Europe's Finally Upping Its Defense Spending, and U.S. Companies Want in

The United States has continued to call on its European allies to increase their defense spending in recent years, expressing the need to create a stronger Western military alliance. And recently, the European Union has taken efforts to do just that by developing a new military initiative, called the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), along with a multi-billion European Defense Fund (EDF). But these programs aren't exactly what Washington had in mind. While the United States may be getting what it asked for in regards to a stronger European military force, it's also one that's specifically designed to be less reliant on U.S. defense exports -- which Washington hasn't taken so kindly to. On June 17, a top Pentagon official warned that the U.S. government could go so far as to limit European companies' access to the U.S. defense market, should the European Union continue to inhibit its involvement in programs...