What's going on for defence in the UK

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  7 février 2019 | International, Terrestre

  French vehicle maker Arquus sets its sights on new European battle tank

  By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS – Arquus, formerly Renault Trucks Defense, is keen to get a piece of the emerging Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) program. "We think we have things to contribute, notably concerning fuel cells, hybrid drivetrains and robotization,” CEO Emmanuel Levacher told reporters in Paris on Tuesday. While the Franco-German program is generally thought of as a future main battle tank, Arquus is thinking more along the lines of the program's official name: a combat system. “Will tomorrow's tank even be a tank?” asked Arquus' director of innovation, François Deloumeau. He argued that “pushing existing concepts further is not very interesting,” contending that the MGCS was “unlikely to be a super Leclerc tank or a Leopard 3.” Arquus is not being financed to develop ideas for the MGCS, “but we are thinking about it and thinking out of the box,” said Levacher. He mentioned that France and Germany “are not yet aligned in terms of concept, or even of their needs,” which means nothing has been set in stone. “We are talking with the end-users, the DGA and other manufacturers about this,” Levacher said, using shorthand for the French government's defense-acquisition organization. Also on the subject of Germany, Levacher remarked that Arquus was forced to find alternative suppliers of components such as joints, automatic gear boxes or engines designed for civilian vehicles but destined for inclusion in military products for export. That is because Germany export approval procedures “are extremely long” for these types of products, he explained. In addition, the list of countries that Berlin will not give approval for “is getting longer,” with Indonesia and India recently added to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Levacher said. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/02/06/french-vehicle-maker-arquus-sets-its-sights-on-new-european-battle-tank/

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  11 mars 2020 | International, Terrestre

  Here’s what’s behind France’s 72% jump in weapons exports

  By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS – France's spectacular 72 percent jump in weapons' exports in the 2015-2019 period from five years prior is largely thanks to two companies: Dassault Aviation and Naval Group. The first of those companies sold Rafale fighters to Egypt, India and Qatar, while the second has become the most successful exporter of warships in the world — if one includes orders — selling submarines to Brazil and India, frigates to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, and mine-sweepers to Belgium and the Netherlands. A report released on March 9 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute notes that “French arms exports reached their highest level for any five-year period since 1990 and accounted for 7.9 percent of total global arms exports in 2015-19.” Diego Lopes Da Silva, a SIPRI researcher adds: “The French arms industry has benefited from the demand for arms in Egypt [which accounted for 26 percent of France's defense exports], Qatar and India [14 percent each].” Both politicians and defense industry leaders in France have understood that without exports they cannot afford to provide France's own armed forces with the most innovative and high-performing weapons. Furthermore, buying weapons from the United States brings red tape, including requirement for congressional authorization on all foreign military sales, which can delay the process and some argue shackle France's sovereignty. In the words of Hervé Guillou, the out-going CEO of Naval Group, “no European country can maintain the competitivity of its defense industry based on just its own domestic market.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/03/10/heres-whats-behind-frances-72-jump-in-weapons-exports/

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  23 août 2022 | International, Terrestre

  Army launches new Bring-Your-Own-Device pilot as it aims to leverage commercial capabilities

  "Since this is done in a virtualized environment that is hosted up in the cloud through DoD, it is very, very, very secure... We're pretty excited about this and it's taken us a while to get to this point, both from a policy perspective and from a building out of the environment [perspective], but we are right on the cusp of implementation," Lt. Gen. John Morrison said.