Brussels - 28 July, 2014 European Defence Agency
 

Defence plays a pivotal role in promoting internal and external security, maintaining peace, stability and prosperity, and protecting personal freedom and our way of life.  However, defence spending also has several macroeconomic benefits.  A recent study commissioned by the European Defence Agency (EDA) outlines the advantages of investing in the European defence industry in terms of economic benefits, employment and sustainment of research and development capabilities.
 

What is the real effect of today’s pressure on national defence budgets?  A recent Agency study sought to answer this precise question. Some of its conclusions are revealing: for example, for each €100m cut in EU defence expenditure, there is a €150m fall in EU gross domestic product (GDP), and a €40m fall in EU tax revenues. However, the consequences of such cuts extend far beyond the pure economical realm. The study, which was conducted by British consultancy firm Europe Economics, also highlighted that a similar €100m cut in defence spending would translate into the loss of about 3.000 jobs, 800 of which would be high-skilled. 

Greater impact.

In some key dimensions, the overall macroeconomic benefit of investing in the defence sector may exceed that of investing in other domains. For instance, the study confirmed that defence investments have a far great impact on highly-skilled employment and research and development, hence potentially leading to a long-term GDP growth rate. The results of the study estimated that the impact is 12 to 20 times greater than that generated by other forms of public spending.

Of equal importance is the fact that defence R&D creates a “spillover” of technologies to the civil sector.  This often significant “spillover”, means that investing in defence R&D is essential to the emergence of breakthrough technologies which has a knock on benefit in other areas eg civil aircraft market.

More generally, the study demonstrated that the macroeconomic impact of investment in the defence sector is greater at EU level than at the national level, because of the inherent “Europeanised” nature of the defence industry. 

Case studies.

The study also reviewed a number of case studies to try and quantify the micro-economic impact of several acquisition programs in the EU, like fighter aircraft. It confirms, for instance, that programmes such as Eurofighter or Rafale helped EU companies to acquire the competitiveness they enjoy today on the commercial aircraft market.  Another example is the Leopard 2 main battle tank programme which was launched in the last years of the Cold War.  It enabled the German Army to equip its cavalry regiments with a highly capable system, at a cost that was 45 per cent lower than the next best alternative. 

This was the first study which looked at the EU as a whole; previous efforts were focused only at national level.  It demonstrates tangible rationale to support investment in the European defence industry, confirming that there are considerable opportunities to increase the efficiency of European collaborative programmes and at the same time European economic prosperity.

L'équipement du fantassin Gladius équipe les soldats de l'armée de terre allemande. Crédit: Rheinmetall AG Düsseldorf

07/08/2014 Par Véronique Guillermard

Le gouvernement allemand interdit au fabricant de matériels militaires terrestres Rheinmetall d'exporter en Russie. Berlin a bloqué un contrat d'une valeur estimée à 100 millions d'euros.

Les nuages s'accumulent au dessus de Rheinmetall. Le groupe présent dans l'automobile et l'armement terrestre a revu, aujourd'hui, à la baisse ses perspectives pour 2014, en contrecoup de la décision du gouvernement allemand de bloquer son activité en Russie. Le chiffre d'affaires de l'activité défense ne devrait pas dépasser 2,3 milliards d'euros au lieu des 2,5 à 2,6 milliards attendus cette année.

En début de semaine, l'Allemagne a durci son train de sanctions contre la Russie dans le cadre de la crise ukrainienne. Sigmar Gabriel, le ministre de l'Économie allemand, a retiré à Rheinmetall sa licence d'exportation d'un centre d'entraînement et de formation militaire. Un contrat estimé à 100 millions d'euros. Un coup dur pour le fabricant de blindés, canons et autres équipements pour fantassins. D'autant que si les Européens ont décidé de ne plus exporter d'armements en Russie, cette sanction ne devait s'appliquer qu'aux nouveaux contrats. Rheinmetall a aussitôt réagi. Sa direction va explorer «toutes les possibilités juridiques» et n'exclut pas de demander au gouvernement allemand des indemnités.

