Julian Moxon/PARIS
ITALIAN HOLDING company Finmeccanica has brought the disparate elements of the Italian missile industry under one banner, preparing it for a possible alliance with the Aerospatiale/ Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) group now being negotiated.
The newly formed Alenia Oto Sistemi Missilistici combines the missile activities of Alenia and Oto Melara, acquired by Finmeccanica as part of the Efim Group. Annual turnover is likely to be around L700 billion ($430 million).
The combined product line-up of the new team includes the Aspide air-to-air missile, Aster surface-to-air missile (being developed by Eurosam), the Otomat and Teseo Mk3 anti-ship missiles, and licence-production of the Milan anti-tank missile.
"This is the first major rationalisation of the Italian aerospace industry," says Alenia's new president, Giorgio Zappa. "It was urgently needed, because we are on a lot of European programmes, but did not have the critical mass to form alliances."
Aerospatiale's missile division vice-president, Jean-Louis Fache, confirms that preliminary talks have been held with the Italian companies, but he says, "...we have to conclude our [own] alliance first. It is a step-by-step process, but we think that Alenia offers the right synergy for a larger partnership."
Fache says that completing the alliance with DASA is necessary to counter competition from the USA, whose leading missile companies have "three times the turnover" of the French company. "Then we need to enlarge the club again."
Source: Flight International