Military Chronicle - 11-16-2011 le 16/11/2011

The making of an European Defence Industry, from drones to fighters.

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For Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV or drones), on top of US competitors, 2 European projects are competing to meet future European military needs for reconnaissance, intelligence, and surveillance.

Both European champions are bearing Greek names:
- Talarion from EADS Cassidian. The source of the name is the Talaria - the winged sandals of the Greek Messenger God Hermes. Expected to fly in 2017.
- Telemos from Dassault / BAE Systems. Telemos was a figure of Greek mythology, a prophet. He warned the Cyclops Polyphemus that the giant would lose his sight to a man named Ulysses. Expected to fly in 2020.

Until Telemos arrives in operation, France has decided in July 2011 to buy Heron TP UAV also dubbed Heron 2 or “Eitan” to IAI Israel Aerospace Industries, via Dassault. Expected to fly in 2014. Today France already operates a derivative of Heron named Eagle or Harfang.
An intense maneuvering on European defence companies is going on behind the scenes. For autonomy reasons, any European purchase of a US drone (such as General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper) has been discarded by the European governments leaving the choice between European solutions. With a Franco-British defence pact signed in November 2010, UK and France decided notably to collaborate on the next generation UAV to meet the requirements of both countries. Following this agreement, in March 2011 BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate exclusively on the preparation and submission of a joint proposal to the UK and French Ministries of Defence for the design, development, production and support of a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The MoU will enable the two companies to establish a framework under which they may jointly pursue this long term business opportunity. BAE will be the lead contractor for the project and would thus be a strong contender to any UK drone purchase. Then providing most probably a UK + France customer base to the BAE Systems - Dassault Talamos drone.
For Germany, according to an internal document obtained by Reuters in October 2011, Defence Minister Maiziere plans deep cuts to Germany’s military orders as part of sweeping reforms to the Bundeswehr - its armed forces - including a reduction in Eurofighter orders. The note detailed plans to cut by 37 to 140 the order for Eurofigher aircraft, to reduce an order for Puma tanks to 350 from 410 and to slash an order for Tiger combat helicopters to 40 from 80. Mr De Maiziere also wants to reduce the number of NH-90 helicopters to 80 from 120.

The defence cuts are putting at risk EADS Cassidian main plant in the southern German town of Manching, which has 4,000 employees. Under an EADS proposed deal, EADS would relinquish damage claims from cancelled fighter-jet orders and in return the German government should order the Talarion Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and award EADS with modernization and maintenance contracts. Even if German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition partners, the Free Democrats, have traditionally opposed government intervention, employment situation will remain a key driver for German politics. In that respect it is not neutral that German government is now seriously considering to purchase a 7.5% stake in aerospace group EADS from Daimler AG in a bid to preserve a Franco-German balance of power (and employment) at the Airbus parent after no private investor could be found for Daimler stake in EADS.

In a surprising turn, the UAV battle between the Talamos and the Talarion is moving to the fighter arena. To recover a possible order cut in Eurofighters from the German army, the European Eurofighter consortium (EADS, BAE Systems and Finmeccanica) is willing to strengthen the competition with Dassault Rafale for 2 significant fighter deals under way :
- The Indian one for 126 combat aircraft. The two rivals’ bids are very similar, which is surprising knowing that the Rafale aircraft is usually cheaper (between 10% and 15%) than the Eurofighter. This means that the European consortium has made great efforts on the aircraft unit price in order to be competitive.
- The Emirates one for an assumed 63 airplanes. The Eurofighter consortium has confirmed at the opening of the Dubai AirShow on November 13th, 2011 that it was asked by the UAE to make an offer for an unknown Typhoon (Eurofighter) number in order to replace the Mirage 2000-9 of the country. This comes as a surprise as France was supposed to be in final negotiations to sell the Rafale. It's worth noting that it is Britain and BAE which are in charge of exporting the Typhoon in the Middle East.

What does this last minute development mean for the Rafale ? As a matter of fact, the UAE are not in a hurry for any order (their Mirage 2000-9 are almost new) and they will take all the time necessary to squeeze the French offer until the last drop. In front of shrinking defence budgets notably in Europe, European defence companies are fighting for the same remaining contracts thru ad-hoc partnerships. And any result on one contract is impacting the next one. For the sole benefit of the customers.
Dr Karl Ehrhardt

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• Environnement, le 30/03/2011

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