Pression sur la France et les Mistral russes

En prenant une mesure rétroactive, Berlin accentue, en outre, sa pression sur la France, sommée par plusieurs pays européens, Grande-Bretagne en tête, ainsi que par les États-Unis de ne pas livrer, cet automne, le premier des deux Mistral russes commandés par Moscou en 2011, pour 1,2 milliard d'euros.

Rheinmetall voit sa stratégie d'expansion en Russie contrariée. Or, c'est un des pays que le groupe allemand ciblait pour booster ses exportations hors d'Europe, où il ambitionne de prendre 50 % de ses commandes nouvelles d'ici à 2015. «Alors que les dépenses militaires baissent en Europe et aux États-Unis, d'autres pays tels que la Russie, le Brésil et l'Asie les augmentent. Notre objectif est d'augmenter notre présence dans ces régions en croissance», expliquait la direction du groupe dans son rapport annuel 2013.

Tentative pour faire capoter l'alliance Nexter-KMW

Bloqué en Russie, Rheinmetall est aussi en mauvaise posture depuis l'annonce, le 2 juillet dernier, des fiançailles entre son homologue, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), et le français Nexter. Les deux groupes sont entrés en négociations exclusives afin de former le numéro un européen de l'armement terrestre d'ici à fin 2014-début 2015. Depuis plusieurs semaines, Rheinmetall se démène pour faire capoter ce futur Airbus des blindés. Il préparerait une offre sur KMW avec lequel il coopère pour la fabrication de plusieurs blindés dont les chars Puma. Jusqu'ici les négociations menées par le passé par les deux entreprises allemandes ont toujours tourné court. Et côté gouvernement français, on reste très confiant dans la capacité des deux entreprises et de leurs actionnaires - l'État français et la famille Bode-Wegmann - d'aboutir.

06 August 2014 by defenceWeb

While nearly 50 African heads of state convene in Washington DC, one of Africa’s biggest defence contractors is making a pitch to let Africa have more advanced defence and security equipment and training.

This week, at the kickoff of the first US-Africa Leaders Summit, President Obama is hearing from young people, women, civil society leaders, change agents, stakeholders, heads of state - and South Africa’s Paramount Group.

For Ivor Ichikowitz, Executive Chairman of aerospace and defence company Paramount Group, the message is simple: Give Africa a chance to defend itself. He says he is attending the summit in Washington to make the case to the Obama administration that African countries should be encouraged to build up their own intelligence services, militaries, and national police to combat the continent’s rogues, insurgents, and fanatics.

The West, according to the South African defence entrepreneur, discourages governments from creating their own security infrastructures. And that’s a problem, in the age of Boko Haram and al Shabaab, he said. “The message from the U.S. and other countries is: ‘We will give you aid if you don’t use budgets to create armies and intelligence services.’”

To illustrate this point, Ichikowitz talks about a recent conversation he had with an African head of state that is currently involved in resisting insurgencies. “I have met with the president and he told me that he has no capacity to be able to afford the solutions they require because of limitations imposed by the international community on how they use their budget,” Ichikowitz said.

According to Ichikowitz, the International Monetary Fund told the head of state that it could not use money provided by the fund for its budget for advanced military equipment. “As a result, the government involved is forced to be reliant on the charity of Western powers, they are forced to be reliant on third parties to resolve a domestic problem,” he said.

Ichikowitz acknowledged in the interview that the African continent is awash in weapons, particularly small arms. “The Cold War resulted in the introduction of millions of small arms into the continent over the years,” he said. “A lot of this equipment has fallen into the hands of thugs, of fundamentalist organizations. As a result there is a formidable threat to almost every single African democracy. Unfortunately, the West has not necessarily given African governments the capability to create sophisticated, world-class capabilities to counter these threats.”

It’s also worth noting that the United States military has long-standing partnerships with many African militaries. But those partnerships often do not allow these states to acquire advanced technologies.

