Europe must spend more wisely by consolidating weapons systems, Merkel says

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds the annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe must work over coming years and decades to harmonise the many different weapons systems its armed forces deploy, both to use military budgets more efficiently and strengthen the continent's military contractors, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

"We have 178 weapons systems in Europe and the Americans have less than 50," she said. "So you can see from that how inefficiently our money is being spent. So we have agreed to unify systems over coming years and decades and have decided to develop a common European fighter."