The main challenges facing European use of space are institutional, military, financial and industrial. How to confront them was a question to which Pascale Sourisse suggested answers when speaking on duality and competitiveness at a CHEAr (Centre for Higher Armaments Studies) conference on 22 March this year. Since that date the European Commission has authorised the transfer to Thales of Alcatel-Lucent’s shares in Alcatel Alenia Space, which becomes Thales Alenia Space; the author is CEO of the company.
Europe and Space: Duality and Competitiveness
Four keywords sum up the essentials: space, Europe, duality and competitiveness, and they are interlinked. Michèle Alliot-Marie, France’s former Minister for Defence, used them in her introduction to the GOSPS (Defence Space Policy Steering Group) Report, when discussing the perspectives for defence space policy. She remarked: ‘A 50 per cent increase in the national effort, together with a similar effort at the European level, will allow us to make a first, key advance in the context of an ambitious European space policy.’
Furthermore, the theme of competitiveness is essential from the industrial point of view, since it involves issues such as the maintenance of capability, employment, and an R&D capability. This aim is difficult to attain, bearing in mind in particular the very strong competition in this sector from companies in countries whose currencies have a more favourable rate of exchange than that of the euro. European companies have suffered from this situation for several years, and have accordingly put in place plans to improve competitiveness so as to safeguard their future and that of their employees.
Competitiveness must be based on two pillars. The first is the synergy between the civil and military domains, in other words the duality of space activities. The second is the search for structured cooperation at the European level. Here it must be said that duality is much more important in the context of European industry than it is in the United States. American industry is in the happy position of being able to base its development entirely on defence contracts. The situation is different in Europe, where companies need to have a market presence in the civil sector. The search for structural cooperation is fundamental, and most defence programmes are national ones. In order to reverse this trend we need to concentrate on multi-country collaborative programmes, and on dual programmes. In addition, France must keep its leading role in European cooperation; no other country seems to have our ability to pull European manufacturing beyond the civil domain towards that of defence.
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