Jul 20, 2011 By Amy Svitak, Robert Wall - aviation week and space technology
Washington, London - A push by French legislators to encourage France to do more in the realm of ballistic missile defense is very much threat-driven. But they are not concerned as much about Iranian missile proliferation as they are about France falling technologically behind its strategic rivals.
In particular, French politicians want to make sure that the U.S. does not dominate Europe’s missile defense spending and that Paris’s nuclear deterrent is not undermined in the long term.
France’s interest in pursuing exoatmospheric-intercept capability is two-pronged, say industry and government officials. Besides gaining experience in national defense, the country’s leaders want to ensure that when upgrades and a follow-on to the M51 submarine-launched ballistic missile are developed, France will know how to defeat missile defenses to uphold its strategic deterrent.
Although a new report by French senators on the need to pursue missile defense does not specify immediate funding, the document is considered an important strategic marker. It is the first time the legislature has forcefully advocated missile defense, and sets the stage for the mission area to be a key element in the new defense white paper to be written following next year’s presidential elections.
The report also underscores the 180-deg. turnaround the nation has taken on the anti-missile topic. Paris initially resisted the U.S.’s pressure on Europe to regard the mission more seriously. Now, it has not just signed on to NATO’s decision to embrace missile defense but is pushing an expansive set of capabilities, ranging from endo- and exoatmospheric intercept capabilities to space-based early warning satellites, long-range radars and command-and-control structures.
Some early steps could emerge this year, with potential funding to launch work on the Aster Block 1NT flowing to give the interceptor an anti-ballistic missile capability.
One of the central themes for the legislators is that Europe should act jointly and pool resources. They urge France and Germany to work together on a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft surveillance system equipped with an infrared sensor to aid in ballistic missile tracking. France would provide the infrared sensor and Germany the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. Germany is considering fielding Global Hawks in addition to the signals intelligence Euro Hawk system (see p. 32).
In the report, several senators see a budget requirement of roughly €7.4 billion ($10.4 billion) through 2020 to realize their missile defense vision. But they recognize the budget environment does not allow such outlays, so they advocate immediate action items totaling €3.2 billion, spent nationally or in cooperation with other European states. That includes €180 million to upgrade the French air force’s SAMP/T air defense system and €200 million to achieve the same for its ship-based cousin, Paams, as well as performing development work for Aster Block 2, a new interceptor optimized for endoatmospheric ballistic missile defense.
Among the near-term spending items advocated by the report are:
•€20 million for France to establish a national missile defense center.
•€700 million for work (potentially cooperatively) for space-based early warning.
•€30 million for a long-range radar.
•€270 million for initial work on an exoatmospheric interceptor.
Astrium Space Transportation has already proposed to the French defense ministry a plan to validate the underlying technology for a €1 billion missile defense system, called Exoguard. “We just want to demonstrate the capabilities of French industry in order to succeed in exoatmospheric or space interception,” says CEO Alain Charmeau, adding that “it is exactly the same kind of technologies as the one we have on the kill vehicle of Exoguard.”
The unsolicited proposal aims at achieving a successful flight test of an in-space interceptor around 2016 at a cost of roughly €225 million. The senators’ report states that 75% of the flight’s demo’s pre-tax cost would pay for development of the demonstration kill vehicle while the rest would go to other elements. Astrium would lead the work on the kill vehicle, which will use an infrared sensor to spot its target. Safran units would work on the divert and attitude control system.
“We have already submitted to the DGA [French defense procurement agency] a commercial proposal with a commitment from my company to deliver in five years this demonstration of space interception, even if in the end the demonstration could be a first phase of a development of an Exoguard operational product in the future.”
But industry officials say they are worried that the funding level suggested by the senators will never emerge in the difficult fiscal environment.
To help ease the financial burden, the legislators are calling for a missile defense conference to be held under the auspices of the European Defense Agency to help spur cooperation, particularly in the area of upgrading air defenses to create a lower-tier missile shield.
For the senators, it is not just the need for burden-sharing that prompts them to argue for cooperation within Europe. They argue that without a sweeping European program, countries will be tempted to buy into the U.S. Phased Adaptive Approach, and this would absorb scarce modernization funding in Europe with little immediate technology payoff. A U.S. missile defense program is a Trojan horse not unlike the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, they assert.
To help interest Germany and Italy in working with France, the senators argue that the Pentagon’s decision to disengage from the trinational Medium Extended Air Defense System program should persuade Berlin and Rome to consider joining in an Aster Block 2 development.
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Les députés Dominique Caillaud et Jean Michel ont déposé le 13 juillet un rapport d'information (un état
des lieux, suivi de recommandations) sur les PME et la défense.
Les quelque 4000 PME qui interviennent régulièrement dans le secteur de la défense sont aujourd'hui "dans
une situation critique : la crise les a laissées sans marges de manoeuvre et avec de faibles perspectives de croissance. La concurrence croissante sur les marchés nationaux et internationaux ne
fait qu'aggraver les difficultés", estiment les rapporteurs qui listent les raisons de cette situation: baisse des commandes militaires, diminution des crédits de R&D, retards de paiement
très importants de la part de l'Etat (ah!!!, le logiciel Chorus), dépendance croissante vis-à-vis des grands groupes, difficultés d'accéder aux marchés internationaux.
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