CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / ROME
Roberto Testore, chief executive and managing director of Finmeccanica since April 2002, has a tricky job ahead: balancing the industrial group's many project partnerships with companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Testore says: "The sector is so complex because there are different levels of co-operation, different products and different businesses."
Finmeccanica has a history of co-operation with the USA, Testore says, notably with Boeing: "We are an important supplier and we are going to improve our co-operation as we have signed a memorandum of understanding to find new areas of business."
He rejects claims that the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is competing for Italian research funding with the Eurofighter Typhoon, saying: "The JSF is a good programme and not in conflict with Eurofighter with which we are also involved." He adds: "The two aircraft are complementary, and by joining JSF we have access to US technology. In addition, [JSF] could be a very important step for our co-operation with the US in the future."
The co-operation could deepen, he says, if Finmeccanica starts manufacturing operations in the USA: "We would like to be structurally present in the USA, invest and set up companies there." If Bell/Agusta Westland wins the competition to supply the US Coast Guard with helicopters under the Deepwater programme, "we would have to build a plant there because any military equipment supplied to Washington must be 65% manufactured in the USA".
In Europe, Finmeccanica and BAE Systems will now combine their defence electronics divisions in a partnership, Eurosystems, with three joint ventures in a systems integration and C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), communications systems and avionics. The first will be majority-BAE owned and the others majority-Finmeccanica owned; the exact shares have yet to be decided.
Meanwhile, in the satellite sector, Alenia Spazio is discussing co-operation with two French companies, EADS Astrium and Alcatel on the assumption that the civil space market will improve. But he concedes that he cannot forecast a recovery in the depressed satellite market: "We have no previous experience with the space sector."
Finmeccanica is interested in collaboration with the new central and eastern European members of the European Union, due to join from 2004, Testore says. "European enlargement is very good news for us because we have a traditionally very good relationship with Poland in particular." Avio, for example, established a research facility, Avio Polska, outside Krakow. But he emphasises that any deal "would be along the lines we have already drawn with AMS and AgustaWestland."
Meanwhile, in Italy, Testore is keen on the prospects for Finmeccanica's latest takeover, Aermacchi, and its M346 advanced jet trainer. "It could be a very effective programme, not only for Italy but in many other countries, so we are focusing a lot of effort on it," he says.
"Every air force could be a potential customer because for the moment there is no other prototype coming into the market. The EADS programme, Mako, is coming later than ours so we are hopeful we will be able to sell this product to many clients in the world," Testore says.
Source: Flight International
