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FRES 04
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 ten 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 cooperation:
· Network Enabled AFV · Active protection systems for air transportable AFV · Virtual prototypes · 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.
Annex AFV HOLDINGS AND PROCUREMENT INTENTIONS OF CERTAIN* EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Key APC - Armoured Personnel Carrier AFV - Armoured Fighting Vehicle · The countries listed here all participate in the EDA except for Bulgaria and Romania (to join on 01 Jan 07), Denmark, Norway (which has an Administrative Arrangement with the EDA), Croatia, Switzerland and Turkey.
24 November 2006
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