By Pierre Tran Paris – The arms industry and the armed forces ministry are holding talks on how to share the financial risk of building up stocks of weapons, as France moves toward what it calls a war economy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Who takes on the commercial…

When I was last in Australia in March 2020, I was working on a report on the new Australian OPV program which was the initial effort to shape a continuous shipbuilding approach. That report can be found in Chapter Eight (“Building a New Offshore Patrol Vessel: A Case Study in…

By Pierre Tran Paris – Dassault Aviation hopes Airbus will agree to a clear program leadership in building a next generation fighter, perhaps with a deal formally approved by the end of the year, executive chairman Eric Trappier said July 20. There was hope for a “decision in the (coming)…

By Pierre Tran Paris – The French army is preparing for future high intensity warfare with its Titan project, working with the DGA procurement office to devise a high capacity information network to enter service after 2040. Titan is seen as changing the game, based on the concept of “strategy…

By Pierre Tran Paris – There are difficulties in reaching an industrial agreement to build a technology demonstrator for a future European fighter jet, Guillaume Faury, chairman of the Gifas aerospace trade association, said April 28. The phase 1B for the Future Combat Air System was “difficult,” he said at…

By Pierre Tran Paris – There appears to be no problem in setting up flight tests of a French technology demonstrator for a hypersonic cruise missile in the U.S., the executive chairman of European missile company MBDA said April 6. “I am not aware of any particular problem,” Eric Béranger…

By Pierre Tran Paris – An announced deal for the upgrade of 60 Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack helicopters, flown by the French and Spanish forces, was worth €4 billion ($4.4 billion) for the first batch of work, a senior source said. France will pay €2.8 billion for the upgrade of…