9 décembre, 2015 Christina Mackenzie (FOB)

Jetant notre filet un peu plus loin que d’habitude pour aller à la pêche aux informations et vous en rapporter d’au-delà des frontières de l’Europe, nous avons découvert que Paramount Group, la plus grande entreprise privée de défense et d’aérospatiale d’Afrique, a récemment démarré la production de l’Arlan, une variante de son véhicule de combat blindé Marauder, dans une usine dernier cri ouverte il y a quelques jours au Kazakhstan.

D’après le groupe sud-africain, basé à Johannesburg et fondé en 1994, cette nouvelle fabrique est le fruit d’une joint venture valorisée à 62.5 millions d’euros, Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE), formée l’an passé avec Kazakhstan Engineering Distribution.

Cette nouvelle unité de production de véhicules blindés située dans la zone de libre échange de Zhana Kala, dans la capitale kazakhe Astana, peut produire plus de 200 véhicules blindés par an, créant de facto près de 150 emplois qualifiés.

KPE est la première usine de véhicules blindés de cette république d’Asie centrale et la première usine défense présentant de telles capacités de production dans la région. L’Arlan a été conçu et développé pour résister à la neige et aux conditions hivernales rudes en collaboration avec l’armée kazakhe, et ses prototypes ont subi des tests rigoureux afin de répondre aux besoins opérationnels spécifiques des militaires kazakhs.

Pour marquer le lancement de production dans cette usine de 15 000 m2, elle a reçu la visite le 30 novembre dernier du président de la République du Kazakhstan, Noursoultan Nazarbaïev, qui était accompagné par son ministre de la défense, Imangali Tasmagambetov, le directeur exécutif de Paramount, Ivor Ichikowitz, et le président de Kazakhstan Engineering, Yerlan Idrissov.

« L’usine de KPE est conçue pour la production complète de bout en bout et la fabrication locale de produits finis. À travers cet investissement, nous allons activement créer un savoir-faire local en formant de jeunes ingénieurs à la conception de véhicules blindés et à d’autres compétences, » a expliqué Idrissov.

L’usine emploie actuellement 70 personnes mais entend atteindre 120 employés dans les mois à venir. « Notre intention est que l’usine puisse fournir les marchés locaux et régionaux », a souligné Idrissov.

L’industrie de défense sud-africaine espère sortir du marasme dans lequel elle se trouve aujourd’hui grâce à d’autres projets de ce genre. Ivor Ichikowitz précise que l’un des plus grands défis de l’industrie de défense sud-africaine vient de la baisse de commandes de son gouvernement dont le budget de défense rétrécit drastiquement, conduisant à une perte alarmante de compétences. « Il est extrêmement important, non seulement pour nous mais aussi pour Denel et d’autres entreprises de défense, de trouver des marchés à l’export afin que nous puissions développer notre clientèle et augmenter le nombre d’emplois que nous créons, » explique-t-il.

Et Ichikowitz d’ajouter que « les projets de cette nature sont très important pour nous parce que si nous pouvons gagner des marchés, enregistrer des commandes, cela contribue à notre capacité à créer de nouveaux emplois… [et] conduira l’industrie de défense d’Afrique du Sud à un tout autre niveau. »

12 juin, 2015 Youri Obraztsov (FOB)

Mi-avril, la Russie et le Kazakhstan ont signé une série d’accords qui modifient les conditions d’utilisation des terrains militaires kazakhs par l’armée russe. À la demande du Kazakhstan, la taille de ces terrains a été fortement réduite. Ainsi, la Russie perd plus d’1,6 million d’hectares (16 000 km²). Cela concerne surtout le 929e Centre d’essais aériens du ministère de la Défense russe, dont les dimensions étaient restées inchangées depuis l’époque de l’Union soviétique.

Les terres libérées seront utilisées pour l’extraction de richesses naturelles, l’agriculture, ainsi qu’à la construction d’une autoroute Samara-Tchimkent, qui fait partie des voies de communication internationales « Europe-Chine occidentale ».