This is where Paramount believes it can step in, if given the chance. It makes a full range of armoured vehicles and also produces surveillance drones with the kind of sensors that can sniff out wireless communications from a discreet geographic area. Paramount also upgrades the electronics and avionics systems for Soviet-era helicopters, many of which are still used by African militaries.

Ichikowitz stressed that his company will not do business with any country that is under a United Nations embargo, is at war with its neighbours or opposes other sovereign democratic governments. Furthermore South Africa, through the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) has some of the most stringent arms export regulations in the world to govern every single piece of defence equipment that is exported from the country.

Ichikowitz said he believes it’s time to arm countries like Mali, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda with the kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles, surveillance systems and weaponry that will give them an edge against the insurgencies and rogues that threaten their survival.

“Today in Africa this is about outlaws versus governments,” he said. “It’s time to trust the governments and give them the capability to defend their democracies.”

“In order to avoid the perpetuation of violence and conflict in Africa, African governments need to be allowed to create deterrence and the way to create deterrence is by encouraging and facilitating the creation of a strong domestic defence capability.”

MOSCOU, 6 août - RIA Novosti

Les entreprises russes de l'industrie spatiale et de la défense veulent acheter des composants électroniques en Chine, les contrats pouvant atteindre plusieurs milliards de dollars, annonce mercredi le journal Izvestia se référant à une source proche de l'Agence fédérale spatiale russe (Roskosmos).

"Lors des 24-30 mois prochains, tant que notre industrie n'aura pas appris à fabriquer les composants électroniques pour l'industrie spatiale et la Défense, nous en achèterons en Chine pour plusieurs milliards de dollars", a indiqué l'interlocuteur du journal.

"Nous sommes en coopération avec la China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC). Les instituts de recherche qui en font partie nous ont déjà proposé plusieurs dizaines de composants qui sont soit une alternative directe, soit une version légèrement modifiée des composants que nous ne pourrons plus acheter suite aux sanctions imposées par les Etats-Unis", a indiqué l'interlocuteur du journal.

Le journal précise qu'actuellement, l'industrie spatiale et le complexe militaro-industriel russes n'utilisent pas de composants électroniques chinois.

06/08/2014 Par Véronique Guillermard

Ce classement est toujours dominé par les Américains, avec en leader l'indéboulonnable Lockheed Martin.

C'est la surprise de l'édition 2013 du classement des 100 plus importantes entreprises d'armement dans le monde, publié par le magazine américain Defence News. Pour la première fois depuis 2007, le français Thales, y fait son grand retour. Avec un chiffre d'affaires de 10,96 milliards de dollars réalisés en 2013 dans la défense, le groupe dirigé par Jean-Bernard Lévy se classe au neuvième rang, juste devant l'italien Finmeccanica (10,89 milliards de dollars, en recul de 13 %). «Thales qui a vu ses ventes progresser de 13 % dans la défense en 2013, dépasse l'américain L-3 qui sort du top 10 pour la première fois depuis 2006», commentent les auteurs de l'étude. Malgré la baisse des budgets militaires en Europe ainsi que la réorientation - certes progressive - de Thales vers le civil, le groupe reste un poids lourd de l'armement.

Suite de l’article

05.08.2014 Par Antakolskaia N. - La Voix de la Russie

La Chine prépare une riposte sérieuse aux plans des Etats-Unis de créer un système stratégique de défense antimissile pour l’Asie. C’est ainsi que le chef du Centre russe des études politiques et sociales Vladimir Evséev a commenté l’élaboration par la Chine du missile balistique intercontinental de troisième génération DF-41.

L’expert pronostique de même l’étude par la Chine des technologies des missiles balistiques embarqués par les sous-marins comme réaction à une activité sans précédent de la République de Corée dans ce domaine.

