Defence`s Feeds

EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq held talks today (20 December) in Belgrade with Serbian Minister of Defence Mr. Zoran Đorđević, as well as Representatives of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee at the Serbian National Assembly. Current and future opportunities for cooperation between the EDA and Serbia were among the main topics of discussion. 

Talks with the Minister of Defence mainly focused on the state of play of Serbia’s participation in EDA projects, via its 2013 Administrative Arrangement. Mr. Domecq welcomed Serbia’s involvement in EDA projects and activities, which has grown steadily over the last three years across a diverse range of EDA programmes, such as Countering Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED), the Collaborative Database (CODABA) and EU SatCom Market, which was the first EDA project Serbia joined in March 2016.
 
Mr Domecq commended Minister Đorđević for Serbia’s overall involvement with the EDA and encouraged further engagement in the Agency’s work in the future. “Our Administrative Arrangement has provided a fruitful foundation for EDA-Serbia cooperation. I am pleased to see that Serbia has become increasingly active and now participates in several EDA projects. I believe that we will also identify possible new areas for cooperation going forward.” 

Mr. Domecq also held productive discussions at the Serbian National Assembly, where he met with representatives of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee. Talks took place on the implementation of the EU Global Strategy, the European Defence Action Plan and the EU-NATO Joint Declaration, focusing on the role of the EDA.  

During a packed agenda, Mr. Domecq also attended a meeting with the Serbian Chief of Defence, General Ljubiša Diković, and met with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Military Academy of Serbia. 
 

More information:

• Serbia joins EU Satcom Market
• Signing of EDA-Serbia Administrative Arrangement

To replace its submarines dating back to the 1990s, Australia opted for the construction of 12 French ocean submarines. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian inked the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) in Adelaide that will see French shipbuilder DCNS design and build the Shortfin Barracudas (Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A). The total cost of the 12 submarines, including separate agreements with US and Australian contractors, will hit Aus $50 billion (34 Mds Euro). This contract would be the most important contract concluded by France with a foreign country.

Conventionnaly powered submarines
The vessels will be a scaled-down, conventionally-powered version of France's 4,700-tonne nuclear-fuelled Barracuda but boast the same stealth capabilities.Australia awarded DCNS the main contract in April, beating off competition from Germany TKMS (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems) and Japan Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

"Home-made vessels" with French know-how and US weapons
The IGA is the last foundation stone needed to ensure Australia is able to develop a cutting-edge sovereign submarine capability, this will be a sovereign defence industry creating 2,800 jobs at the very cutting edge of technology. This was the sine qua non condition for winning the contract. And in France probably between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs will be perpetuated thanks to this contract. Design and mobilisation work has already been launched with Australian experts working in Cherbourg while DCNS was to open new offices in Adelaide later Tuesday employing up to 300 engineers.
US defence contractor Lockheed Martin was named in September to fit the combat systems for the Barracudas.

Geopolitical background
If Australia decides today to renew its fleet of submarines, it is because the Pacific has become one of the hotspots of the planet. The Chinese government claims several archipelagos of the region, multiplying the frictions with the riparian states that also dispute them, like Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan or Vietnam. For several months, with enormous operations of backfilling, Beijing transforms coral reefs into artificial islands to place new advanced bases at the disposal of the army. According to the Pentagon, also worried by these maneuvers, China would have gained more than 600 ha on the waters.

For President François Hollande, who said the contract is historic, the announcement "marks a decisive step forward in the strategic partnership between the two countries, which will cooperate over 50 years on the major element of sovereignty represented by sub-marine capacity ".

Tag: BarracudaDCNSAustralian Navy

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What does the Pentagon need to do?  Instead of this emphasis on "jointness" and "interoperability" we need clearly defined Roles and Missions for our forces!  The USMC is trying to operate...

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Question.  How many of you were paying attention to the news yesterday?  How many of you are aware of the terror attack in Jordan?  You didn't know about it?  Well check this shit...

