Tim Ripley/LONDON
Sweden is keen to join moves to hasten European-wide aviation- and defence-industry consolidation by building alliances, according to senior Saab executives and Government figures.
A Saab team, headed by Sweden's special envoy for defence exports, attended the Royal United Services Institute in London in July to promote the upgraded Mk3 version of the sea-skimming RBS15 anti-ship missile. RBS15 project manager Ake Svensson says that the company is offering the air-, sea- and ground-launched missile for the UK and European Horizon frigate project as a rival to the US McDonnell Douglas Harpoon and France's Aerospatiale Exocet. He says that the company is testing the software and the missile altimeter to achieve 1m-high flight above water.
European defence and aerospace consolidation is high on the Swedish Government's agenda, according to ambassador Janaf Sillen, who was appointed in 1996 to spearhead the country's drive to boost defence exports. "My job was agreed in last year's defence plan," says Sillen. "I have to encourage Swedish industry to find partners to keep defence technology in Europe. The country's long-held neutrality policy should no longer be a hindrance to wider and deeper partnerships across Europe."
Not traditional neutrality
Sillen says that Sweden no longer uses the term "neutral". He says: "It is not traditional neutrality, it is something else. We have joined the European Union and the NATO Partnership for Peace. Swedish soldiers serve in Bosnia under NATO, and we are observers in the Western European Armaments Group." Industry consolidation appeals to some Swedes, and Saab Dynamics' head of naval systems, Gunnar Sprang, cites the formation of Saab in 1937, which brought all Swedish aircraft construction under one company, as an early example.
Saab is keen to stress that it is a profitable, privately owned company, with strong backing from controlling shareholder the Investor financial group. This means that it is not restricted by the Swedish Government from exploring a variety of partnerships with other European companies, including co-development, collaboration, consortia, government- or industry-led initiatives, licensed production, mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances. The company already has 20 collaborative programmes in place and it is clear that it sees the need to consolidate to combat declining European defence budgets and competition from the USA. The joint marketing agreement with British Aerospace to promote the Saab JAS39 Gripen multi-role fighter is the most high profile of these projects.
Saab claims that it can offer potential partners proven technological expertise in several fields, pointing to the Gripen, the RBS15 missile and laser training systems as "world beaters". The company says that it has also proved itself to be a reliable partner and that it offers a wide range of synergies with most major European defence companies. Its firm financial situation also means that it can "-bring benefits, not liabilities", to any partnership.
Horizontal cross-border mergers would be a likely way in which the Swedes could move forward, with, for example, CelsiusTech Electronics, a division of Celsius Industries, being attractive to a large defence-electronics group, such as GEC. Bofors already plans to co-operate with Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) on the Taurus stand-off-munition dispenser and with France's GIAT on the Bonus smart munition.
The divisions of Saab could also find partners - the military-aircraft division would perhaps fit well with BAe and the dynamics division could become part of the Matra BAe Dynamics weapons giant, perhaps alongside Dasa.
The Swedish Government, however, is not offering a total open-door policy and has placed restrictions on the sharing of the country's unique stealth technology, electronic-warfare systems and advanced aviation and underwater systems. The Government considers only some 40 countries to be "safe" for defence exports.
In the non-governmental world of industrial initiatives, Sweden's defence industry has a strong hand to play, according to Professor Martin Edmonds, of Lancaster University's Centre for Defence and International Security Studies in the UK. Were Sweden to rely on inter-governmental initiatives, there would be little progress towards alleviating the pressure to find partners to remain either competitive or, in some cases, in business, he says.
Technological competence
He adds that, in the absence of governments and international organisations taking a lead, the defence manufacturers have to do so. Otherwise they would go out of business or fall prey to more-dynamic US competition.
Source: Flight International
