Paris, 10 March 2009 – On 5 March 2009, on the occasion of the German Presidency of WEU, the European Security and Defence Assembly held a seminar on “European defence equipment cooperation: challenges and prospects” at the German Defence Ministry in Bonn.

NAD designate Mr Dirk ELLINGER, representing the Presidency, gave an overview of European cooperation in which he stressed the need to accept a degree of interdependence, harmonise requirements and coordinate activities. The European Defence Agency (EDA) had a vital role to play in this. The pressure on limited resources in this period of economic and financial crisis was a further incentive for states to pool their efforts.

During the first session on “Agencies and their current roles” Mr Patrick BELLOUARD, Director of OCCAR, General Carlo MAGRASSI, Deputy Director of the EDA and Mr Richard FROH, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for armaments, presented their organisations’ activities in the field of international armaments cooperation.

The OCCAR and EDA representatives welcomed the excellent coordination between their two agencies. OCCAR, whose task was to manage programmes, currently had several major programmes under its responsibility: the A400M (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom), the BOXER armoured vehicle (Germany and the Netherlands), the COBRA counter-battery radar (France, Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom), the PAAMS Principal Anti Air Missile System (France, Italy and the United Kingdom), the FREMM multi-mission frigate (France and Italy), the ESSOR European Secure Software-Defined Radio system (Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden), the Tiger helicopter (Germany, Spain, France) and the potentially MUSIS Multinational Space Information System ground segment (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain).

The EDA for its part was engaged in four major areas of cooperation at European level:

– the Capability Development Plan (CDP);
– research and development (funding of joint programmes), in particular studies on portable missiles (MANPAD ) and maritime mine counter measures;
– European armaments cooperation strategy;
– the European defence technological industrial base (EDTIB).

Its task was to generate tangible projects which would then become programmes under OCCAR management. Currently its main areas of study were: the training of helicopter pilots (difficult terrain), UAVs (maritime UAVs in particular), software-defined radio, strategic lift, counter-mine/IED (improvised explosive device) activities and MUSIS.

NATO representative Richard FROH presented the activities of the 14 NATO agencies and of the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD), which was involved in the efforts to improve the EDTIB and in transatlantic cooperation and worked together with the EDA and OCCAR on a regular basis. He drew particular attention to the difficulties stemming from trade barriers and obstacles to technology transfers.

During the second session on “Cooperation as seen by states and industry” Mr Eric BRUNI, speaking on behalf of the French procurement agency DGA, stressed that more cooperation made for more competition, which in turn was conducive to industrial restructuring. Prior to all forms of cooperation it was necessary to have a clear and precise definition of operational requirements. Downstream in the process it was important to step up military cooperation in order to provide feedback from joint operations. The military Erasmus initiative should encourage such cooperation. Training of the people with armaments responsibilities at all levels was another key to successful cooperation. France’s SERA (European sessions for armaments directors) initiative made a useful contribution in that respect.

Careful phasing of programmes was important: it was necessary to avoid launching the development phase prematurely in order to reduce the risk. A clear delegation of authority was essential for effective decision-making at multinational level. It would be useful from that point of view to further develop the links between the EDA and OCCAR. The industrial set-up needed to be clearly defined, with a strong prime contractor and a genuine pooling of industrial expertise. In particular the EDA and the European Commission should step up their cooperation in order to establish a link between defence R&T and community programmes such as the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. It was also necessary to use the technologies developed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the full and to enable them to play a stronger role in European cooperation.

The British perspective on European armaments cooperation was presented by Mr Bob REGAN, who stressed the global nature of defence companies and the need for them to be highly competitive. The market for subcontractors was also a global one, with suppliers in the United States and Asia as well as Europe. It was necessary to choose the best technology available on the market in order to cover the requirements of the armed forces. Regulation of defence equipment exports was a necessity, but transparency and coordination of the different national regulations at European level was essential: this indeed was the aim of the Commission’s recent Defence Package. The EDA provided a useful point of contact and forum for discussion among states. The autonomy of technological and industrial capacities, operational sovereignty and security of supply were crucial issues. They formed part of the UK’s defence industrial strategy and must also be taken on board at European level.

In the third session on “New areas of cooperation”, finally, there were presentations on missile programmes (MBDA), the MUSIS satellite obervation system and the Eurofighter programme, followed by a debate on the prospects for cooperation over the coming years.

The previous day, on 4 March, the President of the Assembly, Robert WALTER, accompanied by the Vice-Chairman of the Technological and Aerospace Committee, Nigel EVANS (United Kingdom, Federated Group) and former Chairman Edward O’HARA (United Kingdom, Socialist Group), was received by OCCAR Director Mr Patrick BELLOUARD and his staff at OCCAR headquarters in Bonn for an in-depth exchange of views on European defence equipment cooperation and the future prospects for OCCAR and its cooperation with the European Defence Agency.