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23 July 2002 |
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FARNBOROUGH, England (AP) - In an unusual partnership of aerospace rivals, Boeing Co. and the parent of its European competitor Airbus said Tuesday they've agreed to cooperate in the joint development of anti-missile defense systems. Boeing and the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., known as EADS, have signed a memorandum of understanding to share in efforts to design defenses against ballistic missiles for the United States and its allies. They announced the deal at the Farnborough International air show at Farnborough, just south of London. "U.S. and European industry came together today to show unity of purpose and appreciation of a common global threat. We will work together on ballistic missile defense - adding a new dimension to trans-Atlantic cooperation," Boeing chief executive Phil Condit told a news conference. Boeing said it has reached a similar agreement with Italian aerospace company Alenia Spazio. As prime contractor in the project with EADS, Boeing would be responsible for the development and integration of much of the ground-based equipment, including radars and command, control and communication systems. It also would be responsible for linking these defenses with satellites. Neither Boeing nor EADS said how much it would spend on the project, nor how they will divide up the work. "Right now it's just a framework, and inside this framework both companies will sort out how things will be done," said Heinrich Grossbongardt, a Boeing spokesman. "What is behind it is that the U.S. government has asked that European partners should take part in missile defense," he said. The announcement came amid U.S. President George W. Bush's continuing effort to build support among America's allies in Europe for the creation of a viable system of anti-ballistic missile defenses. "We believe ballistic missile defense to be an important focus in the shifting defense environment, and key to ensuring peace in the free world," said EADS joint chief executives Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich. "EADS will bring its proven expertise to the table." The deal represents the most significant partnership so far between EADS and Boeing. The two companies have partnered for several years on smaller projects, including marketing of the Meteor air-to-air missile. EADS owns 80 percent of Airbus, Boeing's only major competitor in the commercial aircraft business. Britain's BAE Systems owns the remaining 20 percent stake in Airbus. EADS also holds 75 percent of the space company Astrium, 100 percent of the helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter, 43 percent in the Eurofighter jet fighter program, 37.5 percent in the missile company MBDA, and 100 percent of EADS Launch Vehicles, which is involved in Ariane and French ballistic missiles.
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24 July 2002 |
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Large contractors to join Boeing in studying global plan FARNBOROUGH, England Boeing and European Aeronautic, Defense Space said Tuesday that they had agreed to conduct joint research on a global missile-defense program. Boeing, the largest American aerospace company, said it had signed deals with EADS - the multinational consortium that owns 80 percent of Airbus, Boeing's main rival in commercial aircraft - and also with Alenia Spazio of Italy. A similar agreement with BAE Systems of Britain, Europe's largest military contractor and the owner of the other 20 percent of Airbus, is expected Wednesday. The working relationships are in their earliest stages, and none of the companies has made any financial commitments. Boeing's chief executive, Philip Condit, said executives of the companies had met Tuesday afternoon at the Farnborough International Air Show, the biggest aerospace trade conference of the year, to start developing more detailed plans. "The United States has laid out a strategy and a program to implement its fundamental belief that ballistic missile defense must be deployed globally - capable of defending the United States, its friends and allies and their military forces around the world," Condit said. "This global approach sees international participation as a cornerstone of missile defense," he said. Additionally, governments in Europe, which have generally been cool to missile defense, must first reach an agreement with Washington on how such cooperative ventures should proceed. Boeing said Bush administration officials had been informed of its partnerships and had indicated their approval, but no one at the news conference Tuesday would answer questions about how they would be received in Europe. Boeing has had a contract with the U.S. government to help develop the American missile defense program for about six years, and the company is seeking to expand its military revenue quickly at a time of weak demand for civilian aircraft. Two weeks ago, Boeing said it would combine its space and communications unit with its military manufacturing unit, forming a single division called Integrated Defense Systems that will match its commercial jet unit in size and generate about $23 billion in revenue this year. Boeing already works with two non-American companies - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan and Israel Aircraft Industries - on military research and missile development, but those partnerships are small compared with the potential size of the new European alliances. Boeing and EADS both took part in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization committee looking into ballistic missile deployment, but they had never entered into any corporate agreement before. "We believe there is a strong basis for the United States and Europe to work together to face a common threat," said Rainer Hertrich, co-chief-executive of EADS, as fighter jets performing aerobatic tricks above the airfield outside threatened to drown out his words. "But Europe and European industry are not asking for a free ride. We know that Europe can provide many key technological contributions to a joint missile defense." For EADS, the agreement signals progress in efforts to win more American business. Of its E6 billion ($5.9 billion) in military revenue last year, only about 7 percent came from the United States. Among EADS's American contracts is one to upgrade the U.S. Coast Guard's helicopter fleet with new electronic equipment. The company hopes for 50 percent growth in military sales by the end of 2003, with American contracts rising to 10 percent of the total within a few years, said Philippe Camus, the company's other co-chief executive. "I think it's something important, to have this agreement with a major U.S. company," Camus said in an interview. "I think this is the right way to develop our business across the Atlantic." But officials at Boeing and the European companies will have to lobby European governments hard to get support for their partnerships. President George W. Bush's abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and his active pursuit of a missile defense program have been met with outright hostility from several European leaders, who see the actions as manifestations of American military bullying. "We are quite interested in the reaction of the European governments in the days to come," Hertrich said. The Pentagon has estimated the missile defense program's cost at $48 billion through 2007. Sharing the system with some allies would also help share the cost. More agreements with other partners may follow, according to James Evatt, president of the Boeing missile-defense unit, as the company begins to "build a constituency of companies throughout Europe" to work on the project. But he offered a caveat: "We all like to think we have got influence," he said, "but government will decide which programs to pursue."
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25 July 2002 |
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The American drive to persuade Britain it should take part in the ballistic missile defence system began in earnest yesterday when Boeing announced that it was bringing BAe Systems into the project. The move is seen as an attempt by President Bush to persuade a sceptical Tony Blair that national missile defence is worthwhile. The Prime Minister is sceptical about the system and the Government's stated position is that it sees no threat that requires national missile defence. The deal with BAe Systems followed similar deals with the pan-European EADS conglomerate and the Italian company Alenia and coincided with talks between the Ministry of Defence and a Pentagon delegation in London on missile defence collaboration. Boeing's new partnership agreements, signed this week at the Farnborough Air Show, were initiated by the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency, which told the US company to start bringing key European companies into the project. Among the Europeans, only BAe Systems has any technology and expertise that the Americans would really be interested in, the drive for European collaboration is purely political. The thinking in Washington is that the US investment and jobs created by the deals will make it more difficult for the governments to oppose or stand back from the national missile defence project. The inevitable exchange of technology will require government-to-government agreements that will evolve into effective support and eventually participation. National missile defence was widely discredited in Europe by the initial emphasis on the protection of continental America. But Jim Albaugh, president of Boeing Integrated Defence Systems, said: "Our administration feels very strongly that a missile defence system should not just be about the protection of the continental United States but also about protecting our friends and our allies." The British company was more circumspect about its involvement in the system, apparently wary about the political implications. It had been discussing the issue with Boeing for several months but it was "very, very early days", a spokesman said.
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