The European Union is known for fragmentation. The combine—which seems to have trouble combining—mustered only a feeble “show of unity” on its 50th anniversary in March, as delegates bickered over the wording of the Berlin Declaration, intended to be a symbol of solidarity. Its defense industry has had similar woes.

If the men in charge of the pens cannot agree, it follows that the men in charge of the swords would remain divided. Europe’s defense bosses have been slow to consolidate and streamline their operations with counterparts who were enemies in decades past. As a result of this combination of latent suspicion, diplomatic disagreement and pure inefficiency, Europe’s defense industry has struggled compared to the U.S.’s.

In a 2006 report on the EU’s defense industry, the Security and Defense Subcommittee of the European Parliament found that while Europe spends half as much as the United States on its military, EU defense capacities were only 10 percent as efficient. EU member states operate 89 weapons programs, while Washington operates only 27, the study said. Europe’s defense enterprises are, at best, fractious and redundant.

That is changing.

In response to these problems, EU defense officials met in Brussels May 14 to find a way forward. The results: a common strategy for future military spending and consensus that the industry as a whole must perform better against the United States in particular.

Defense chiefs agreed to embark upon joint investments to tackle the problem of redundant weapons systems and looked at ways to reduce the negative effects of protectionist policies.

Plainly put, Europe does not want a lot of little armies. It wants one big one.

In what may prove to be an indicator of where that unified and streamlined Euroforce might exercise its efficient weapons systems, the group singled out U.S. defense as a “key competitor” against which it needed to win a larger share of market penetration. Although more of an economic than a military threat, the statement belies an increasingly dangerous menace to America’s most important industry.

Although Europe’s defense industries have much to do before they form one unified and streamlined force, they are beginning to cover that ground rapidly. Look for Europe to produce the world’s most impressive weapons industry—to the immediate economic and eventual wartime detriment of the United States.