Le terme « optimisation », officiellement employé lors de la signature par les autorités russes, est le même mis en avant par toutes les armées occidentales lors de diverses réductions, et qui cache généralement une perte de capacité.

Avec cette restitution de terres au Kazakhstan, Moscou réduit de 4 millions de dollars la location annuelle de terrains militaires, qui passent de 23,49 à 19,36 millions de dollars, un prix bien symbolique vu leur importance stratégique.

06 Mar. 2015 by NATO

Experts from five Central Asian states and Afghanistan gathered in Ashgabat for a NATO-sponsored regional conference on “Peace and Stability in Central Asia and Afghanistan: A View from Neutral Turkmenistan” on 2 and 3 March 2015.

This high-level event, organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the office of the NATO Liaison Officer in Central Asia, was unprecedented in the history of Turkmenistan's partnership with the Alliance.

It was the fourth in a series of NATO-sponsored events marking the 20th anniversary of the Partnership for Peace programme in the Central Asian partner states. Moreover, it was included in Turkmenistan's official programme of events celebrating the "Year of Neutrality and Peace" on the 20th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution recognising the country's neutrality.

Turkmenistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Berdyniyaz Myatiev opened the event, while the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, addressed participants by video link from NATO Headquarters.

Turkmen participants included officials and experts from a wide range of institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior, Prosecutor-General's Office, the Institute of State and Law under the President of Turkmenistan, the Institute of International Relations and the International University of Humanities.

Experts from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the United States, and representatives of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, also spoke at the event.

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09/10/2014 Le Point.fr

"Le montant de deux milliards d'euros évoqué ces derniers jours ne correspond en rien à la réalité du contrat", a affirmé le porte-parole d'Airbus Helicopters.

Airbus Helicopters a détaillé jeudi les modalités du contrat d'achat d'hélicoptères par le Kazakhstan, au coeur d'une enquête en France sur des commissions présumées en marge de cette transaction, réaffirmant que le contrat était conduit dans la légalité et soulignant qu'il ne portait que sur quelques centaines de millions d'euros. Des juges financiers français enquêtent depuis mars 2013 sur des commissions présumées en marge de contrats avec le Kazakhstan, conclus en 2010 sous le quinquennat du président Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012). Une information judiciaire a été ouverte pour blanchiment en bande organisée, corruption active d'agents publics étrangers et complicité et recel de ces infractions.

"Le montant de deux milliards d'euros évoqué ces derniers jours dans les médias ne correspond en rien à la réalité du contrat (que nous avons passé) avec les autorités kazakhes", a affirmé le porte-parole d'Airbus Helicopters, filiale du groupe européen d'aéronautique et de défense Airbus Group. La presse a évoqué un contrat de deux milliards d'euros portant notamment sur la vente de 295 locomotives et l'acquisition de 45 hélicoptères fabriqués par Eurocopter, rebaptisé depuis Airbus Helicopters. "L'EC145 est un appareil conçu et développé en Allemagne dont le prix moyen au catalogue s'élève à 7 millions d'euros", a expliqué le porte-parole de l'hélicoptériste, ajoutant qu'à la fin de l'année 2014, 26 appareils auront finalement été acquis par le Kazakhstan, estimés au total à 182 millions d'euros au prix catalogue.

315 millions au prix catalogue

Il a rappelé qu'initialement Eurocopter avait signé des accords de principe en octobre 2010 sur une intention d'achat de 45 appareils. "Ces accords ont été concrétisés en juin 2011 en présence des deux Premiers ministres français et kazakh" lors du Salon du Bourget, près de Paris, a-t-il poursuivi. Mais la législation kazakhe précisant que la livraison doit être effective l'année de la commande ferme, le contrat porte finalement à ce jour sur 26 appareils, et non 45. Vingt machines ont déjà été livrées et quatre le seront d'ici fin décembre, a détaillé Airbus Helicopters. "Même si nous prenons la base initiale d'une commande de 45 hélicoptères, nous sommes très loin du montant évoqué", a conclu le porte-parole.

