Just as European states battle to renew and reinvigorate their militaries, and dramatically increase their defence spending, against the background of the ongoing war in Ukraine, they have hit another bump in the road. Current EU environmental regulations are preventing EU countries from expanding military bases, preventing fighter jet pilots from training, and hindering their preparations for defending against a possible Russian attack.
In a letter signed by the Dutch, Swedish, German, Belgian, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Finnish, Estonian and Danish governments to Andrius Kubilius, the EU defence commissioner, national defence ministers said it was clear that EU legislation must “not prevent member states’ armed forces from carrying out necessary activities to become operationally ready. But right now, it does.”
Issues of most concern include “procurement legislation, nature conservation and environmental protection, and more generally the administrative burden on defence organisations deriving from various EU legal acts”.
I must admit this caused a wry smile to cross my lips momentarily. I can think of few, if indeed any, areas of human activity that are less ecology-minded and environmentally-friendly than warfare.
Aside from the enormous polluting costs of producing warships, fighter jets, tanks and so on, just look at the state of Ukraine or Gaza today. War is endlessly destructive and ruins everything it touches.
Indeed, they are still ploughing up shells today from the First World War over a 100 ago, and hardly a week goes by without some German town or city being partially evacuated to defuse and remove some dud Allied bomb from 1939-45.
The point brought home from the defence ministers’ letter is, of course, that even training for war is hugely environmentally damaging.
Many years ago now I was a young tank troop leader, and then later a tank squadron leader, part of the British Army of the Rhine in the 1980s. In those days we deployed from barracks frequently to train on the German training areas.
Hohne ranges were where we practised our tank gunnery, hurling 1200mm shells at targets thousands of metres away. And Soltau training area was where we carried out our tactical training.
Much of the latter training took place in bad weather, at night, and when we were usually exhausted. Mistakes happened; trees were knocked down, barrels of engine oil were split, and fuel spilled on the ground.
We lived off the back of our tanks, and as far as I can remember latrines were never dug. If you needed to go you grabbed a shovel and disappeared off behind a tree.
On one infamous occasion there occurred a mishap involving a petrol pressure cooker and a 4-tonne truck, which resulted in said vehicle being immolated and reduced to twisted metal and ashes.
Luckily there was a Royal Engineer unit in the next wood, and they kindly dug us a big hole into which the debris was dumped and then covered over. It’s probably still there to this day. How the whole episode was hushed up I will never know.
Then, every second year or so and after the German farmers had brought in their crops, we would embark on a large-scale field training exercise, or FTX, across the open countryside and into the German villages which dotted the landscape.
Tactics ruled these operations, and if it was deemed tactically necessary, we were permitted to pull off roads and drive through fences and walls into farmyards and barns. Widespread damage could result, and it was not unknown for such exercises to terminate when the compensation funds had run out!
When the regiment moved back to the UK we fired our tanks at Castlemartin in Wales and trained on Salisbury Plain.
I was altogether less intense but still not kind to our surroundings and mistakes did happen. On once occasion one of our squadron leaders led an early dawn attack with 14 tanks on what was meant to be a group of ruined buildings on the training area, but was somewhat dismayed at seeing the lights switch on as they drew near.
In the dark he and his charges had drifted off the MoD land and attacked a neighbouring farmhouse. The farmer, and his commanding officer, were not best pleased.
All of this happened in what nowadays would be called the “land domain”, but add to it the impact of military aircraft dumping fuel and spewing fumes and naval ships inescapably fouling the oceans and you get the picture. Warfare, and training for it, is intrinsically anti-environmental.
Which brings us back to the defence ministers’ representations to the EU defence commissioner. If we accept, and I think we should, that the first priority for any government should be the security of the state, its citizens, and their interests, then surely defence requirements must take priority over ecological concerns.
Or, to put it another way, you can’t possibly make a defence omelette without cracking a few environmental eggs.
Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a political and defence commentator and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at www.DefenceReview.uk