Paris 99 might be remembered for the last-ditch efforts by Europe's aerospace and defence industry to find a clear path towards industrial consolidation in the face of ever-burgeoning US super-companies, but the last Paris air show of the century should also be a reminder of Europe's technological prowess. The four-nation Eurofighter Typhoon stunned crowds as did the French Dassault Rafale fighter. The message? That Europe's fighter business is fighting fit even if it is not yet as streamlined as its US counterparts. The Tiger attack and NH90 utility helicopters, plus a resurgent guided weapons business, provided evidence at Paris 99 that Europe's future defence industrial base is secure, if still in need of reorganisation and rationalisation to meet the competitive challenges of the next millennium.
Yet with this array of military programmes committed to production, Europe has also demonstrated that, where national requirements are harmonised, the industry is perfectly capable of forming alliances to meet defence needs and come up with high technology solutions which can more than match, even exceed, US systems.
But now, having proven the technology, the race is on to find the necessary production efficiencies to keep to cost and schedules and maintain a viable competitive challenge to the ever-aggressive US industry on world markets.
Notwithstanding the obvious commitment to privatising Europe's state-owned industries and forging much-needed lean and mean pan-European super-companies to attract investment, Paris 99 did not prove to be a show which would, or could, produce evidence of a resolution to the European restructuring difficulties - even if the chalets were humming with roundtable talks among business leaders.
The US industry, by contrast, was relaxed and looking for new opportunities for further consolidation beyond its shores, having got through the initial pain barrier of mass redundancies and closures to gain critical mass. At the show, Europe's challengers were able to display the shape of its industry going into the next millennium. Aside from the super-contractors Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, second tier aerospace groups such as the new Honeywell (merging with AlliedSignal) and TRW (merged with LucasVarity) made their entrée. Hamilton Sundstrand also appeared with its new identity after completion of the two companies' merger, and the BFGoodrich-Crane tie-up cleared its final merger hurdle during the show.
The speed with which the US industry has acted to improve its long term survival and competitiveness just served to spotlight the indecision and inability within Europe to rise above its obsessions with national rivalry, egotistical leadership and governmental meddling. It may be no surprise, therefore, to see that what little consolidation there has been so far, it has more the characteristic of re-nationalisation than europeanisation.
Maybe Europe did try to run before it could walk in striving towards the pan-European industrial ideal. The very fact that Europe's own air shows - Berlin, Farnborough and Paris - compete may just be a sign that it is too early to talk of a full-blown integrated European industry.
For certain, the goal for the next Paris must be to bury the hatchet on national issues to clear a path in the Euro-rationalisation game.
Europe is ready and ripe. It has the capability, the programmes and world-beating export potential. So why worry about cross-border consolidation now? Surely the priority has to be to get the newly merged national groups in Europe streamlined to deliver efficiently on the equipment they are contracted to produce. Only once Europe's industries have emerged with its houses in order should they start to worry about the next step.
The issue now for Europe's leaders is to demonstrate unity by agreeing to put the issue of large-scale cross-border consolidation aside and concentrate instead on maximising the potential of the joint programmes it has under way.
Consolidation is not an end unto itself and failure to achieve it quickly should not be the gauge of failure or success.
Source: Flight International
