Memorandum from the European Defence Agency
(EDA)
On the requirements of different European countries,
I enclose a table setting out what we know of armoured fighting
vehicles in use, and to be procured over the next 10 years, across
a spread of European countries. (As you will see the data is not
fully comprehensive and, being drawn from open sources, may not
be wholly accurate). That said, in broad terms, the Annex paints
a picture of nations buying similar but differently configured
vehicles and few true examples of cooperation. The only known
ongoing cooperative development programme is the GE, NL BOXER
Programme. The industry-to-industry cooperative ASCOD programme,
which comprises the SP PIZARRO and the AU ULAN, is in production.
The light-weight FENNEK cooperative development programme between
NL and GE is also in production.
The armoured fighting vehicle market in Europe
was one of the first subjects that the EDA's Ministerial Steering
Board, aware of the fragmentation on both demand and supply sides,
asked us to pursue. Whilst a number of Member States have now
come together within the Agency to consider the possible development
of a new whole-system collaboration, around 2020, our experience
to date suggests that this objective may be best realised by a
series of collaborations in sub-systems and components. Our Member
States are evidently more interested in cooperative sub-system
programmes, which would allow them to work together on upgrading
and modifying existing platforms, or on innovative technologies
for future vehicles. And more common components and technologies
will lead, we hope, to a natural convergence of system design
and therefore to a significantly reduced number of AFV platforms.
Specifically, within the general requirement
for a modular, protected, multi-role family of AFV systems, five
relevant technology areas have been identified by our Member States
and industry as offering the first opportunities for co-operation:
— Active protection systems for
air transportable AFV.
— Unmanned Ground Vehicles.
— Beyond line-of-sight command
and control.
In addition, common sub-system capability requirements
have been identified in weapon packages, training systems and
battlefield target identification devices.
The "Network Enabled AFV" and "Unmanned
Ground Vehicles" projects are the most mature, with the scope
of work broadly defined and the formal process of consultation
with our interested Member States started that should lead to
feasibility studies being conducted in these two areas, probably
next year.
In sum, our work in the AFV sector has underlined
for us the difficulty of catalysing collaborations within a time-frame
covered by existing national plans and commitments—however
strong the strategic arguments for doing so might be. So we are
focussing on progressing collaborations on subsystems and components—in
the hope that this may in due course lead to whole system collaborations
for the next generation of vehicle.
24 November 2006
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