The European Defense Agency has begun exploring how European armies and defense authorities can share classified information securely without American technology, according to a new EDA presentation obtained by Euractiv - a move that signals deepening trans-Atlantic distrust on the most sensitive security matters.
This isn't about buying European tanks instead of American ones. This is about whether Brussels trusts Washington with access to the data infrastructure undergirding European military operations.
The initiative, still in early planning stages, would create secure military communication networks built entirely on European hardware and software. Current NATO and EU defense data sharing relies heavily on American cloud providers, encryption standards, and telecommunications infrastructure - a dependency European officials increasingly view as a strategic vulnerability.
Translation from Brussels-speak: Europe doesn't trust that American companies won't be compelled to hand over European military secrets to US intelligence agencies. Or that a future US administration won't use access to communications infrastructure as leverage in political disputes.
The timing is not coincidental. Donald Trump's return to the White House has accelerated European concerns about American reliability. His first term saw him threaten to withdraw from NATO and withhold military aid from Ukraine. His second term has European defense planners asking harder questions about what "ally" means.
The technical challenges are formidable. The United States has decades of head start in military-grade cybersecurity, satellite communications, and secure cloud infrastructure. European defense companies lack equivalent capabilities in several critical areas:
- Secure satellite communications: Most European military satellite links transit through US systems at some point - Cloud infrastructure: European alternatives to AWS GovCloud and Microsoft Azure Government are years behind in security certification - Encryption standards: While European cryptography is strong, implementation at scale for real-time military operations lags American systems
The European Defense Agency's exploration doesn't mean European and American forces will stop sharing intelligence or coordinating operations. It means Europe wants the option to communicate without American infrastructure - particularly for operations where US and European interests diverge.
Consider potential scenarios:
- European military operations in Africa where US opposes intervention - Sensitive negotiations with China or Russia where European and American positions differ - Internal EU defense coordination that member states prefer not to share with Washington
NATO officials will insist this is about "strategic autonomy" and "capability diversification," not alliance dissolution. But make no mistake: when allies stop trusting each other with military communications infrastructure, the alliance is already fraying.
The irony is thick. Europe has positioned itself as the global guardian of digital privacy and tech regulation, lecturing American companies about data protection through GDPR and the Digital Markets Act. Yet European militaries remain dependent on those same American tech giants for their most classified operations.
The EDA initiative would take years to implement and billions in investment. European defense budgets are rising, but not fast enough to fund both conventional military expansion and a parallel technology infrastructure project.
Which means the real question isn't whether Europe can build American-free military data networks. It's whether European governments will prioritize that investment over tanks, planes, and soldiers - especially as the war in Ukraine demonstrates that conventional military capability gaps matter more than theoretical data sovereignty.
Brussels decides more than you think. And now it's deciding whether to trust Washington with its military secrets. The fact that it's even asking the question tells you how far trans-Atlantic trust has fallen.
