European sixth-generation
BERLIN (AFP) - European countries should step up efforts to jointly develop the next generation fighter jets to avoid becoming too reliant on US technology, Airbus Defence and Space chief executive Dirk Hoke said Friday. "To date, the countries of Europe have indulged in expensive customised national solutions or have made their means of national defence dependent on the USA," Hoke said in an op-ed published in Griephan Briefe, a German weekly specialised in defence issues. It is becoming increasingly unaffordable for European countries to go it alone, Hoke said, pointing to the "huge increase in technical requirements" that military aircraft now have to meet. But by choosing to buy American defence goods such as F-35 fighter jets, which are cheaper thanks to economies of scale, Europeans risked giving away control of their own defence capabilities, according to Hoke. "Do we want to put ourselves in a position of unilateral dependence -? for