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EU ministers have announced that 25 out of 28 bloc members will participate and jointly implement military projects in the future, and will pool resources and knowledge. France and Germany also intend to develop a common fighter jet that could replace the German Air Force Eurofighter and the French Rafale fighter aircraft. Defence experts estimate the cost of developing a modern fighter aircraft at 10 to 20 billion euros. Barbara Kunz from the Cerfa Institute, a Paris-based think tank on Franco-German relations, says: "Everyone knows that even the big European countries are too small to handle it. They have to work together. "

Despite the plans, French and Germans view common defence differently. French President Emmanuel Macron dreams of a European defence budget, a joint intervention force and a common doctrine, but France does not have the funds for it. Germany is in charge of setting up a joint medical order and wants to establish a centre of excellence for foreign missions. Sabine Thillaye, chairwoman of the Europe Committee in the Assemblée Nationale, and member of Macron's party told Noz: "France has the operational force and Germany has the financial power." Professor Johannes Varwick, political scientist at the University of Halle-Wittenberg criticised the idea, and said: "If the French believe that the Germans finance the Africa Corps of the French, then they are very much mistaken."

GETTY Merkel and Macron may butt heads over the plans

Marko Erman, technical director of the armaments and technology group Thales, one of the largest defence contractors in Europe, thinks the future is warfare using artificial intelligence where weapon systems learn from each other. Noz reports the Thalys engineers are developing these kinds of systems on virtual battlefields. Using 50,000 scenarios, intelligent antennas could calculate the optimum angle for a jet to attack and which frequencies are to be changed at lightning speed in order to outsmart the enemy's radar. The EU hopes the defence union will be complete by 2025, and after that the states want to develop joint military diving robots and armoured vehicles. A European drone and a flying infirmary is also in the works.

GETTY France and Germany intend to develop a common fighter jet