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Defense, here’s how France and Germany accelerate on FCAS and MGCS

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Defense, here's how France and Germany accelerate on FCAS and MGCS

Defense ministers of Paris and Berlin are trying to advance as much as possible some of the projects they launched together in the field of armaments: the air system of the future FCAS and the MGCS tank

Paris and Berlin accelerate on joint defense programs.

During a visit to the Airbus headquarters in Manching, defense ministers of Germany and France, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Florence Parly, expressed their countries' support for major European defense programs on Thursday.

Specifically, both stressed the importance of promoting key European defense programs such as the Eurodrone, the air system of the future FCAS and the European tank project MGCS.

HURRY UP YOUR DEFENSE PROGRAMS ROADCAP

On the other hand, as Michel Cabirol pointed out in La Tribune , "the main electoral deadlines are approaching both in Germany (Bundestag in September 2021) and in France (presidential in April 2022) and the French and German defense ministers are trying to define the as possible some of the crucial projects that Paris and Berlin have started together in the field of armaments ”.

That is the Future Air Combat System (Fcas), the Main Ground Combat System (Mgcs) and, finally, the Eurodrone.

"After months of Franco-German political-industrial rivalry, these programs are going through a calmer period" remarks La Tribune, "but the electoral calendar of the two countries will reach the ministries and will put them to the test again to make these programs irreversible".

Particularly for FCAS and MGCS, France is the leader in the former with Dassault as prime contractor for sixth generation fighter (Ngf). Germany instead in the land project, managed by the Knds joint venture, composed of the French company Nexter and the German company Kmw.

WHAT POINT IS THE FCAS

The FCAS program, announced by the governments of France and Germany in 2017, will provide the next level of air power by creating a system of manned and unmanned platforms with full operational capability expected by 2040. Meanwhile, Spain has also joined the program.

Competing with the Franco-German-Spanish program will be the Tempest project, an air combat system of the future designed by the United Kingdom with Italy and Sweden.

While France and Germany hang on to the Bundestag's decision, rival British Tempest project is warming up.

At the heart of this future air system is the sixth generation fighter that will replace the current Rafale and Eurofighter. The delay between the presentation of the scale model at the Paris Air Show in June 2019 and the award of Phase 1A contracts (which starts the demonstration phase) last February was due to the German legislation according to which any defense-related project with a higher cost the EUR 25 million is subject to separate approval by the Bundestag Budget Committee.

THE INDUSTRIES INVOLVED

The contracts awarded by France and Germany have been extended to Dassault Aviation, Airbus, MTU Aero Engines, Safran, Mbda and Thales.

PHASE 1A STARTED

After signing the € 150 million research and technology contract in February, France and Germany (along with Spain) aim to complete a contract to develop and manufacture a demonstrator, which is expected to fly in 2026.

As the specialized magazine Rid explained in February, "Phase 1A will concern, in particular, the concept and design studies of the piloted fighter, the core of the system, of the Remote Carrier / gregarious and of the combat cloud architecture, while the objective of 'entire demonstration program is to fly with a piloted fighter demonstrator, propelled by a variant of the Snecma M88 engine, current engine of the Rafale, in 2026 ”.

THE GOAL OF PARIS

The next phase of FCas development will include the implementation of Phase 1B. Departing upon successful completion of Phase 1A.

As reported by the Tribune , citing a photo of the French Ministry of Defense, “the budget amounts to about 5 billion euros and will be divided between France, Germany and Spain. France has included a budget of € 2.2 billion in the current military planning law. This summer, the industrialists presented a first proposal for 10 billion euros. We must therefore work to bring together the amounts ".

Ministerial sources reassured the French daily that the budget difference between industry and government is not surprising. However, time is running out and the success of the project also lies in its “speed of execution”.

THE BUNDESTAG GOES AWAY

According to the Tribune , Paris and Berlin hope to get the green light from the German parliament in the spring of 2021.

“The whole challenge is to go fast enough to launch a large part of the project in 2021 in order to make it irreversible,” commented the source from Florence Parly's cabinet.

DON'T WASTE TIME ON MGCS

And it is here that the project of the European tank of the future MGCS returns to the foreground. The project aims to replace the French Leclercs and the German Leopard 2 by 2035. In recent times, German parliamentarians have set conditions, driven by the fear that French industrialists are too dominant in the FCAS project.

In particular, they want the MGCS terrestrial program, in which the Germans are the leaders, to proceed at the same pace as the air one.

Precisely for this reason, according to the Tribune , "to save time (and above all to please the Bundestag), the roadmaps of the FCAS and MGCS programs (whose first studies were communicated in May) will be aligned to present them simultaneously to the Bundestag".

Last May the three industrial partners involved in the MGCS, the German groups Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (Kmw) and the French group Nexter, and the German Federal Office BAAINBw, acting on behalf of Germany and France, signed a contract for the "System architecture definition study – Part 1".

Now France and Germany plan to sign a research and technology contract in early 2021 on at least eight of the thirteen pillars defined in this program. “MGCS remains a 50/50 funded program between Paris and Berlin which equally share the workload. Knds will have 75% (50% for Nexter, 25% for Kmw) of this load and Rheinmetall 25% ”.

Finally, the MGCS will remain a bilateral program between France and Germany. The Tribune reported in fact that "France believes that the project is not mature enough to welcome new partners (such as Poland and Italy)". Both Warsaw and Rome have both asked to join the program.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/difesa-ecco-come-francia-e-germania-accelerano-su-fcas-e-mgcs/ on Fri, 18 Sep 2020 12:22:13 +0000.