Widely used in everything from tennis rackets to Formula 1 cars, carbon fibre was originally developed by the UK Ministry of Defence in the early 1960s for military applications. Back then an esoteric and expensive material, it’s become price-competitive with its intense strength and durability for its weight. Similarly, head-up displays were developed to enable fast jet pilots to have key information presented in their view of the outside world, rather than having to frequently look down into the cockpit. This technology has progressively spread into civil aviation and more recently into cars, with the advantage of always keeping one’s eyes on the road.

These are only two of many examples illustrating how defence research can benefit the global economy and power Europe’s re-industrialisation. Reciprocally, the fast development of technologies in the civilian world can be essential to the emergence of cutting-edge defence systems.

The difficult times our economies are facing today mean that Europe is losing ground to its faster-growing Asian and American counterparts. This concern of the defence community is shared by Heads of State and Government: in this context, it is of paramount importance to invest in all the technologies and production capabilities that are essential to maintain Europe’s competitiveness.

However, Europe still suffers from legal and psychological barriers between civilian and military research – barriers that our competitors do not have. These limitations seriously hamper our capability to “cross-fertilise” developments from both worlds. The issue has been acknowledged at the highest level: in December 2013, the European Council itself tasked the European Defence Agency and other bodies to better exploit civil-military synergies. This issue should be tackled in three ways:

1/ Desegmentation of civil and military research

If we want the civilian and defence worlds to effectively cross-feed each other, then it is necessary to proceed with the desegmentation of civil and military research. By allowing funding to flow from one side to the other, major spin-offs between defence and civil research could be achieved. It is worth remembering that few technologies are military or civil by nature, especially at low technological readiness. Only when applied and used in a given system does a specific technology become military or commercial.

Today, this cross-fertilisation is limited by several factors, such as the legitimate confidentiality surrounding sensitive defence applications, but also the competitive advantage that might result from a cutting-edge civil technology. However, security regulations and intellectual property rights are here to address this issue. The main barrier is the lack of a comprehensive policy approach for all parties involved.

2/ Optimisation and prioritisation of technology-based production capabilities

The application of innovative technologies often requires considerable investments to move from the lab to serial production. And very often, such investments are only viable if this production is designed to address all potential markets: civil, defence and space. The European Defence Agency, in close cooperation with the Commission and industry, is investigating which key enabling technologies need a priority and focused investment effort to sustain the European supply chain. These are technologies such as components (silicum, gallium arsenide, infrared detectors), carbon fibre or optical devices. Europeans need to invest in these domains to levelthe playing field then to define priorities on related key industrial capabilities.

Meanwhile, it is essential to optimise available resources. The civil, space and defence domains need to be addressed together by a comprehensive business plan to yield cost savings while boosting innovation capabilities. This is the only way forward if we want to see Europe re-industrialise.

3/ Increase funding for defence research

Defence research budgets have been cut by 20% over the last six years. The risk is real to lose the ability to reach critical mass in a number of technology areas. This would not only jeopardise Europe’s strategic autonomy, but would also impede the long-term competitiveness of its high-tech commercial industry. It has been said that defence and space are to aviation what Formula One is to the automotive industry: a formidable cradle of innovation and technological breakthroughs.

The situation is all the more worrying since, according to a study commissioned by the European Defence Agency, the multiplier effect on GDP growth for an investment in defence research & technology is 12 to 20 times higher than in other areas of public spending. Therefore, investment in defence R&T must be a logical component of any comprehensive growth policy.

The Agency is also supporting Member States by contributing to the Commission’s work on an R&T Preparatory Action related to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), as called for by the December 2013 European Council. If successful, this Preparatory Action could give birth to a wider defence research programme at European level, the impact of which will be all more the important since cross-fertilisation with other European research and innovation initiatives will be maximised. The benefits can be enormous, both for the civilian and defence sectors.

Source

• Friends of Europe, Jan 9, 2015

Enfin, un pas vers la mutualisation de équipements militaires. Ainsi, les Pays-Bas, la Pologne et la Norvège vont négocier avec Airbus en vue d'acquérir dans le cadre d'une commande groupée et via l'Agence d'armement européenne (OCCAR) quatre avions ravitailleurs A330 MRTT, ont déclaré vendredi des responsables européens. "Les Pays-Bas, la Pologne et la Norvège ont décidé de préparer des négociations avec Airbus Defence & Space en vue de l'acquisition d'une flotte d'avions A330 multirôles de transport et de ravitaillement en vol", a annoncé dans un communiqué l'Agence européenne de défense (AED). L'objectif est de parvenir à un contrat signé fin 2015.

Le ministère néerlandais de la Défense a précisé que le consortium envisageait d'acheter quatre appareils, qui seraient exploités en commun par les trois pays, ajoutant que d'autres nations pourraient rejoindre le projet par la suite. Peut-être la Belgique, voire l'Espagne, selon nos informations. Pour l'heure, les Belges souhaiteraient simplement acheter des heures de vol. Ce qui est possible, selon l'AED. En attendant de nouveaux entrants, une première capacité opérationnelle est attendue en 2019, a précisé l'AED.

Vers une flotte d'avions ravitailleurs européens mutualisés

Dix pays européens - Belgique, Espagne, France, Grèce, Hongrie, Luxembourg, Pays-Bas, Pologne, Portugal et Norvège - avaient signé en novembre 2012 un accord pour que l'Europe se dote d'ici à 2020 d'une capacité commune d'avions multirôle de ravitaillement en vol et de transport. "Ces dix pays signataires et d'autres futurs contributeurs feront l'acquisition ou utiliseront en commun une flotte d'aéronefs destinée à répondre au besoin de ravitaillement en vol des Européens en opérations, dans le même esprit que le Commandement du transport aérien européen (EATC)", avait alors souligné un communiqué du ministère de la Défense.