« La Chine est en train de créer des missiles à têtes multiples, mais aussi des moyens capables de franchir le système de défense antimissile, analogues aux russes. Cela aura un effet sérieux. Si la Chine parvient à réaliser ce dont dispose la Russie, en ce cas il sera extrêmement difficile d’intercepter sa fusée-porteuse sur sa trajectoire hors de l’atmosphère comme dans celle-ci jusqu’à l’altitude de 60 km. Après il reste très peu de temps de vol. De ce point de vue, la Chine est en mesure d’augmenter l’efficacité de franchissement du système de défense antimissile des Etats-Unis. Cela constitue une riposte aux plans nord-américains de mettre en place un système stratégique de défense antimissile, dont les composantes sont déployées dans l’Alaska et en Californie, et qui engage aussi le Japon et la Corée du Sud. »

Aujourd’hui l’Asie est entraînée dans une nouvelle spire de la course aux missiles. Or l’initiative n’y appartient pas à la Chine, mais à la Corée du Sud, estime Vladimir Evséev. L’expert a rappelé que la république de Corée se dote de son propre système de défense antimissile, est capable de fabriquer des missiles d’une portée de 800 km pouvant porter des ogives nucléaires. De plus, la Corée du Sud n’est nullement limitée en matière de création des missiles de croisière à bord des avions et des drones lourds :

« A présent la percée la plus significative dans la sphère des technologies des missiles est réalisée précisément par la République de Corée. La Chine va y réagir de quelque façon. Si l’on parle de la rivalité entre les Etats-Unis et la Chine, elle a un caractère quand même plus équilibré et n’est pas marquée par de percées aussi manifestes. Pour la Chine maîtriser les technologies de missiles embarqués par les sous-marins revêt une importance de principe. La Chine a des problèmes pour les missiles, mais aussi pour le fonctionnement des sous-marins nucléaires, notamment, concernant la navigation. Un progrès dans ce domaine augmentera les possibilités de la Chine et lui permettra de riposter réellement. »

Chaque nouvelle démarche dans le domaine des missiles concernant les Etats-Unis et la Chine suscite une réaction de part et d’autre. De surcroît, toujours plus de pays d’Asie se trouvent entraînés dans cette course aux missiles. A part les deux Etats coréens, il y a l’Inde et le Pakistan qui ne cessent de perfectionner les caractéristiques de leurs missiles balistiques. L’Asie est devenue le leader mondial incontestable dans ce domaine, ce qui accroît les risques d’emploi des missiles.

28 Jul 2014 By: Beth Stevenson - FG

Flight Tech has received its first export contract for the Horus FT-100 unmanned air vehicle from an undisclosed African military customer.

The Brazil-based manufacturer will deliver the three aircraft on order in the second half of 2014. The contract also includes options for further deliveries the following year, as well as covering logistical support.

The company’s UAVs were designed in conjunction with the Brazilian armed forces, and this deal marks the first military model to be exported by Brazil.

Read full article

04 August 2014 by Oscar Nkala - defenceWeb

The head of the Belarusian defence group Minotor-Service, contracted to upgrade 500 ageing BTR-50 tracked Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) belonging to the Egyptian Army, says the company is left with only 20 vehicles to modify before it completes refurbishment work.

Minotor-Service director-general Valery Hrabenshchykow was quoted by local media on July 12 revealing that the company was on the verge of fulfilling the terms of the $100 million upgrade contract for nearly half of the Egyptian Army's estimated 1000 Soviet-era BTR-50 APCs.

The upgrade work is believed to focused on converting the BTR-50 to the new BTR-50PKM model which comes with improved fire-power, increased combat capabilities, reduced fuel consumption, an increase in the power-to-weight ratio and new day and night sensors.

The BTR-50 PKM model has a top-speed of 100 km/h on a paved road, 70 km/h on unpaved roads and a power-to-weight ratio of 20.7 horsepower per tonne.

Hrabenshchykow also announced that his company is bidding to conduct major upgrade work on an unspecified number of the Egyptian Army's Czechoslovakian OT-62 APCs. Reports indicate that Egypt wants to upgrade at least 200 OT-62 at a cost of $50 million. In July 2012 it was reported that the Malyshev Plant in the Ukraine was to begin modernising an estimated 200 OT-62 APCs but it is not clear what the status of this contract is.

