Anglo-French Summit Raises Defense Bar
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Douglas Barrie/London
Michael Taverna/Paris
British and French politicians have their sights set on closer defense cooperation, and the outcome could be profound.
The two nations may work together on their next generation of military communications satellites. In addition, they will examine the potential for collaborating on unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAV), as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned air vehicles.
Until now, the U.K. has shied away from involvement in significant European UCAV work, instead pursuing a “twin-track strategy” based on national research and development work with Washington.
Discussing the potential for European UCAV collaboration, Andrew Brookes, aerospace analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, says that while the “aspiration may be admirable” there remains a basic issue: “Can we share the technology?” London and Washington have in place agreements covering stealth technology that constrain U.K. collaboration with other nations.
Brookes is skeptical about Britain’s ability to afford a national development for an operational UCAV. He says London has two choices: opt for a U.S. acquisition or pursue involvement in a European effort. The funding levels for national work will merely support keeping the Defense Ministry at an “informed customer status.”
Indications that the latter approach may once again be gaining traction emerged in the margins of last week’s summit between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
British industry executives flag the ambitious tenor of the defense and security declaration resulting from the summit, and the emphasis on developing proposals that are emerging from the Anglo-French High-Level Working Group on defense cooperation. This was established in June 2006, and one of its initial successes has been to foster joint work on guided-weapons projects.
The declaration includes the intent to “continue to broaden and deepen our defense industrial cooperation.” It adds: “In the mid to long term, [the U.K. and France] assess the scope for collaboration on unmanned air vehicles (Istar and UCAS).”
In the intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (Istar) arena, BAE Systems is leading the ministry- and industry-funded Mantis medium-altitude long-endurance demonstrator.
This unmanned combat air systems (UCAS) and Istar UAV work will be advanced by “undertaking a detailed joint study to map out the key elements of any collaborative program and establishing concrete discussions between our industries,” the document says.
At the propulsion level, Rolls-Royce and Snecma already have a joint venture—set up in 2001—looking at future military needs. This built on initial work in the 1990s between the two companies. Originally targeted at a next generation of manned combat platforms, the venture will likely provide a base for UCAV-related collaboration within an Anglo-French context.
There is also a relative state of churn in London’s UCAV aspirations. The in-service date of a UCAV for the Royal Air Force has been moved to beyond 2025 from 2018-20. This aligns the U.K. requirement better with French timescales, rather than U.S. ones. The French air force is looking to introduce a UCAV as part of its Future Combat Air System in 2030.
Later this year, the French defense ministry will begin a study into how it advances its UCAV plan beyond the present stage of the Neuron demonstrator program, which France is leading with the participation of five other nations.
Arguably, the U.K. UCAV requirement is also more akin to that of the French air force’s, given the two services’ relatively similar size and the likely mix of legacy and low-observable platforms that the two will operate in the coming decades.
France previously tried to involve the U.K. in collaborative UCAV work, notably around the European Technology Acquisition Program at the start of this decade. While the U.K. did participate in ETAP work, for the most part it avoided UCAV-related areas, especially regarding LO design and technology. This is understood to have been partly because of bilateral pacts with the U.S. concerning stealth technology.
The U.K. has been carrying out LO-related UCAV work since the late 1990s. At the end of 2004, it also began to collaborate with the U.S. on the J-UCAS Coalition Warfare System Demonstration, known in the U.K. as Project Churchill. This 54-month program examines UCAV concepts of operation and interoperability issues in a coalition environment.
The second element of the U.K.’s “twin-track” approach was the December 2006 launch of the Taranis UCAV technology demonstrator program. This BAE Systems-led project will result in a prototype UCAV airframe being test-flown in 2010. In parallel, the U.K. is continuing other classified research related to LO UCAV technology, including into air vehicle design concepts beyond that of the present Taranis configuration.
The shift in when the British Defense Ministry aims to be able to field a UCAV—combined with the impact this has had on the timing of follow-on phases to Taranis—has caused friction with BAE Systems. Industry is eager to build on Taranis, sustaining the development by moving ahead quickly with a follow-on program. The change in when a UCAV is anticipated to become part of the RAF’s deep-strike capability has meant there is less urgency within the ministry for immediately funding the next stage.
A further industrial hurdle to closer Anglo-French work with regard to UCAV technology is related to whether BAE and Dassault could accommodate each other’s aspirations in this area.
Another issue is whether the impetus survives a likely change in the U.K. government in 2010, with the probable election of the traditionally Euro-skeptic and more pro-U.S. Conservative Party.
One noteworthy historical point: Wrangling over the industrial lead is what marred the development of Europe’s previous generation of combat aircraft. The outcome was French withdrawal from a then five-nation European program and the eventual emergence of the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon.
Last week’s decision to study the potential for jointly pursuing the two countries’ milsat communications requirements may have been prompted partly by a recent French decision to sell off its Syracuse III system to a private operator, as the British did with its Skynet 4. The French sale-and-leaseback arrangement could be accompanied eventually by a joint purchase of a next-generation system in partnership with the U.K., under the same sort of private financing initiative that Britain used to fund its new Skynet 5 network.
The French already purchase Skynet 5 and related capacity from the system’s owner/operator EADS/Paradigm; and both France and Britain supply capacity to NATO, in cooperation with Italy. Still not clear is whether the sale and leaseback and fourth-generation system purchase would be linked, and whether it might involve other countries, notably Italy, which is carrying a French payload on its Sicral 2. A request for proposals for Syracuse III has yet to be issued.
Neuron photo: Dassault Aviation
