CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / PARIS
Contrary to popular belief, France is at the centre of European defence initiatives and is keen to strengthen multinational co-operation
Those who think that France is still the same go-it-alone, independent nation that pulled out of NATO's military structure and proudly developed the Rafale combat aircraft on its own, should take another look. Today France is at the centre of political initiatives to create a European security and defence policy and its aerospace industries are involved in almost every European multinational military procurement programme.
Philippe Camus, co-chief executive of EADS, says: "No company can provide the necessary level of industrial co-operation without the strong and active support of governments." He adds that government support is also needed to increase the level of industrial co-operation across the Atlantic. It must, he says, be made "easy, not hard, to co-operate".
France's prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, addressing the issue of the state's shareholding in aerospace companies, told industry leaders at the closure of the Paris air show that the French state would not remain a shareholder in EADS and Thales at current levels. He stressed that industrial projects, not the calendar, would guide withdrawal (Flight International, 1-7 July).
In the past two years the French government has made a significant effort to raise its defence procurement budget. "Not only is this good for industry, but also for our foreign policy," Raffarin says. In 2004 the budget will reach €14.9 billion ($17.1 billion), 9.2% up on the 2003 figure, enabling improvements in the availability of military equipment, and further equipment modernisation, says defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie.
Next year the French armed forces will take delivery of five Dassault Rafales and seven Eurocopter Tigers together with 110 MBDA Scalp EG cruise missiles and 60 MBDA Mica air-to-air missiles. Pre-planned contracts will be signed for two very-long-range transport aircraft, the type yet to be decided, and two EADS Casa CN235 cargo aircraft together with one Eurocopter Cougar RESCO helicopter.
Alliot-Marie says: "The 2004 budget scrupulously respects the 2003-8 loi de programmation [military programme law] signalling the priority given to our defence policy by the president and the government." Despite complaints from the European Union that France's 2004 budget does not comply with the strict Maastricht stability pact rules that bind those in the euro currency zone, Alliot-Marie has managed to remain within her budget, which Raffarin describes as an "exceptional effort".
Alliot-Marie would like the EU to remove defence budgets from the stability pact, saying it is unfair to penalise countries making an effort to raise their defence budgets "when in times of crisis, other states which are making no effort to increase their military capacity, rely on us to get their compatriots out of trouble spots".
The largest tranche of money in 2004, €1.2 billion, will be for five Rafale fighters for the French air force, the first of which will be delivered next year. Conventional weapons are being modernised "and adapted to the new context of multinational engagement", Raffarin says, with emphasis on improving force projection and mobility. These developments "are dictated by the major choices we have made in favour of building Defence Europe and our participation in the changes within the Atlantic alliance". NATO, he stresses "is and will remain the foundation of our collective defence….it is a fundamental element of world security".
Unique position
Despite France's unique position in NATO (it is a member at political level, but is not involved in the integrated military structure), it is nevertheless one of the leading contributors of manpower to NATO-led operations, with more than 5,200 soldiers deployed world-wide. A classified number of its special forces are working with their US colleagues in Afghanistan, and a French Dassault Mirage IV took reconnaissance photographs in Afghanistan, helping the UN weapons inspectors from 24 February to 9 April in Operation Tarpan.
Ever since France and the UK signed their declaration at St Malo in December 1998, saying the EU should develop the "capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces", France and its aerospace industry have been at the forefront of efforts to ensure the EU's Rapid Reaction Force was operational by May this year and that the EU's military capability gaps are filled.
One of the most glaring is in military transport aircraft, but is now on the path to resolution after many delays, the Airbus Military A400M contract having been finally signed on 27 May between OCCAR, the four-nation procurement agency acting for the seven customer nations, and Airbus Military. Camus says the A400M "is only one example of the sort of system that our governments will need to project their forces rapidly and over great distances. Air refuelling tanker and multi-mission aircraft are others."
France wants to play a leading role in both NATO and EU rapid response forces, both in procurement and training. For example, in October, air forces from France and 16 other nations completed a major 17-day exercise over north-west France to plan, task and conduct a combined medium-intensity air campaign, the last exercise but one before France puts this Level 2 command and control structure at the disposal of NATO and the EU Rapid Response Force in mid-2005.
"Our contract with NATO and the EU is to command and control 200 sorties a day," says Gen Jean-Patrick Gaviard, commander of French air defence and air operations. "There are very few nations with this ability," he says. France holds the senior NATO response force position from 15 October to 15 January 2004, involving a five-day notice to deploy four Mirage 2000Cs, five Mirage 2000Ds, one Boeing E-3 AWACS, one Transall C-160 Gabriel intelligence aircraft and one refuelling tanker.
The French government and industry are pushing for more procurement decisions to be taken at a multinational European level and have been strong advocates of the creation of a European Defence Agency (Flight International, 30 September-6 October). Camus said in early November that EADS "fully endorses" efforts to create such an agency, which, in his view, "is crucial in establishing a process to harmonise Europe's requirements and procurement planning for security and defence equipment".
Strategic independence
Aerospace industry analyst St‚ phane Albernhe says French policy is to develop an industry that can ensure its strategic independence from the USA and others outside Europe - unlike the UK, he says, "which is lacking in long-term strategic vision and is only happy if it is getting immediate value for money".
This is why, since 1985, when France pulled out of the Eurofighter programme after disagreements concerning workshare and control of the project and went on to design the Rafale alone, it has been involved in wide-ranging co-operation projects on satellites (Helios II with Belgium and Spain); missiles (Scalp/Storm Shadow with Greece, Italy and the UK); global positioning systems (Galileo with the EU and the European Space Agency); frigates (with Italy); helicopters (NHIndustries NH90 multirole helicopter with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands) and the Tiger attack helicopter (with Germany).
In November 2001, six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the European Technology Acquisition Programme to develop European capacities in stealth and other technologies applicable to air warfare. Little has emerged from this initiative - from lack of funds says industry - and in frustration France launched its own initiative at the Paris air show to develop these technologies with its unmanned combat air vehicle full-scale demonstrator project.
The €300 million initiative has attracted European interest from Sweden (Flight International, 4-10 November), Russia and others. Prime contractor Dassault Aviation says the interest shown "proves we are building the foundations of a new type of European defence industry co-operation based on each other's industrial skills and risk-sharing in research and development".
Source: Flight International
