Lockheed Martin chairman Norman Augustine has warned that transatlantic alliances, including long-term ambitions for links with Airbus, cannot progress until European industry has freed itself from government ownership.
"Privatisation is absolutely essential to building partnerships across the Atlantic-You cannot have alliances between private and public companies," says Augustine.
His remarks, made during the Paris air show, came in the wake of questionmarks raised over the commitment of state-owned Aerospatiale to the process of Airbus restructuring.
Augustine warns that France's state-owned sector may be left behind in developing deeper relationships with the new US giants, if privatisations fail to take place.
"Companies that are already privatised are going to get tired of waiting," he adds, in a reference to growing exasperation in the UK and Germany over lack of progress on French restructuring.
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme, in which Lockheed Martin has linked with British Aerospace, is cited as an example of a possible launching point for an alliance. Starting with an initial product link, it should be possible to develop into joint venture and, eventually, corporate merger. "JSF is a very important step to what we could do," he says.
Augustine believes that consolidation in North America is now largely complete and that the future shape of the global aerospace industry is now dependent on what happens in Europe.
The region's main companies have the choice either to "-get together and build a wall around Europe", or to seek ties across the Atlantic, he says.
Lockheed Martin's clear preference is for European co-operation, and Augustine concedes that Airbus would be a "natural partner". He adds that while Lockheed Martin has no ambitions to be a prime contractor in the commercial-airliner market, the sector is too large for the group to ignore as a major subcontractor.
Source: Flight International
