Back to news

February 4, 2019 | International, Naval

Italian row with France unsettles naval industry cooperation

By:

ROME — A series of diplomatic rows between France and Italy, culminating in the exchange of insults between leaders, is casting doubt on naval industry cooperation between the countries.

Moves by France's Naval Group and Italy's Fincantieri to integrate their shipyard work has coincided with a crescendo of acrimony between Rome and Paris following the election last year of Italy's first populist government.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and French President Emmanuel Macron have battled over who should take responsibility for migrants that sail to Europe from Africa, with Salvini last month calling Macron a “terrible” president who deserved to be voted out of office.

Italy's second deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, who leads the anti-establishment Five Star party, has meanwhile openly backed the so-called Yellow Vest protesters who have rioted on the streets of France in protest at Macron's government and its policies.

Asked about the verbal attacks from Rome on Jan. 27, Macron replied: “Italy is a great people; the Italian people are our friends and deserve leaders worthy of their history.”

Underlying the row is the Italian government's new nationalism, which has put it at loggerheads with the European Union and Macron, who is seen by Rome as a pro-globalism politician. The spat is expected to increase as both Italy's ruling parties — Five Star and Salvini's League party — get on the campaign trail ahead of European parliamentary elections in May.

Pierside troubles

Analysts fear fallout for defense industry collaboration between the countries, which starts with the well-established satellite and space joint venture between Italy's Leonardo and France's Thales.

But the main concern is the naval deal, which was signed last October, under which Fincantieri and Naval Group created a 50-50 joint venture to build and export naval vessels.

Fincantieri CEO Giuseppe Bono said he hopes the deal is the start of wider collaboration.

Speaking at the launch of Italy's ninth FREMM frigate on Jan 26, Bono played down the frictions with France, telling reporters, “We are part of the same alliance, we have common history,” and adding that the diplomatic tensions “will not influence the work we are doing with Naval Group.”

But one analyst was less sanguine. “It's a complicated deal, and as it gets more complicated, external events become more influential,” said Jean Pierre Darnis, scientific adviser at Rome's IAI think tank.

“If ministers from the two countries don't meet, and we are waiting for [the] next bilateral [meeting], problems won't get resolved. Right now the Italian-French business community is very concerned,” he added.

The naval deal was spurred by an earlier accord for Fincantieri to take control of French shipyard Chantiers de l'Atlantique. That deal, too, was up in the air when France and Germany referred the agreement to the European Commission for anti-trust scrutiny last month.

“What has happened is extremely serious, France and Germany behaved wrongly. It throws into doubt all accords,” Italy's Salvini said.

Bono said he was confident the EU would not oppose the deal, given it is “in the interests of Europe,” echoing claims that a consolidated European shipbuilding industry would enable competition since it could compete with large players outside Europe.

But Europe's ability to consolidate industry was again thrown into doubt in January when Macron and German leader Angela Merkel agreed to forge closer ties between Germany and France to head off the political challenge in Europe from populist governments like Italy, Hungary and Poland.

One consequence, warned Italian IAI analyst Michele Nones, was that closer Franco-German ties could squeeze Italy out of access to defense industry funding provided by the new European Defence Fund.

https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/02/01/italian-row-with-france-unsettles-naval-industry-cooperation

On the same subject

  • UK: Defence and Security Accelerator funding competitions

    November 1, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    UK: Defence and Security Accelerator funding competitions

    Details of our current, future and past funding competitions. Published 8 December 2016 Last updated 30 October 2018 — see all updates From: Defence and Security Accelerator and Ministry of Defence Contents Events and market interest activities (Open) Themed competitions (open now for application) Themed competitions (opening for applications soon) Past events and market interest activities (closed) Past themed competitions (closed) You can submit a Defence and Security Accelerator proposal either to our Open Call for Innovation or in response to the technical challenges in a specific themed competition, as detailed below. You can submit your themed competition proposal online once the full detailed competition document is published. Summary competition documents may be published a few weeks in advance of full competition document releases. Events and market interest activities (Open) Maximising Human Performance - Market Exploration 18 October 2018 DASA dial in event: many drones make light work competition 18 October 2018 Themed competitions (open now for application) The competitions below are in order of closing date, earliest at the top. Competition: predictive cyber analytics 6 September 2018 Competition: Biosensing across wide areas 31 August 2018 Competition: stopping it in its tracks 28 September 2018 Competition: Don't Blow It! Safely eliminating chemical and biological munitions on the battlefield 9 October 2018 Competition: many drones make light work phase 3 18 October 2018 Competition: Behavioural Analytics for Defence and Security 11 October 2018 Themed competitions (opening for applications soon) Please note we publish these summary documents ahead of publishing the full detailed competition documents to give potential applicants early information on the competition. Full documents are typically published within a couple of weeks of the summary documents. The competitions below are in order of closing date, earliest at the top. Competition: Tackling Knife Crime in the UK 30 October 2018 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/defence-and-security-accelerator-funding-competitions

  • US Air Force pauses flight ops for more than a hundred C-130s over ‘atypical’ cracking

    August 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace

    US Air Force pauses flight ops for more than a hundred C-130s over ‘atypical’ cracking

    By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of Air Mobility Command's C-130 Hercules fleet are being temporarily removed from service after “atypical” cracking was found. During scheduled depot maintenance, the U.S. Air Force discovered cracking of the lower center wing joint — also known as the “rainbow fitting” — which led Air Mobility Command head Gen. Maryanne Miller to order an inspection of a portion of the fleet, according to an AMC statement released Wednesday evening. A total of 123 of 450 C-130H and C-130J aircraft will be temporarily grounded while inspections occur. “This temporary removal of service will not impact ongoing C-130 support to overseas contingency operations,” AMC said in its statement. The decision to pause operations and conduct inspections was made after a single C-130 was found with the lower center wing joint cracks, said AMC spokesman Maj. Jonathan Simmons. But the risk posed by the issue — that the wing could become dislodged from the aircraft — was so serious that the Air Force decided to move forward with inspections for all planes that could potentially be impacted. The 123 aircraft chosen to go through inspections have not been equipped with an “extended service life center wing box” and have flown more than 15,000 hours. Maintainers will look for cracking, and, if discovered, will replace the rainbow fitting. That repair takes “approximately one to two months” to do and is “dependent on depot level availability and capacity,” Simmons noted in an email. Currently, AMC believes it has an adequate supply of rainbow fittings and is not concerned about a potential shortfall. If no defects are found, the aircraft will return to service. So far, eight aircraft have gone through inspections and are now able to fly, Simmons said. Each inspection is set to take eight hours, but the command does not know how long it will take to move all 123 aircraft through the inspection and repair process. “The Air Force takes the safety of its airmen and aircraft very seriously and is working diligently to identify and repair affected aircraft as soon as possible,” AMC said in its statement. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/08/08/air-force-pauses-flight-ops-for-more-than-a-hundred-c-130s-after-atypical-cracking-found/

  • JLOTS, an obscure Army-Navy capability, arrives in Gaza

    May 16, 2024 | International, Land

    JLOTS, an obscure Army-Navy capability, arrives in Gaza

    The Gaza aid pier is made possible by an oft-neglected but vital military capability known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS.

All news