Sur cette base, le contrat s'élèverait à 315 millions au prix catalogue. La firme a également réaffirmé que ce contrat avait "été et reste conduit de façon parfaitement légale". Airbus Helicopters précise par ailleurs que le contrat de vente avait été assorti d'un accord pour la création d'une société commune au Kazakhstan, à 50/50 avec la société Kazakhstan Engineering pour l'assemblage des hélicoptères, condition sine qua non pour pouvoir vendre du matériel dans ce pays. Les accords prévoyaient en outre la vente de kits d'appareils depuis le site de Donauworth d'EC145.

"Dans le cadre d'une livraison en kit, le montant des hélicoptères est sans doute inférieur au prix catalogue. Et il est fort probable que les autorités kazakhes aient obtenu d'importants rabais", a commenté un spécialiste du secteur aéronautique, sous le couvert de l'anonymat. Interrogé sur les contrats d'assistance et de maintenance entourant habituellement la vente d'hélicoptères ou d'avions, il a commenté : "Si on y ajoute effectivement la maintenance, on ne doit pas être loin des 7 millions d'euros par appareil indiqué par Airbus."

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 23 (UPI)

Fully digital 3D air defense radars are to be developed and delivered to the air force of Kazakhstan under an agreement with ThalesRaytheonSystems.

The company reported it signed the memorandum of understanding for its Ground Master 400 long-range air defense radars earlier this week at the KADEX defense exhibition in Astana, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

The company's joint venture with SKTB Granit -- Granit Thales Electronics – will conduct the work.

"We are delighted to be able to exploit the operational advantages of this radar system, which will give Kazakhstan a long-range air surveillance capability and increase protection of our key assets," said Kazakh Deputy Minister of Defense Okas Bazargaliyevich Saparov.

"This memorandum of understanding between Granit, Thales and ThalesRaytheonSystems to supply GM400 radars illustrates the collaboration underway for several years now between us in Kazakhstan," said Philippe Duhamel, chief executive officer of ThalesRaytheonSystems. "The GM400s will boost Kazakhstan's air defense capabilities, giving the Kazakh Air Force the ability to detect a broad array of threats from low to high altitude and thus assure extended air surveillance over its territory."

An initial GM400 radar was previously ordered by Kazakhstan and delivered recently. It can be operated in the field or in a fixed position under a radome.

ThalesRaytheonSystems said integration of the next radars will take place at the Granit Thales Electronics facility outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, as part of a technology transfer accord.

Kourou : lancement dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi de la fusée Vega emportant un satellite d'observation kazakh fabriqué par Airbus Space Systems

30/04/2014 Michel Cabirol – LaTribune.fr

Troisième lancement réussi pour le petit lanceur italien Vega depuis 2012. Arianespace a également rattrapé son retard sur son calendrier de lancements en réussissant quatre vols en quatre mois.

BMPT Terminator

EKATERINBOURG, 10 avril - RIA Novosti

Une coentreprise russo-kazakhe lancera la production de véhicules blindés de soutien des chars (BMPT) Terminator au Kazakhstan en 2015, a annoncé jeudi à Ekaterinbourg Konstantin Biriouline, directeur adjoint du Service fédéral russe pour la coopération militaire et technique (FSVTS).

"Nous sommes mis d'accord de produire ces véhicules au Kazakhstan. Nous verrons les premiers véhicules l'an prochain", a indiqué M.Biriouline devant les journalistes.

Le holding public russe Uralvagonzavod, fondateur de la coentreprise russo-kazakhe, livrera des pièces détachées à l'usine située au Kazakhstan.

Selon les médias, le ministère kazakh de la Défense a signé en 2012 un mémorandum avec la Russie sur l'achat de neuf BMPT Terminator lors du 2e Salon international d'armement KADEX à Astana.

