11 février 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Press kits de Dassault Aviation
Les leaders de l'industrie européenne se félicitent de la déclaration faite par la Commission européenne et les États membres.
1 mai 2019 | International, Naval
German, Norwegian officials huddle over joint submarine program
COLOGNE, Germany — Senior German and Norwegian defense officials met in Munich on Monday to plot a path for the two countries' multibillion-dollar joint submarine program.
Officials said the meeting by the naval chiefs and defense-acquisition leaders was meant to push toward an agreement on the timing, cost and performance characteristics of the 212-CD program. The plan, these officials said, is to have the program on contract with lead vendor ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in 2020, with the first vessel delivered to Norway in late 2026.
A deal with the German shipyard was previously envisioned for this year.
The design of the new boats has yet to be locked down, which may reflect a last glimmer of hope in Berlin and Oslo that other countries in the market for submarines — namely Italy, the Netherlands or Poland — could join the effort.
Germany and Norway inked a strategic cooperation agreement on submarines in 2017. The idea is for TKMS to produce six identical boats — two for Germany and four for Norway. Norwegian missile-maker Kongsberg, in turn, will outfit German Navy ships with an upgraded variant of its Naval Strike Missile.
The stakes are high for the program, as any delays in fielding the submarines would throw off military plans in either country. The German Navy has seen years of delays in its F-125 frigate program. According to the service, an industry consortium led by TKMS is to blame.
The German military, which is seeking a budget boost beyond what is on the books so far, is under pressure to field equipment on time and on budget. The idea is to prove that the defense-acquisition apparatus can convert additional money into additional capability. As a result, officials are increasingly tight-lipped about details surrounding big-ticket projects beyond rosy statements.
“After a successful meeting: We are convinced that we want to make #U212CD a success story,” German Navy chief Vice Adm. Andreas Krause wrote on Twitter late Monday. “We will act and speak as if we were ONE Navy. Both navies need the new submarines delivered in time, cost and quality. Everyone involved in this project should never forget its relevance.”
Sebastian Bruns, a naval analyst with the University of Kiel in northern Germany, said the interplay between the German and Norwegian defense bureaucracies will be crucial as the program progresses.
“This type of integrated process is new for Germany,” Bruns told Defense News. That is because everything from spare parts to training and operational aspects is designed to be bilateral from the start, possibly tying the two sea services together for decades.
“We are talking about a time frame through the 2060s,” he said.
Bruns added that questions remain about Germany's future defense budget and whether the submarine program will have to compete with other national priorities.
According to a Navy spokesman, the program is reflected in the Defence Ministry's broad budget outlines. Lawmakers are expected to get details for debate next year.
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14 mars 2023 | International, Naval
BAE Systems to play a key role in the delivery of AUKUS submarines
The three nations will deliver a trilaterally developed submarine, based on the UK?s next generation design, incorporating technology from all three nations
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23 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
New European Defence Agency boss warns against ‘rash’ budget cuts by EU members
By: Martin Banks BRUSSELS — The new head of the European Defence Agency, Jiří Šedivý, has thrown down the gauntlet to European Union member states, telling them: “It is up to you to deliver.” In an interview with Defense News, he said the onus is on EU countries “to use the EDA to its full extent.” Šedivý has extensive experience in the defense domain, having served as defense minister and deputy defense minister of the Czech Republic, NATO assistant secretary general for defense policy and planning, and permanent representative of the Czech Republic to NATO. His term comes amid a fast-changing European defense landscape and new EU defense initiatives that are under increasing pressure to deliver results. How will the COVID-19 health crisis affect European defense spending in the near, mid and long term? Let's be realistic: We are still in the middle of the pandemic and, at this stage, nobody can foresee what its exact repercussions will be. But being realistic also means that we have to anticipate, already now, that national and European defense budgets might come under pressure as a result of the massive economic and financial costs of COVID-19, whether we like it or not. Here our answer should be straightforward: Rather than cutting national defense expenditure rashly, let's coordinate, pool and share our resources and invest more in collaborative capability development because a collective approach is much