Inauguré en septembre 2010, l'EATC, dont le commandement est basé à Eindhoven (Pays-Bas), permet aux armées allemande, belge, française et néerlandaise de partager leurs moyens de transport aériens. Ce qui a été le cas avec succès pour l'opération Harmattan en Libye. "L'EATC a montré sa pertinence lors d'Harmattan", avait confirmé en octobre 2012 devant les députés le chef d'état- major de l'armée de l'air, le général Denis Mercier. Pour autant, en matière de ravitaillement, "l'Europe ne dispose pas de capacités pouvant assurer son autonomie comme l'avait montré l'opération Harmattan menée en Libye en 2011 où 75 % du ravitaillement en vol avait été opéré par d'autres que les Européens", a précisé le communiqué.

Près de 10 milliards d'économies grâce à la mutualisation

La directrice exécutive de l'Agence européenne de défense (AED), Claude-France Arnould, avait quant à elle estimé en janvier 2013 devant la commission des affaires étrangères et de la défense du Sénat, que "si nous nous mettions ensemble au niveau européen, nous pourrions faire 1,8 milliard d'euros d'économies dans le spatial, 5,5 milliards dans les programmes de véhicules blindés, et 2,3 milliards sur dix ans pour les frégates". Soit 9,6 milliards d'euros d'économies.

Le 13 décembre 2012, 26 pays membres de l'AED avaient indiqué qu'ils allaient systématiquement passer en revue leurs programmes en vue de favoriser dans le cadre d'un code de bonne conduite le "pooling and sharing" (union et partage) des capacité de défense dans leurs prochains achats. "Le code de conduite peut être un vrai tournant", avait assuré Claude-France Arnould. Sans aucun succès notoire jusqu'à la volonté exprimée récemment par les Pays-Bas, la Pologne et la Norvège d'acquérir quatre A330 MRTT.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) will hold a special joint academic session tomorrow at EDA premises to mark the Agency’s 10-year anniversary.

The event itself will be divided into two main sessions. The first one will focus on the geopolitical and economic context of European defence cooperation and will gather policy experts from NATO, the European External Action Service as well as academics. A second panel will be decdicated to European capabilities and will bring together EDA Chief Executive Claude-France Arnould with OCCAR Director Tim Rowntree.

A unique book

At the end of this event, Claude-France Arnould will officially roll-out the special book published by the Agency to commemorate its 10^th birthday. It offers an exclusive insight into EDA’s history, puts forward the Agency’s achievements and gathers a wide selection of independent views from key government, industry and academic experts. An online version of this publication is available here.

To follow the conference in real-time, tune in on Twitter tomorrow at 5.30PM (Brussels time) using the hashtag #10yearsEDA.

• Conference Agenda
• 10 Years of Working Together: the Book

On 20 May, Claude-France Arnould Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA) met with General Sir Adrian Bradshaw the Operation Commander of EUFOR Althea and Deputy SACEUR. They signed a Procurement Arrangement concerning the acquisition of Air to Ground Surveillance services to operation ALTHEA. This is the first time EDA has signed a procurement arrangement directly with an EU mission.

Under this arrangement, EDA will assume the lead role in administering the procurement procedure of Air to Ground Surveillance services (including day/night actual Infra-red / electro-optical surveillance with near-real time downlink and the ability to re-task in flight) on behalf of the ALTHEA Operation Commander. As the procurement regards common costs, the Operation Commander has been authorised by the Athena administrator to sign the arrangement on behalf of Athena. The cooperation between EDA and Operation ALTHEA will conclude with a recommendation to the Operation Commander to award the contract to one company selected in competition.

Talking about the arrangement, Claude-France Arnould said, “The ultimate goal of any EDA project is to ensure that troops in the field have the capabilities they need, as was demonstrated clearly by our Counter-IED laboratory in Afghanistan. I am delighted that today’s arrangement allows us to do this by providing a procurement service directly to an EU mission for the first time. This cooperation will help highlight the expertise and added value EDA can bring in the field of procurement.”

Supporting CSDP Missions and Operations

As part of the restructuring conducted in January 2014, the Agency aims to play a greater role in supporting CSDP operations and missions. Speaking about the cooperation General Bradshaw added, “The decision to use the expertise from EDA in this procurement for Air to Ground Surveillance services for Op ALTHEA is, of course, based on EDA’s technical knowledge in this field. Another advantage will be to benefit from the lessons learned in conducting such an arrangement between the operation and the EDA directly, in order to establish the necessary procedures which will potentially enable closer cooperation between our organisations in the future.”

This meeting was also an opportunity for Claude-France Arnould to introduce General Bradshaw, who took his functions in March 2014, to the mission and tasks of EDA.

EUFOR ALTHEA

The EU military operation ALTHEA in Bosnia and Herzegovina was launched on 2 December 2004 and has contributed to the maintenance of the safe and secure environment in BiH ever since. Operation ALTHEA is carried out with recourse to NATO assets and capabilities, under the "Berlin Plus" arrangements. After a review in 2012 the main objective is to provide capacity building and training for their armed forces whilst retaining the capability to support the BiH efforts to maintain a safe and secure environment. 

The Athena Mechanism

ATHENA is the mechanism established to administer the financing of the common costs of European Union operations having military or defence implications governed by Council Decision 2011/871/CFSP. The Council Decision allows for arrangements to be signed with Union bodies to facilitate procurement in operations in the most cost-effective manner.