19 septembre 2018 | International, Terrestre
WARSAW, Poland — Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his Slovak counterpart, Peter Pellegrini, have announced the two countries will cooperate on joint purchases of weapons and military equipment.
“The governments of both countries perceive potential in the field of armament to modernize their armed forces. They also consider cooperation of their defense industries as very promising,” the Czech prime minister's office said in a statement.
Speaking at a joint session of the two cabinets in the Slovak city of Kosice, Babis noted the Czech Republic produces armored vehicles and Slovakia makes howitzers, owing to which their armed forces could perform joint acquisitions of this gear, as reported by local news agency CTK.
France's Nexter Group and Czech vehicle-maker Tatra Trucks jointly produce the Titus six-wheel drive armored vehicle. Slovakia's DMD Group makes the Zuzana 2 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
Pellegrini said that, as the state of the international security environment continues to decline, the European Union and NATO should increase their focus on fostering defense cooperation among their member states.
Babis said this closer defense cooperation format could also include neighboring Poland and Hungary.
After years of sluggish spending, Prague and Bratislava both moved to increase their respective defense budgets following Russia's alleged military intervention in Ukraine's eastern part and its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
19 avril 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, the director of the Army’s Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team, hailed the closely held analysis as "very informative."
5 juin 2023 | International, Aérospatial
The Marines want long-range loitering munitions to launch from their helicopters and from the ground, as part of their Force Design 2030 modernization.
6 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR
By: Pierre Tran PARIS — French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly has appointed Emmanuel Chiva, a specialist in artificial intelligence and training simulation, as director of the newly formed agency for defense innovation, the ministry said. Chiva took up the post Sept. 1, when the innovation office was officially set up, the ministry said in a Sept. 4 statement. Parly made the appointment in consultation with Joël Barre, head of the Direction Générale de l'Armement procurement office. The innovation agency will report to the DGA. The agency will be the key player in a new strategy for innovation, seeking “to bring together all the actors in the ministry and all the programs which contribute to innovation in defense,” Parly said in an Aug. 28 speech to a conference held by Medef, an employers' association. The innovation office will be open to Europe, while allowing experiments to stay close to their operational users, she said. Parly has set a budget of €1 billion (U.S. $1.2 billion) for the agency, which will seek to coordinate attempts to apply new technology to military applications. Chiva has more than 20 years of experience in AI and training simulation. He previously held a senior post for strategy and development at Agueris, a specialist in training simulation for land weapon systems. Agueris is a unit of CMI Defence, a Belgian company specializing in guns and turrets for armored vehicles. Agueris was on the CMI stand at the Eurosatory trade show for land weapons in June. Agueris held three conferences on AI, with Chiva speaking at a roundtable debate on innovation. Chiva is a graduate of Ecole Normal Supérieure and a specialist in biomathematics, the study of the application of math to biology. “His appointment perfectly illustrates my vision of defense innovation: open to research and the civil economy, in which entrepreneurship is not a concept but a reality,” Parly said. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2018/09/05/artificial-intelligence-expert-gets-top-job-at-french-defense-innovation-agency