Paris, 2 November 2009 – In the context of the current Swedish EU Presidency, the European Security and Defence Assembly (ESDA) held a seminar in Stockholm in cooperation with the Swedish aerospace company SAAB entitled: “Strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB)”. The seminar took place in SAAB’s Järfälla headquarters near Stockholm and in Lynköping. Among the speakers and participants were members of the Assembly, including the leader of the Swedish parliamentary Delegation, the Swedish Deputy Armaments Director, representatives of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and European industries and experts in this area.

The colloquy was opened by Mrs Karin ENSTRÖM from the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) who had chaired the recent special Commission on the reorganisation of Swedish Defence, Mr Robert WALTER MP (United Kingdom), President of the ESDA, Mr Ake SVENSSON, CEO of SAAB, and Mr Gunnar HULT, Swedish Deputy Armaments Director. Mrs ENSTRÖM presented the new Swedish defence policy and the changes and challenges for military forces and defence procurement. She emphasised the need for European cooperation, especially on equipment for the EU Battlegroups. Mr WALTER stressed that the EDTIB was more than the sum of the member states’ national DTIBs and that a robust EDTIB would help to determine Europe’s strategic role in the world. Mr SVENSSON presented the activities of SAAB in the field of defence and highlighted the need to look ahead to the next 20 years and prepare for future needs and challenges. Mr HULT presented the Swedish position on defence and Swedish initiatives to strengthen the EDTIB and increase transparency in the defence market. He highlighted the need for harmonisation and the importance of new programmes.

The two sessions: “Innovation: the importance of future programmes” and “Economic and industrial aspects” focused on the aerospace sector and future manned and unmanned air programmes and the contribution of the EDTIB to the European economy.

During the first session, chaired by Mr Doug HENDERSON MP (United Kingdom), Chairman of the Defence Committee of ESDA, Mr Carlo MAGRASSI, Deputy Director of EDA, presented the role of the Agency and its initiatives in the area of material standardisation among the participating member states and the activities launched relating to the introduction of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in non-segregated air space. He highlighted the ongoing study on Mid Air Collision Avoidance Systems (MIDCAS). Mr Lennart SINDHAL, Executive VP of SAAB, stressed the need to pursue programmes and research and development in the area of manned and unmanned aerial systems and to use non-military dual technologies so as to advance faster and reduce costs. Mr Benoît DUSSAUGEY, from Dassault Systems, presented the NEURON unmanned combat air vehicle European technology demonstrator programme and highlighted the advantages of cooperation among nations and companies.

After the first session the participants were shown a battlelab demonstration on maritime surveillance in the Baltic Sea area and were briefed on the SUCBAS (Sea Surveillance Cooperation Baltic Sea) and SUCFIS (Sea Surveillance Cooperation Finland Sweden) systems.
 
During the second session, chaired by Mr Björn HAMILTON, Chairman of the Swedish Delegation to ESDA, Professor Gunnar ELIASSON from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology spoke on public defence procurement in the aircraft industry, its contribution to the economy and innovation, and the spill-over effects in many different areas. Mrs Eva-Maria ENGDAHL, European Commission, presented the security research activities of the Commission in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) (2007-2013). Mr Dave KERSHAW, Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), gave industry’s views on strengthening the EDITB and highlighted five points: integrated approach, dialogue with customers, technology demonstrators and programmes, harmonised regulations and the supply chain. Mrs Blandine VINCON-ROUCHON of the French Procurement Agency, Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), presented the new French strategic plan for defence and security research and technology. Finally Admiral Alain COLDEFY, EADS, stressed the need for key programmes and cooperation and especially for real political will among the nations.

Concluding the seminar after debates with the audience at the end of each session, Mrs Claire CURTIS-THOMAS MP (United Kingdom) and Mr Edward O’HARA MP (United Kingdom), Rapporteurs for the Technical and Aerospace Committee of ESDA, highlighted the added value and spill-over effect of defence investment, defence research and development and defence programmes to the benefit of the economy and society. They also stressed the need to share the work with small and medium companies and to engage the smaller European countries with their niche capabilities.

Following the seminar, participants were taken to Linköping where they visited the SAAB “JAS-39 Gripen” fighter aircraft installations and were briefed on the Gripen programme and its development and modernisation aspects. Participants were also shown a simulator and a control station for the unmanned observation aerial system Skeldar (rotorcraft UAV) developed by SAAB which could possibly be embarked in Swedish ships participating in the EU’s anti-piracy operation “ATALANTA”.

A report entitled “Strengthening the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB)” is currently being prepared by ESDA Technical and Aerospace Committee Rapporteurs, Mrs Claire CURTIS-THOMAS MP (United Kingdom) and Mr Edward O’HARA MP (United Kingdom), both members of the Socialist Group. The report will be presented at the Assembly’s plenary session in Paris from 1-3 December (www.assembly-weu.eu).