PARIS — It’s a head-scratcher for European governments: getting their defense industries ready to pump out hundreds of thousands of drones or other pieces of armament in case of possible war, without ending up with warehouses full of obsolete kit.

Europe has yet to resolve the conundrum, said Francois Arbault, the European Commission’s director for defense industry, at the Forum Innovation Défense in Paris last week.

“How can we be ready, in that we’re ready to embrace the scale that it takes to be at war, or in a conflict of whatever sort, without actually piling up equipment?” Arbault said. “That’s probably one of the most core questions that we need to be able to answer today. How is it to be defense-ready, when you are not yet at war?”

European leaders have been reluctant to adopt t

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