PARIS — The European Defence Agency (EDA) is partnering with 17 leading European defense firms to undertake a study of the continent’s land system industrial base, EDA officials said on June 12.

The Future Land Systems study will be managed by BAE Systems and follows on the heels of 2011’s Future Air Systems effort, a well-received study of the aircraft industrial base.

Given the grim European financial situation and decreasing national defense budgets across the continent, there is a strong desire to cooperate both within industry and among governments, said EDA chief executive Claude-France Arnould at a briefing in Paris.

The study will look at capability gaps and possible conflicts in 5-year, 15-year and 30-year increments, and the group will submit an interim report in July. The effort hopes to identify what capabilities the European land defense industry, which comprises 25 percent of all European defense spending, may need to address in order to effectively meet future threats.