The North Atlantic Alliance is starting the process of sharing some of its top-secret data, which determines what weapons and equipment Allies should produce, with the defense industry and the European Union.
Bloomberg reports this with reference to sources, Ukrinform reports.
According to informed interlocutors, the Alliance is looking for options to share some data in a secure way in order to convince defense companies to increase their production capacities.
Sources note that such a step would require consensus among Allies, and it could be achieved within the next few months.
The sources added that under a separate procedure, the Alliance is also starting the process of exchanging some secret standards with the European Union, which also includes 24 of the 32 Allies.
The initiative comes as NATO members seek to rearm amid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It is noted that due to the confidential nature of data, these standards will be transferred gradually, as they are being processed by NATO.
In general, these standards are military criteria aimed at aligning the armed forces of NATO member states and achieving interoperability between the allies. They can include, for instance, weapon calibers or common military lingo.
Obtaining this information could allow the EU to align norms on both military and dual-use issues such as radio frequencies.
The NATO official said the Alliance had recently shared its non-classified standards, in particular with the EU.
He added that NATO is also cooperating more closely with the defense industry.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his call for NATO member states to raise the minimum level of defense spending to 5% of national GDP.
Source: NATO starts sharing classified data with EU, defense industry - Bloomberg
