Why a common European warship is harder to organize than Airbus

Could European states collaborate on mass-produced warships as successfully as they did on Airbus aircraft?

Shared requirements can support cooperation, but national missions, yard allocation, prestige, and small orders make a single mass-produced warship difficult.

National prestige and industrial interests make governments protective of warship construction. Dividing modules among European yards would still leave a dispute over the final assembly yard and the work it receives. France's worldwide responsibilities differ from those of Germany, while Mediterranean operating requirements create further differences between customers. Countries buying only one or two ships have strong reasons to demand a design tailored to their own needs, and successive changes can produce different ships. Tornado and Typhoon demonstrate that multinational military projects can work when countries share a clear requirement, although both involved major arguments. The divergence between the British Type 45 and the Horizon project illustrates the difficulty of maintaining a common naval requirement.