BERLIN, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Adapting civilian platforms

for military use can speed up defence production while

increasing standardization, the CEO of Norway's Kongsberg

Gruppen ( NSKFF ) said, as pressure to boost military spending in Europe

grows under President Donald Trump.

"The processes need to be simplified so that we get the

speed up," arms manufacturer Kongsberg's Geir Haoy told

Reuters in an interview published on Friday.

"What we see is that, even from the defence side now, the

question is: How can we utilize commercial products and systems

and put them into military systems and militarize them?"

Last week, the Trump administration shocked European allies

by telling them they must take care of their own security and

rely less on the U.S., while announcing talks with Russia to end

the war in Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pushed Europeans to

hike military spending to 5% of GDP, warning "stark strategic

realities" would prevent the U.S. from being primarily focused

on the security of Europe.

European defence stocks rose after these remarks.

As many countries are working on modernizing and increasing

their navies, Haoy said one solution would be to standardize

vessels by basing them on civilian platforms and militarizing

them, thus mitigating the problem of differing standards and

platforms.

"You make them as civilian as possible and as military as

necessary. That means that you can actually speed up production,

get the cost down - and you get a very sophisticated vessel," he

said.

Haoy referred to Ukraine where multiple supply chains for

different weapons systems were difficult to support and cost

additional time and money.

"If we could standardize more, use civilian platforms,

militarize them and put the capabilities and capacities on

board, that is what we think is one solution to speed up the

capacities."

Besides building their own capacities, big defence companies

should also focus on securing their supply chains which normally

consist of smaller, medium-sized companies that "cannot easily

take that kind of investment upfront", he said.

"That is what we are trying to understand here in Europe

now: How can we sustain this supply chain even with bigger

capacity, and how can we source this?"