Eurosatory, billed as the international exhibition for land and land-air defence, opens for five days in Paris on 14 June with strong prospects for the airborne sector but troubles for industries involved in the traditional ground armaments sector. Luc Vigneron, president of the French association of ground armaments industries, says: "In the aerospace and electronics sectors, there has been European consolidation, there are multinational programmes and a strong civil/defence duality." In contrast, he says the "fragile" ground armaments industries have not consolidated, there is no civil/defence duality and there are no big multinational programmes. He points to Sagem's Sperwer unmanned air vehicle and Eurocopter's Tiger and NH Industries' NH90 helicopters as examples of successful European aerospace exports.
Vigneron describes the surface-to-air missiles situation as "very positive", particularly with the launch of the Franco-Italian ground-to-air FSAF family of missiles and possible upgrade of the Mistral. But the cancellation of the French-German-UK Trigat missile programme has raised doubts over the future of the anti-tank missile sector.
Source: Flight International
