IDEX: France's Nexter Deals With Mideast Firms

Abu Dhabi - Nexter has signed a number of deals for munitions and local industrial cooperation aimed at boosting its business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Middle East region, an executive of the French land systems company said at the IDEX show here.
Among recent contract wins:

■ The supply of 30mm ammunition for the Dassault Mirage 2000-9 fighters of the UAE Air Force, a deal signed with the International Golden Group, based here, in early 2011.
■ Supply of a "very significant number" of Bonus 155mm, 52-caliber anti-tank artillery rounds for an undisclosed Middle East country, signed toward the end of 2010.
Nexter has sold its Caesar truck-mounted artillery to Saudi Arabia and Thailand, as well as the French Army.
■ A deal with the International Golden Group to supply the Azur up-armor kit for the UAE Army's Leclerc battle tank. The kit includes extra protection for combat in urban zones.
Nexter executives are looking to that recent sale of Bonus rounds to provide a sales platform for the UAE Army.
As part of its renewed sales effort in the region, Nexter signed Feb. 21 an agreement with the Burkan industrial group, based here, aimed at transferring to its local partner production of tens of thousands of the 120mm shell for the Leclerc tank fleet.
Burkan is a joint venture of German company Rheinmetall, the state-owned Mubadala holding group and the Al Jaber company.
Nexter also signed Feb. 21 a memorandum of understanding with Al Taif Technical Services for its local partner to provide maintenance for the UAE's Leclerc tanks and armored recovery vehicles. Al Taif is part of Mubadala.
Nexter is pitching its Véhicule Blindé Combat d'Infantrie (VBCI) in the UAE's competition for a fleet of armored personnel carriers estimated at 600, which includes a number of fighting vehicles.
A transfer of technology that allows local munitions production and a higher level of local tank and armored vehicle maintenance are intended to meet the UAE's drive to develop its defense industrial base, Nexter executive Bruno Burgon said.
Nexter is keen to be retained in any future modernization of the Leclerc, which was designed as a complete system. It fears third-party work might reduce the internal cohesion.
The signing of the "gentlemen's agreement" on local munitions production opens the way for talks to begin in April on work shares. The first batch of shells to be locally produced would be practice rounds before moving on to making combat munitions, which are expected to include new-generation high explosive and armor-piercing shells.
Nexter is also hoping to sell its Narwhal 20mm naval gun to the UAE Navy for mounting on fast patrol boats and the Baynunah missile corvette built by the Abu Dhabi-owned CMN shipyard in Cherbourg, northern France.
Nexter has signed up to the UAE's new offset agreement, which underpins the government's bid to strengthen its industrial base.

EDA Eyes Broader Pooling of Member Capabilities

BRUSSELS - The European Defence Agency (EDA) is keen to discuss the Franco-British Defence Cooperation Treaty with France and to see how Germany could contribute, an EDA official said.
"In some areas of capabilities in the treaty [signed in November], there is a possibility that other member states could be involved," the official said.

One example she gave was maritime mine countermeasures, which the EDA is looking into. The official added that the subject[of the Franco-British Treaty] "would not be on the agenda of the next EDA steering board meeting of national defense ministries unless France and the U.K. want it to be".
The official said she expected the pooling and sharing of EU member state defense capabilities would be "a key part of discussions" at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers later this week. Two other agency priorities are to communicate better what it does and to develop civil-military synergies.
In connection with civil-military synergies, the official described the EDA as the "ideal place to feed dialogue between member states vis à vis policies managed by the European Commission." She pointed to maritime security, research and technology, and radio frequencies as areas where dialogue with the commission "needs to be developed."
Asked if the EDA had any priorities among the 80 or more projects it is looking into, the official said is "up to the member states to give priorities based on their sovereign interests."
However, later she said that unmanned aerial systems (UASs) are a priority and talks here are taking place with the commission.
"Commission colleagues need to be convinced that they can respond to defense and civilian needs," she said. The EDA is looking into how to integrate UASs into civilian airspace.
The official also referred to a German-Swedish "food-for-thought" paper, which suggests areas, such as strategic and tactical airlift and logistics capabilities, that could be pooled.
"If a country were to accept that a capability would be built by another country or other countries, it would need the quasi-certainty that the capability would be available when they needed to use it," she said.

IDEX: DCI Crowd-Control Specialists Work With Bahrain Army

ABU DHABI - Defense Conseil International (DCI), a French state-owed training company, has three crowd-control specialists acting as advisers to the Bahrain Army, chief executive Jean-Louis Rotrubin said at the IDEX trade show.
The advisers, drawn from the French Gendarmerie Nationale and elite GIGN special forces unit, are part of a program to train Bahrain special Zforces in non-lethal crowd control and the avoidance of the use of deadly force, he said. The program is just beginning.

The program aims "to develop a new approach to how manage crowds in cities," Rotrubin said.
Security forces used deadly force against protesters in recent street demonstrations in Bahrain, leaving six dead and hundreds wounded. An inquiry into the deaths of demonstrators was one of the conditions opposition groups demanded before opening talks with the Bahrain monarchy.
DCI also has sent French personnel to Libya to train pilots and maintenance crews, aimed at bringing the Libyan Air Force's Mirage F1 fighters back into active service. Up until three years ago, an embargo prevented the delivery of spare parts, which meant Libya was unable to fly the Mirage F1, Rotrubin said.
In the Gulf region, DCI is in the early stages of developing military training and general education programs for the Qatar Air Force and Navy, he said.
As part of an agreement with the Qatar Navy announced at the Imdex trade show in March last year, the French company is setting up a naval school for petty officers and officer cadets.
DCI is also helping the Qatar Air Force to create an aeronautical academy, he said. One of the aims is to train up Qatari personnel to be more self reliant in aircraft maintenance rather than rely on third party sources.
"It's very important for them to master the technology and the know how in their new defense approach," he said.
DCI is helping organize BA and MA degree courses for the armed forces personnel so they receive a broad university education, in addition to the military training. DCI is working with North Atlantic University of Canada for the degree courses.
As part of the region's drive to foster education, the UAE agreed with the Paris Sorbonne University to open an annex here, while Qatar is host to a branch of the French HEC business school.
The Arabian Gulf region accounts for around two thirds of DCI's annual sales, with Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE generating significant revenue. Some 20 years ago, DCI was only present in Saudi Arabia, which requested crew training for the Sawari frigate program, based on the stealthy La Fayette warship. DCI also provided training for UAE crews for the Leclerc battle tank, and helicopters for the Kuwait armed forces.