A pound – or for that matter a dollar or a euro – spent in the defence sector has traditionally gone further than in any other industrial sector. This is because the supply chain is largely domestic, and as a result has a far bigger impact on a country’s industrial base.

But defence projects – whether to develop combat aircraft or aircraft carriers – are also extremely costly and have always put considerable pressure on government budgets. Hence Europe’s decades-old effort to co-operate in joint defence programmes to share the ever rising costs of such ventures. Such co-operation has never been easy, given the inevitable rivalries and vested interests of individual governments and their industrial defence contractors. The European Fighter Aircraft – or the Eurofighter Typhoon as it is now known – is a classic example of the challenges and difficulties of developing a pan-European defence project. Forget for one moment the spat between Britain and its other Typhoon partners – including Germany, Spain, Italy and indirectly France – that is now undermining further what many consider as probably the last wholly European advanced fighter aircraft programme. Future programmes are all expected to involve some form of transatlantic co-operation such as the Joint Strike Aircraft that is competing for export orders with the Typhoon.