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Indian shipbuilder Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) has launched the last landing craft utility (LCU) ship for the Indian Navy.

The UK Royal Navy’s fourth Astute-class nuclear-powered submarine has been formally christened as Audacious, during a ceremony held at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, UK.

The US Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye with aerial refuelling (AR) capabilities has successfully completed its first flight.

The Deficiencies, Mistakes and Contradictions of the New EU Foreign and Security Strategy
Evolution or Devolution? From the « Solana Paper » to the « Mogherini Paper »
András István Türke
CERPESC 16/E/3/2016 - 20 December 2016

The events of the last 20 years, the first operations and missions, show that the Common Security and Defense Policy, the CSDP (the European Security and Defense Policy: the ESDP, before 2009) does not exist only on paper. Europe must act to prevent wars and crises or to stop them. The European Union and its member countries are confronted with decisive choices for the future of Europe as a political entity. The external (and above all, energy) dependence of the Union is particularly emphasized by the European security strategies. The documents that function as strategies (the first, the 2003 ESS and the most recent, 2016 EUGS) of the European Union are quite poor in terms of content and objectives. They list the challenges, without drafting the places and means of the overall strategic presence. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the major development issues of EU strategic thinking during the period 2003-2016. Can we talk about development, stagnation, or devolution? Is the new strategy capable of fulfilling its role and can really serve as the basis of our ambitions?

Tag: EUGSESSSolanaMogherini

The body of Turkish riot police officer Mevlut Mert Altıntas, 22, who shot to death the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, after Turkish especial forces took him down. Dead...

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More to come.

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General Friedrich Kussin (1895-1944), the German commander of Arnhem in the Netherlands, was ambushed and killed by British paratroopers at a crossroads on September 17, 1944 during Operation Market...

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Japanese soldier getting ready to cut off the head of a Chinese prisoner.

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Wärtsilä ELAC Nautik GmbH is a company at Kiel, with more than 80 years of experience in development and production of hydroacoustic systems.

Cobham Sliprings is at the forefront of electrical slipring (slipring assortment or SRA) development and production, enabling electrical bonding (electrical slipring) across rotating and stationary components in the naval industry.

Thanks to William for the link! Russian ambassador shot in the back in Turkey?  This will not go over well.  I wonder what the reaction will be.

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The Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Jorge Domecq, and the Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) Florian Guillermet, have today signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) which promotes collaboration on SESAR 2020, the next phase of research and innovation in air traffic management.

The MOC builds on existing working arrangements and ensures that, pursuant to EDA’s role, military views will be taken into consideration in the context of SESAR ATM Research and Development.

The MOC seeks to align civil and military technological development initiatives wherever possible and optimises the use of expertise and available resources, notably in relation to space based systems, remote piloted aircraft systems, cyber security, ATM standards development, the European ATM Master Plan and evolutions of military capabilities and technologies.

“This memorandum of cooperation reinforces EDA’s relationship with the SJU, in support of our role to ensure that military interests and specificities are taken into account in the further evolutions in the Single European Sky, particularly in relation to SESAR 2020 and RPAS Air Traffic Insertion (ATI). It also underpins our joint objective to identify opportunities for civil-military synergy in the context of dual-use R&T projects, notably in support of the recently established RPAS ATI coordination mechanism between the European Commission, EASA, SJU and EDA”, said Jorge Domecq, EDA.

“It is only through the effective collaboration of military and civil aviation stakeholders that we will achieve our mission to modernise Europe’s skies. Building on an already solid relationship, this renewed cooperation with the EDA will further facilitate coordination of military views across the SESAR JU research and innovation activities in SESAR 2020”, said Florian Guillermet, SJU.

 

More information:

• Single European Sky (EDA project page)
• EUROCONTROL and the European Defence Agency consolidate their cooperation (EDA news 17 November 2016)
• Partners step up efforts to address the integration of drones into European airspace (EDA news 8 November 2016)

 

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP