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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0701.PDF
BUSINESS STRATEGY ALEXANDER CAMPBELL/ LONDON Thales and Elbit plan joint UK venture Leicester site could circumvent Israeli export controls if bid for Watchkeeper surveillance UAV contract succeeds Thales is proposing to set up a joint-venture company with Israeli manufacturer Elbit in Leicester, UK as part of its bid for Watchkeeper, the £800 million ($1.43 billion) UK tactical surveillance unmanned air vehicle contract. A decision between Thales and a team led by Northrop Grumman, based on the RQ-8A Firescout rotary-wing UAV, is due in December. The 150-person company would be jointly owned and managed by both companies, and would own all the intellectual property involved in the Watchkeeper bid, allowing Thales to seek export sales for the Watchkeeper system with out running up against Israeli defence export controls. Thales says that the joint venture "will enable long-term UK self-suffi ciency in UAVs". Thales has also revealed Boeing's involvement in its bid: the US company is respon sible for ensuring that Watchkeeper remains compatible with future US equipment. Winning the contract will create over 1,000 new jobs, and guarantee another 1,000, Thales says. However, the company refused to say whether it will con tinue with the project if it loses the Watchkeeper contract to Northrop Grumman. According to Thales programme head Alex Cresswell, "60% of the cost of the system is on the ground". He adds: "There are a number of export prospects, including France and Australia. We have an export market forecast at £400 million over the next 10 years out of a total tactical UAV market of £3 billion." The final package will include 16 vehicle-mounted ground control stations and an undecided number of UAVs, of the smaller WK180 and larger WK450 types - with 180kg (3951b) and 450kg maximum take off weight, respectively. The WK180 will carry a single sensor payload, typically a com bined electro-optical/infrared/laser designator turret; the WK450 will carry two, which could include a synthetic-aperture radar, and will have 17h endurance compared with the WK180's lOh and Firescout's 4h. The longer endurance will reduce attrition, as most UAV crashes occur at take-off and landing; with longer endurance, fewer sorties will have to be flown to maintain coverage, reducing risk, Cresswell says. JOINT VENTURE ARIE EGOZI / TEL AVIV Elop steps closer to Europe with OHB link Elbit subsidiary Elop is stepping up efforts to play a bigger role in the European space and defence markets by form ing a joint venture with Bremen-based space technology company OHB-System. The venture will develop and market electro-optical sys tems and infrared payloads, suitable for deployment in space and on board unmanned air vehicles. The joint com pany, OHB ElectroOptics, will be based in Bremen. Marco Fuchs, chief executive of OHB Technology, says the new enterprise will increase OHB's range of products for the European space industry. Haim Rousso, corporate vice- president of Elbit Systems and general manager of Elop, says the venture will open new markets for the company's technology and products. GROWTH? First we were selected for the electrical power management. Then we took on the actuation for the unique vertical lift system. Then the canopy frame, standby flight display, components, weapons management system, airborne file server and video recorder. Step I step, we've built more of the machine. The program may gro to 5,000 aircraft. But Smiths involvement has grown even faster. SMITHS PERFORM www.smiths-aerospace.com smiths TEAMING MURDO MORRISON / BERLIN Galileo consortium adds sixth member Thales is poised to become the sixth member of the Galileo Industries consortium that is build ing the European navigation satel lite system. The French company will take a 12% stake in the five-nation part nership. The four main sharehold ers, France's Alcatel Space, Italy's Alenia Spazio and the German and UK divisions of EADS Astrium, will reduce their holdings from 21% to 19%, while the share held by a grouping of seven Spanish compa nies will fall to 12%. Galileo's owners, the European Space Agency and European Union, are expected to award the consortium the €1.1 billion ($1.31 billion) "in-orbit verification" con tract later this year to build the first four test satellites and ground infra structure. If successful, these will be followed by a further 26 satellites - the so-called "full operational capacity" phase - between 2006 and the end of the decade. Later this year, the EU/ESA body, the Galileo Joint Undertaking, is expected to choose who will operate the system from consortia led by EADS, Eutelsat and Finmeccanica. After long bickering about where to situate the Galileo Industries headquarters, the consortium has compromised by opening offices last month in Ottobrunn, Germany and Rome, Italy. Thales will help to build Galileo 34 18-24 MAY 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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