The OT-62 Topas (tracked armoured personnel carrier) was developed jointly by Poland and Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 1960s. The amphibious vehicle has a speed of 60 km/h on land and 10 km/h in water and can carry 15-18 troops.

Egyptian OT-62 were used in the Six Day War with Israel (1967), during the War of Attrition (1968-1970) and the Yom Kippur War (1973), when they were highly effective in crossing the Suez Canal. Some were captured by the Israel Defence Forces and commissioned into service.

Both models of APCs were ordered from the former Soviet Union bloc in the 1960s and were used extensively in combat operations by the Egyptian Army during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The Egyptian Army is re-equipping itself to deal with new anti-government Islamic militant groups which are based in the restive Sinai Peninsula and have of late spread their operations to various cities including the capital Cairo.

The new government of former coup leader General Abdel Fatah El-Sisi blames the Muslim Brotherhood party of deposed president Muhammad Morsi of sponsoring the unrest which has killed scores of army and police officers in bombings, rocket attacks and ambushes.

01/08/2014 Cdt S. Renoulleau - Armée de l'air

Mardi 15 juillet 2014, l’escadron de soutien technique aéronautique (ESTA) «Loiret» de la base aérienne 123 d’Orléans a effectué la dernière visite de maintenance programmée d’un C160 dans ses hangars.

Au lendemain de la fête nationale, une page de l’histoire de l’escadron de soutien technique aéronautique (ESTA) « Loiret » s’est tournée sur la base aérienne d’Orléans avec la fin de la dernière visite de maintenance programmée d’un C160 dans ses hangars.

Depuis 47 ans, les mécaniciens ont œuvré successivement au sein du groupe d’entretien et de réparation des matériels spécialisés (GERMaS), de l’escadron de soutien technique spécialisé (ESTS) puis de l’ESTA afin d'entretenir la flotte Transall qui a déjà réalisé plus de 1 300 000 heures de vol depuis 1967.

Tourné vers la maintenance de l’A400M Atlas à partir de septembre 2014, l’ESTA «Loiret» accompagnera dorénavant le C160 dans ses chantiers de retrait de service.

Recently there was a guest article published on CIMSEC – which is worth a read – written by R. Adm. Thomas S. Rowden, United States (US) Navy, who discussed the future of surface warfare from a US perspective. Not only is it thought provoking, it serves to highlight the fact that while the US Navy may not be as strong at surface warfare as it once was, at least it is having the conversation about how to change that – which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) European nations do not seem to be doing.

This presents a problem because most of the anti-surface capability that Western nations are now fielding is theoretical; the capability they field is not only untested in real combat, but for most nations it is singular capability fielded from often a single platform type. There are of course exceptions to this, but even they are sometimes exceptions only on paper. Britain, for example, has the Harpoon Surface-to-Surface Missiles (SSM) on some of its surface ships (entered service 1977), Spearfish torpedoes on its submarines (entered service 1988) and, whilst at the moment having no fixed wing aircraft (the HMS Queen Elizabeth may be launching this year, but it will take time for her to work up, and currently there are no fixed wing fighters to fly from it) from which to fire Anti-Surface Missiles (ASuM), it does have Lynx helicopters armed with the Sea Skua (entered service 1975); the replacement for which is a joint British-French programme started in 2014. The others have been upgraded over time, but they are fundamentally still the same systems conceived in a very different time to take on a threat that has evolved, whilst it was assumed to be stationary.

With the fall of Soviet Russia the world was supposed to be safer. There were going to be no more threats at sea; navies could concentrate on maritime security and supporting land operations. Unfortunately for the NATO allies the rest of the world, including Russian (formerly the Soviet Union), did not agree with that idea. This has meant that while great strides have been made by Western nations in missile technology (and unmanned aviation, an area which seems to both fuel, and draw from, the developments of missiles) this has largely not been applied by them to ASuMs and SSMs. In comparison Russia, India, China and nations close to them have started to field a whole new generation of these weapons. For example, India and Russia combined to produce, what is believed to be, the world’s fastest cruise missile (Mach 3) – the BrahMos SSM. It only entered service in 2006, and yet Russia and India are already working on its successor – the hypersonic (Mach 7) BrahMos-II.

