The Times - Aug 10th:
Defence companies set to fight for MoD contracts
Britain’s defence companies are preparing plans to pitch this week for one of the biggest contracts to be handed out by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
They were summoned to a meeting last week, at which the MoD outlined requirements for the next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The contract to develop and operate the UAVs is worth billions to the winning consortium and could last for a generation, opening a potentially lucrative export market for victorious companies.
Groups across Europe are positioning themselves to take advantage of a surge in orders for UAVs and the negotiations have been likened to those 30 years ago that led to the creation of the Eurofighter Typhoon, Europe’s principal fighter jet.
Unmanned aircraft have been so successful in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan undertaken by the United States and Britain that they are widely expected to become the future of air surveillance and combat. They are used to track individuals and vehicles, to provide intelligence to ground troops and to target missiles. There are also plans to create combat versions that eventually would be capable of replacing manned fighters such as the Typhoon.
BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Cobham, QinetiQ, Thales, EADS and Senex met ministry officials last week to be briefed on Britain’s UAV requirements. The Times has spoken to several of the participants and understands that the MoD’s priority is to develop medium altitude long endurance (MALE) aircraft, capable of spending a day at heights of up to 60,000ft, providing ground surveillance and airspace monitoring. In addition, the MoD will continue to invest in a research programme headed by BAE into an unmanned combat aircraft called Taranis.
The ministry has also told the defence contractors that they must work together to ensure that all UAVs use the same ground stations and analysis equipment to prevent costly duplication. In Britain, BAE, Rolls-Royce and QinetiQ are developing Mantis as their offering in the MALE UAV sector. Thales and Dassault are working on a French model called Neuron, while EADS is building a German, French and Spanish system called Talarion.
At present the ministry leases Reaper UAVs from General Atomics, of the United States, for use in Afghanistan and it may choose to buy these rather than develop an expensive, independent solution.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that several European governments are understood to favour working together to develop a joint approach, which has become common practice because of the high cost of defence projects.
One agreement to emerge from a meeting between Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy last year was that Britain and France should consider cooperation on UAVs. High-level meetings are understood to have taken place already between French and British defence industry executives and this could lead to a possible BAE-Thales-Dassault joint venture. This would enable an Anglo-French UAV to corner the European market and knock EADS out of the competition.
In a further twist, the French and Germans have discussed co-operation. This might limit BAE’s future involvement in the UAV sector.
“Everyone is jockeying for position because there is a lot at stake,” one defence source said. Another said: “There is an argument that we should work together to create a Eurofighter for UAVs in terms of collaboration, but each side has to develop its own capability first.”
Britain operates Hermes UAVs in Afghanistan, which are classed as tactical aircraft. These operate at low altitude and are used for gathering intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance operations. The Hermes UAVs will be upgraded to Watchkeeper next year in a project led by Thales UK. The £800 million contract will provide the Armed Forces with 54 aircraft.