Construit sur la base du châssis du char T-72, le véhicule blindé Terminator est doté de deux canons automatiques 2A42 de 30 mm, de deux dispositifs de lancement de missiles antichar supersoniques Ataka-T, de deux lance-grenades automatiques AG-17D et d'une mitrailleuse de 7,62 mm. Le véhicule est capable de traquer et détruire trois cibles à la fois sur 360 degrés.

13 December 2013 by Guy Martin - defenceWeb

Paramount Group, South Africa’s largest private defence company, has teamed with Kazakhstan to produce armoured vehicles in that country.

Kazakh Defence Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov on Wednesday announced the launch of the project in the capital Astana, which will see the production of 120 to 360 military and non-military vehicles a year. Production is expected to commence by 2015.

According to the Kazakh ministry of defence, the project involves Paramount, Kazakhstan Engineering and Kazakhstan Engineering Distribution. The three companies signed an agreement last month over military vehicle production and maintenance.

Work at the facility will include cutting and welding armour plates, vehicle assembly and quality control. Wheeled armoured fighting vehicles as well as commercial vehicles such as buses will be manufactured for both local and export markets.

Dzhaksybekov on Wednesday noted that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev stipulated that by 2020, some 80% of Kazakhstan’s military hardware should be supplied through domestic production.

The Kazakh defence ministry said this is the first such high-revenue joint venture in Central Asia and will see significant local investment, skills and technology transfer. At least 150 jobs will be created and 50 engineers trained.

Apparently the armoured vehicles that will be manufactured at the plant were tested by Kazakhstan’s armed forces in May and June this year.

Paramount Group Chairman Ivor Ichikowitz said: “It is a great privilege for Paramount Group to have been selected as the strategic partner to Kazakhstan Engineering Distribution for the establishment of this landmark facility in Kazakhstan. This is a very important milestone in the strengthening of ties between Kazakhstan and South Africa. The defence and aerospace industry is one of the most strategic areas of cooperation between nation states.”

Ichikowitz added: “It is our intention to establish a fully fledged armoured vehicle and land forces manufacturing facility to engage not only in manufacturing but also in Research and Development, for the production of an indigenous range of products that are ideally suited to Kazakhstan and other markets in the region. We believe that this strategic collaboration and our investment will support the industrial development of the country and boost the high-tech defence and aerospace industry.”

Miles Chambers, Business Development Director at Paramount said, “We are pleased to participate in this large project under which not only manufacture and assembling of the machines but also research and design work will take place. We will participate in the development of Kazakhstan's defence capabilities through transfer of technology and investment of our own funds.”

Paramount has done business in the region before – for example, Paramount delivered 30 Matador and 30 Marauder vehicles to Azerbaijan’s armed forces.

Nov 12, 2013 ASDNews (AFP)

Russia successfully launched a Proton-M rocket carrying a military satellite in the early hours of Tuesday from its Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The launch took place at 03:46 Moscow time (23:46 GMT) carrying a satellite for the Russian defence ministry, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

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August 23, 2013: Strategy Page

It was recently revealed that for the past 17 years (until 2012) there had been a secret operation to deal with the nuclear material scattered around the Soviet era Semipalatinsk nuclear research and testing facility in Kazakhstan. Semipalatinsk was not included in the places that needed nuclear weapons grade radioactive material removed to keep it out of circulation. Soviet nuclear weapons officials had insisted that the nuclear material at Semipalatinsk had already been taken care of. American nuclear researchers aiding the official nuclear disarmament operation stumbled upon the Kazakhstan facility in the 1990s and found that it still contained lots of nuclear material, and that this was apparently not generally known because the abandoned facility was overrun by illegal scrap collectors. Semipalatinsk consisted of many kilometers of tunnels where underground nuclear tests, or other nuclear research was conducted. The tunnels were largely sealed along with other places containing bits of nuclear material. But the area had been discovered by poor Kazakhs who had, since the early 1990s been scouring the place for scrap metal or anything else that could be sold. The scavengers didn’t know about buried nuclear material, but their excavations and dismantling activities were bringing them closer to such dangerous stuff. The Kazakhstan government was not aware of the danger and had not bothered to try and keep the scavengers out. In order to keep this a secret, and to get the nuclear material removed or permanently sealed, a secret deal was made with the Kazakh government and in 17 years of largely clandestine work the deed was done. All this cost $150 million, paid for by the United States.

