
“We must and will take precautions to protect our country from the threat of drone or missile strikes,” 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 ongoing to examine this cooperation and clarify what Austria’s participation in this project might look like in concrete terms.”
Neutrality remains unchanged: “It’s about participating in a protective shield that serves to ward off danger,” say Nehammer and Tanner. “The joint implementation of this project is organizationally and financially possible and sensible only in a European association. No European state can afford the capability of effective airspace defense in view of the new dangerous situation alone.”
On Friday, Defense Minister Tanner will travel to Bern, where she will meet her German and Swiss counterparts Boris Pistorius and Viola Amherd as part of a trilateral DA-CH meeting. Austria considered this meeting as a possible date for signing the adhesion to the “European Sky Shield Initiative”, as announced by a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense, questioned by the APA. It is now planned that Tanner will sign the necessary declaration of intent in Pistorius’ presence. However, they didn’t want to reveal any details before the meeting.
The “European Sky Shield Initiative” (ESSI) came from the EU and NATO, Germany, and currently includes 17 countries. Since last October, NATO members Great Britain, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Estonia and Norway have also been involved. Denmark and NATO candidate Sweden also joined the project in February. Set against the backdrop of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, “Sky Shield” aims to help close 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 US Patriot systems and the Israeli Arrow 3 missile defense system – is bought. German Defense Minister Pistorius said: “Matron’s view seems to be that we are not in such a hurry that we have to rely on intermediate technologies now, but we can wait until what we are developing in Europe is ready. We and many others we are not convinced of it.”
According to the press release, the “Sky Shield” will place a satellite-backed protective shield over participating countries that will be able to detect and ward off drones and missiles at an early stage. The increased threat situation is reflected in three factors against which the “Sky Shield” intends to provide the necessary protection: drone attacks 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 to do with neutrality, because we can always decide autonomously,” he explained Saturday night on ZiB1. It’s about “don’t miss the connection and don’t buy anything wrong.” Participation in the defensive screen “doesn’t mean that you shoot together, but that you plan and consider together which systems fit best.”