more cost-effective than national solo efforts. The same goes for defense research where national ministries of defense might face problems to receive the same funding than in the past to finance their individual national programs. The best response to shrinking national budgets for defense research is to join forces and resources and to engage in more cost-effective collaborations at EU level. We therefore should maintain our European defense ambitions, keep course and pursue the implementation of the new EU defense instruments — the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the European Defence Fund (EDF) — which are all in place, fit for purpose and ready to be used. The COVID-19 crisis could offer us an unexpected and unique opportunity to reinvigorate defense cooperation in Europe. The defense portion of the proposed EU budget has come under pressure. If the European Defence Fund is indeed curtailed, how do you expect EDA to adjust its objectives? It is too early to speculate about the Fund's future budget allocation as negotiations are still ongoing. Therefore, we have to wait and see. This being said, the EDF will be an essential part of the EU's defense-cooperation toolbox, together with CARD and PESCO. Therefore, it is crucial that the Fund receives the financial means it needs to play its role properly. I thus hope for adequate funding for this important collaborative tool because for the reasons I just explained, we need more defense cooperation in the future, not less. And the Fund will serve not only as an incentive to that end, but also as a point of leverage for economic recovery. In any case, EDA's activities are not directly linked or dependent of the Fund's budget as we are an intergovernmental agency entirely and directly funded by our member states, not through the EU budget. U.S. defense companies want to be allowed to compete for EDF money and PESCO participation. How do you believe it is possible to strengthen intra-EU defense cooperation without shutting out trans-Atlantic ties at the same time? Third-party participation in the EDF is among the topics currently discussed between member states, the Commission and the European Parliament as part of the legislative process on setting up of Fund. So the jury is still out on the outcome of these talks. EDA is not involved in that process and therefore I cannot comment. However, I want to recall a basic underlying principle of European defense cooperation, namely that the European Union is fully committed to working with the U.S. as a core partner in security and defense matters. The EU defense initiatives must be understood in this context: They are not directed against our trans-Atlantic partnership but aim to enhance Europe's contribution to our common trans-Atlantic security by sharing a greater part of the burden. PESCO and EDF will help enhance EU member states' investment in the joint development of defense capabilities and deepen cooperation to make more efficient use of defense spending in the EU. The resulting defense capabilities will not be owned by the EU but by its member states. Which means they will also be available to NATO, at least for those EU member states that are NATO allies. As a result, EU cooperation ultimately also strengthens NATO as well as our trans-Atlantic partners. What is in store for the dozens of PESCO projects currently underway? For example, do you expect new ones to join the roster at some point, or some to be canceled if they fail to deliver? As you know, PESCO is a member states driven initiative. It's therefore up to the 25 participating countries to decide whether they want to launch new collaborative projects in the future. If you ask me, I expect indeed more projects to be added in the future but not this year as it was decided to skip 2020 after three consecutive waves of new projects launched — 47 in total to date — since December 2017, when PESCO was established. Focusing on the project implementation and delivering tangible outputs is thus the priority now. Equally, it is up to the member states involved in a given project to decide about possible changes or adjustments to be made or, to answer your question, even to cancel a project that would fail to deliver. It's the member states who own the projects, so it is up to them to implement them in the way they want. This being said, EDA is available and keen to support them, if they wish, in the implementation. As the European hub for collaborative capability development, we have the expertise and experience needed to do that. We therefore encourage member states to make full use of the Agency and to seek our know-how and support for bringing their PESCO projects forward. And we see that they start to rely more and more on our help. The number of PESCO projects which have been or currently are supported by the agency has constantly increased and now stands at six; two of them (in the areas of CBRN surveillance and deployable underwater capabilities) as EDA projects. Judging from informal expressions of interest received, we have reasons to expect those numbers to further grow in the future. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/06/22/new-european-defence-agency-boss-warns-against-rash-budget-cuts-by-eu-members/