Defense Technology International - June 2008 - (Page 48)

TRANSFORMATION FORCE SCORPION RISING French army program upgrades warﬁghting capabilities JORIS JANSSEN LOK•BOURGES, FRANCE DGA CONCEPT he French defense procurement agency DGA plans to award the ﬁrst contracts early next year in France’s Scorpion land forces transformation program. The €10-billion ($16-billion) program will overhaul the army’s battle capabilities through acquisition of next-generation C4I (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence) systems, missiles, armored vehicles and drones, and by upgrading legacy systems. Scorpion is scheduled for implementation between 2009 and 2025. The initiative is the French equivalent of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program and the U.K.’s Future Rapid E ects Systems (FRES) program. Plans call for equipping eight combined-arms brigades, each numbering 5,000-6,000 troops, with integral artillery and aviation support. The procurement strategy the French select will draw on “lessons learned from FCS and FRES,” says Col. Jerome Perrin, the DGA’s program executive director for armored vehicles. (See p. 38 for an update on FCS.) Defense and aerospace contractors from the U.S. may play a key role in the program. U.S. companies are among the firms that responded to a request for information (RFI) from the 48 T Scorpion is a land forces equipment program aimed at overhauling battle operations. DGA last year. Others include Frenchbased contractors EADS, MBDA, Nexter, Sagem and Thales. Perrin says that major European players outside France like BAE Systems, Rheinmetall and Saab did not respond to the RFI, a disappointing turn of events, though they attended Scorpion’s industry day. Those that did respond, however, “are already talking to each other” about forming teams for the initial request for proposals expected late this year. Scorpion is taking a comprehensive approach to planning, procuring and implementing the next generation of land force capabilities for operational, technical and economic reasons. “Operationally, it is necessary to achieve much greater integration than is possible today, so we can do combinedarms operations well below the brigade level, including aviation and artillery support,” Perrin says. “But the introduction of many communication and information systems means there will be major interoperability issues that can be mastered only if we adopt an all-encom- passing approach for development and procurement.” A wide-ranging program like Scorpion is also expected to reduce costs by creating an e cient procurement strategy. Scorpion will cover numerous programs: new long-, medium- and shortrange tactical missiles; advanced information and communication systems; a mid-life update (MLU) for Leclerc main battle tanks; acquisition of 2,600 armored personnel carriers to replace the VAB vehicle family; and procurement of 300 next-generation armored reconnaissance vehicles (EBRC) to replace the AMX-10RC and Panhard ERC-90. Medium- and short-range missiles are being developed under the Anglo-French Multi-Role Combat Missile (MRCM) program that replaced the trilateral European Modular Missile program after Sweden’s withdrawal late last year. The MRCM program will, beginning in 2015, deliver a family of open-architecture guided weapons. These will be primarily based on common technologies and subsystems, which provide non-line-ofsight, precision surface-attack capability from various platforms against a range of targets, MBDA o cials say. Scorpion will beneﬁt from a number of ongoing R&D programs. The BOA integrated air-land battle technology demonstrator (under development by a consortium of Thales, Nexter and Sagem), for example, will be a “major riskmitigating factor,” Perrin says. Other e orts include the development by Bertin Technologies of the HoverEye short-range, lightweight (9-lb.) vertical takeo and landing drone for close combat intelligence and surveillance missions in urban environments. This recently completed ﬁve-year project resulted in ﬁve prototypes that ﬂy autonomously with obstacle-avoidance capability and hover in 19 mph. winds, says Daniel Trouchet, senior engineer at Bertin, which is based in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France. But a decision to order HoverEye has not yet been made, he notes. Army aviation assets, particularly the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter AviationWeek.com/dti DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL JUNE 2008 http://AviationWeek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - June 2008 Contents Around the World Science Watch Tech Watch Basic Black Self-Defense Fire-Resistant Perfezione Hyperspeed Trial Big Sky Cashing In Digital Links Hang Ten Sea Change Programs Update Two Steps Back Direct Hit Staying Power Potent Stinger Do No Harm Guard Duty The Net Cutting Edge First Person In Review Insight

Defense Technology International - June 2008

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