As well as this, the Chinese have a smörgåsbord collection of weapons, and are developing a habit of surprising the world with new systems on a regular basis – possibly to try to prove themselves a major power in a technological way, but also just as likely so as to emphasise their capabilities in this area as a combined coercion/deterrence strategy. Unfortunately, the theoretically equivalent Western programmes are either at the earliest stages of development or distant pipe dreams at the moment; a situation made worse by the rate the surface threat is evolving.

As stated above, it is no longer the Cold War – when it was just the Soviet Union that was the threat (although Russia is re-arming and its navy is benefiting from this) – so nations can no longer afford to just look at other nations as the threat. Although nations certainly cannot be discounted as threats because flash points are still there, and leaderships can change so quickly. Whilst warships are becoming stronger and stealthier – something which goes for weapon systems as well – there are increasing numbers of systems that enable cruise missiles to be launched from containers on merchant ships. This means that a quicker and more flexible response will most likely be needed to deal with future threats; unfortunately the available responses are still very much rooted in past requirements.

source : Lettre Entreprises & Défense

Le directeur général de l’Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information invité de la Lettre Entreprises & Défense

Guillaume Poupard, le directeur général de l’Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI) est l'invité du nouveau numéro d'Entreprises & Défense, la Lettre trimestrielle de l'Association des entreprises partenaires de la Défense.

Au sommaire également de ce numéro :

• la soirée-débat « La Défense, outil de puissance de la France »

• une présentation de la Cellule d’aide aux blessés de l’armée de Terre (CABAT)

• la nouvelle plaquette du Centre de transfusion sanguine des armées (CTSA)

• l’édition 2014 du « Prix de la reconversion des militaires ».

Pour télécharger ce numéro d'Entreprises & Défense : LIEN

Thales announced today at Farnborough International Airshow 2014 that its I-Master radar is now available with a Maritime Moving Target Indication (MMTI) mode. The new maritime capability, enabled through a software package, can be used simultaneously with the existing Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) modes.

• Maritime Moving Target Indication (MMTI) mode tracks small, fast-moving craft to larger, slower vessels, in all weather conditions, day and night.
• MMTI mode adds to the already best-in-class Ground Movement Target Indication (GMTI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) modes.
• I-Master is an easy to use, 360º radar, in a 15-inch gimbal unit weighing less than 30kg.

The choice of modes in a single sensor, together with its small form factor and high-performance capability, makes I-Master ideally suited for a wide range of manned and unmanned platforms.

MMTI allows users to detect and track targets on water: from small, fast-moving craft such as jet-skis; to larger, slower vessels such as ships and tankers, in all weather conditions, day and night. Algorithms designed specifically by Thales allow users to perform a range of tasks that include detecting unusual vessel movements, perform “pattern of life” analysis, and conduct persistent tracking of targeted vessels.

With MMTI mode, I-Master can now see the widest range of man-made movement, from an individual walking on the land to a ship sailing on the sea, and everything in between, using a single sensor.

The new maritime mode is designed for customers seeking to monitor maritime borders and exclusive economic zones, protect strategic maritime assets, and track the movement of vessels not using the Marine Automatic Identification System.

I-Master is a world-leading 360º radar sensor, easily installed in an existing 15 inch EO turret mounting point weighing less than 30kg. It is ideally suited for a range of manned and unmanned aircraft, both fixed and rotary winged. It is a high performance sensor designed within the demanding size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints imposed by smaller air platforms.

“We have taken our best-in-class I-Master radar and made it even better by adding a maritime mode through the addition of a software package. This allows our customers to monitor wide areas of land and sea simultaneously through a single sensor, making I-Master an ideal solution for airborne surveillance requirements.”
Eddie Awang, Thales VP in charge of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance business