Perfume: "Leonardo already on the English Tempest". The Italian government does not respond and thinks only of the F-35

(by Andrea Pinto) Leonardo's CEO Alessandro Profumo, in an article by Tom Kingdom on Defense News, expressed his opinion on the German embargo against Saudi Arabia, spoke about Brexit and the repercussions on the European defense industry, also at light of the two programs for sixth generation aircraft, the English Tempest and the Franco-German FACS.

Germany placed a temporary sales embargo on Saudi Arabia for its involvement in the Yemen conflict and in response to the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Such an embargo, says Profumo, could damage the future of Europe in integrating its defense industry: "First of all, let's see if the embargo is maintained. What worries me most is that we risk cracking the creation of a European defense system".

Leonardo is part of an industrial consortium composed of four countries: Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. He sold 72 Eurofighter to Saudi Arabia, with an order still "pending" for a further 48 specimens.

Profumo, in this regard, stated that in the case of European programs such as the Eurofighter, an embargo ordered by a single partner should not endanger the sale and subsequent exportation. "The ideal situation would be to have the EU country, the first contractor on an export agreement to issue, also, the export license, which is therefore valid for the whole EU.“, Specified Profumo. "In the United States, for example, a product made in California, Idaho, Texas or Michigan does not need a state-to-state export license. We must move in this direction, or it will be very difficult to have real European programs ".

"The UK is the first country on Eurofighter export to Saudi Arabia. The sale was approved by the UK Parliament and it is inappropriate for other individual countries participating in the program to block the sale ".

Leonardo's work on radar and electronics for the Eurofighter contributed to the company's performance in 2018, with sales up 5% and a profit of 83%. The company expects a further increase in revenues of up to 5% this year, reaching 12,5-13 billion euros.

Brexit

Leonardo is closely following the Brexit issue because in the UK the Italian defense giant has about 7.000 employees. In the future, the question of the European defense industry must also be assessed in light of the important British intellectual contribution.The solution could be the EU fund for defense programs to which Leonardo would pay more attention after the Brexit.

"We hope that the United Kingdom remains integrated into the European defense system with access to European defense funds“Said Profumo. "While Europe spent a total of € 225 billion on defense in 2017, the UK spent € 45 billion".

"It would be a big deal for Europe if the UK wasn't part of the system“, Added Profumo. Referring to the fact that Leonardo works on the development of electronic products and helicopters in the UK, Profumo said: "It will be important to know where intellectual property will need to be registered in order to participate and win funding from European funds".

Tempest and FACS

Europe today must face a thorny problem that could, if resolved, constitute the beginning of a future collaboration, in the defense world, a truly community one. Let's talk about the two future fighter aircraft: the British Tempest and the Franco-German FACS.

Leonardo joined as a partner on Tempest, but Profumo hopes that the two programs can be joined.

"I hope the two programs can merge. The United States will not develop aircraft after the F-35, and Europe should therefore develop a sixth generation fighter".

Although Leonardo is already working on Tempest, there is no commitment of Italian government to support the program, putting the Italian involvement at risk, said Profumo. "Italy has not yet decided whether to join. I hope you decide soon enough because when it comes to participation in development, the sooner you decide and the more important is the involvement and sharing of the work you get. It is one thing to work on the recipe, another to be able to provide the ingredients".

Unfortunately in Italy there is still discussion of F-35 which, industrially speaking, is an old program.

Crosetto and FACS

The president of 'AIAD (Italian Association of Defense Industry) Guido Crosetto was interviewed by Defense News last February on the French-German project of the fifth generation fighter, FACS - Future Air Combat System. According to Crosetto, the plans of France and Germany for the new fighter program they are an affront to Italy and will weaken the European Union. Recently, Spain has also joined the Franco-German program. According to Crosetto, a consequence of this new consortium would be, for Italy, to think of a closer approach to the United Kingdom, despite its forthcoming exit from the EU.

The new Franco-German momentum makes it clear that the two countries will try to work together on common programs to draw more funding from the new European defense fund; this could isolate Italy beyond measure.

Crosetto therefore said that the Italian government is now obliged to invest with more conviction in the Italian defense industry to make it more competitive and be able to aspire to have more funding from the European Defense Fund: "The industry now needs the government to invest more".

 

Perfume: "Leonardo already on the English Tempest". The Italian government does not respond and thinks only of the F-35