MBDA, the guided missiles maker with ambitions to become a European rival to sector giants such as Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, is kicking off its 10th anniversary year in an optimistic mood. Chief executive Antoine Bouvier, speaking in London, says last year's Anglo-French agreements to harmonise defence procurement have given MBDA a golden opportunity to shine as a testbed for the concept.
If deepening co-operation on new programmes between the two countries succeeds through MBDA in strengthening their joint industrial and technology base to create a single European prime contractor in the "complex weapons" sector, then other sectors may follow, says Bouvier.
"I am pleased that after 10 years the MBDA model [of co-operation between national-champion manufacturers] has been confirmed," he says, noting that, since the summit agreement, comparable levels of missile orders have come to MBDA from each side of the Channel, giving a "clear indication of the converging and balanced priorities placed by the two countries with regards to the complex weapons sector".
EUROPEAN MODEL
This new era of Anglo-French co-operation is driven in large part by budgetary constraints, and in the context of the UK's Strategic Defence and Security Review has gone as far as contemplation of sharing such resources as aircraft carriers.
But while sometimes in jest referred to as the "entente frugale", this communal spirit has a very serious underpinning, in Bouvier's view: "For MBDA this new dimension in co-operation is an explicit recognition by our domestic customers that the complex weapons sector is essential to their sovereignty in terms of defence and security of supply," he says.
And, he adds: "We see this kind of partnership equally applying to Italy, Germany and eventually Spain."
Those three countries may be some time from catching up with the UK and France as full partners in terms of their power projection capabilities, but it can be said that MBDA forms, at least in principle, the basis of a broader European prime contractor concept than exists at the moment.
As chief financial officer Julian Whitehead points out, the missile businesses of either Lockheed Martin or Raytheon are far bigger than the entire European sector. MBDA - formed from UK, French, Italian and German missile houses and owned jointly by BAE Systems (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and Finmeccanica (25%) - has a long way to go to catch up, with 2010 sales at €2.8 billion ($3.9 billion) compared with, say, Raytheon Missile Systems' $5.6 billion.
However, says Whitehead, prospects are encouraging. The company has 60 land, air and sea programmes. Its four partner countries are being joined by Spain, where efforts are underway to bring local industry into MBDA programmes. Whitehead believes MBDA might be a better model for European integration than the Airbus Military A400M concept, which could be seen as a more ad-hoc approach.
Bouvier outlines that MBDA model as standing on four pillars: co-operation between formerly independent companies going back to the 1996 Matra Defence-BAe Dynamics union; partnering with customers; operational excellence; and globalisation.
Co-operation is certainly a strong suit, as is partnering, especially now with the Anglo-French drive to alliance. Operational excellence is also in reasonable supply; Bouvier is excited by last October's successful intercept by an Aster ground-launched missile of a target representing a ballistic missile, and believes this success points to a genuine, independent European capability in anti-ballistic missile defence.
Globalisation represents a bigger challenge. While business outside Europe is trending upwards, 2010's export order intake dipped to just 31% of all orders owing to the lack of any single, big deal abroad. Bouvier and Whitehead are confident that 2011 export orders can move back towards the 40% seen in recent years, but in the world's biggest market, the USA, all MBDA sells is its small-diameter bomb with wing kit, through Boeing.
Source: Flight International