Kazakhstan had earlier, with the help of the United States, already completed the official removal of 13 tons of weapons grade uranium and plutonium (enough to make nearly 800 nuclear bombs) to a secure storage site (and eventual conversion into fuel for nuclear power plants). All this was accomplished by a post-Cold War agreement between the United States and Russia to account for all Soviet nuclear weapons, and dismantle most of them. The U.S. provided funding and technical assistance, but the hard work was carried out by Russian experts and diplomats. Semipalatinsk was not included because the Soviet bureaucracy thought it didn’t count even though there turned out to be some 200 kg (440 pounds) of plutonium in some of the 131 tunnels and 13 test shafts where 456 nuclear tests had taken place over four decades. The last test was in 1989 and the site was officially closed in 1991. Many of those tests were not successful, leaving behind buried plutonium. The Soviet engineers believed that whatever plutonium there remained at Semipalatinsk was so hard to get at that it was not worth mentioning. Later visits by American scientists found this was not true. There was a lot of plutonium and other nuclear material that was easily extracted. Most of the loose nuclear material was at the Degelen Mountain part of the 18,000 square kilometer Semipalatinsk complex.

Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 (and everyone agreed that whatever Soviet assets were on the territory of the 14 new nations created from parts of the Soviet Union, were the property of the new country.) Russia, with the financial and diplomatic help of Western nations, bought and dismantled the nukes owned by those three nations.

Meanwhile, the Russians had other, uniquely Russian, problems, like the Kazakhstan site that was recently revealed. They had a lot (tons) of other highly radioactive material in circulation, much of it in powder form, and largely used for medical and industrial purposes. Particularly worrisome are the hundreds of Radiothermal Generators (RTGs) Russia set up in remote parts of the country during the Soviet era. The RTGs were similar to the power supplies found on some space satellites, using radioactive material to generate heat, and thus electricity, for radio beacons and signal repeaters in remote areas. In the early 1990s, the Russians weren't even sure where some of these RTGs were, and there were cases of civilians finding them, cracking them open and being injured, or killed, from the radiation. The Russians noted that there have been many attempts to steal radioactive material in Russia, but none, so far as is known, have succeeded. All of the RTGs were eventually found and destroyed. The Kazakhstan site was similar in that a lot of the radioactive material was deadly but not suitable for nuclear weapons. Terrorists could use this stuff for dirty bombs and the radioactive debris was spread all over the Kazakhstan site. That’s why the cleanup had to be secret, lest terrorists find out about it and offer large cash payments for whoever could sneak such dirty bomb material out of the site. That never happened. The Kazakhstan site also contained enough nuclear material for a dozen or more nuclear bombs, although this stuff was spread over a large area.

There was one last problem. Russian officials admitted that, during the 1990s, 5-10 pounds of enriched uranium and several ounces of weapons grade of plutonium had been stolen from their nuclear power facilities. What the Russians did not mention (perhaps because the Russian nuclear bureaucracy had never kept a record of it) was the stray material in places like the Kazakhstan site. Some of the officially missing radioactive material was later discovered, in small quantities, in Western Europe, Turkey and Russia as the thieves sought to sell it. The amount the Russians admit to losing is not enough to make a bomb, and much of the missing stuff could be accounting and handling errors (both common in the Russian bureaucracy.)

In the last two decades, the only radioactive material smuggled out of Russia was small quantities, and usually low-level stuff unsuitable for a bomb. Most Russian nukes have been disassembled and their nuclear material turned into power-plant fuel. The remaining nukes are under very tight security and most of their nuclear scientists were given financial and career incentives (paid for by the U.S.) to leave nuclear weapons work behind. Nevertheless, for two decades, breathless new stories of Russian "loose nukes" were a media staple on slow news days.