FLUG REVUE June 2004: Transformation of the Armed Forces

TRANSFORMATION OF THE ARMED FORCES HAS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDUSTRY

By Volker K. Thomalla

At the end of April the first batch of Eurofighters arrived at Laage air base in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, where in the hands of Fighter Wing 73 they will replace the ageing Phantoms and the MiG-29's inherited from the East German armed forces by the end of 2005. All the other Eurofighters should have been delivered to the Luftwaffe by the end of 2014. Now that production is ramping up, industry is enjoying good capacity utilisation. “Of the 148 aircraft in the first tranche, 135 are at various stages of production,” said Aloysius Rauen, currently President of EADS Military Aircraft and shortly to take up his appointment as CEO of Eurofighter GmbH.

At the same time series production of the Tiger and NH90 helicopter programmes is also ramping up. These programmes too will generate significant sales and employment in the defence industry over the next few years. In the old days, no sooner had a new type entered into service than work would begin on thinking about a successor. All this has changed. Neither the German Defence Ministry nor industry is currently thinking about a direct successor to the Eurofighter, NH90 or Tiger. Since the disbandment of the Warsaw Pact the armed forces have endured a far-reaching transformation as regards both function and structure, and today the requirements on industry are quite different. “The products of tomorrow will be determined not by platforms but by missions,” said Dr. Stefan Zoller, CEO and President of EADS Defence and Communication Systems, at a seminar in Schorssow.

Asymmetrical threat scenarios have made the security situation more complex than it ever was in the era of the Cold War. The armed forces will only be in a position to adequately meet the threat in the future if they can identify and define today what capabilities they want to possess in the future. Rapid processing and dissemination of information plays a critical role here. The armed forces of the future will be closely interconnected and will act together as never before in history. This applies across national borders as well. Network Centric Warfare is the new buzzword. System capability and networking have a high priority in the future planning of armed forces, with good reason: the success or failure of a military mission depends on the capability to have a real-time picture of the situation, rapidly determine areas to concentrate on and employ one's resources efficiently. Whether the information used to assess the situation comes from reconnaissance satellites, radars, spy planes or unmanned ground vehicles is unimportant; what matters is the speed and quality of the information. The same holds true as regards the deployment of weapons. They can be deployed from aircraft, UCAVs, naval units or infantry.

“Linking everything together is so complex that it can only be mastered with technical tools,” according to Dr. Zoller. But only an industry that is competent and strong on both the software and hardware sides can provide the armed forces with the necessary tools, as the development of complex systems is a labour of Hercules.

The battlefield of tomorrow will without a doubt be network centric, but it will not be virtual. Hence one should not neglect the development of modern aircraft for these scenarios. The best network is useless if at the end of the day the armed forces do not have aircraft or weapons systems capable of effectively fighting the enemy.

From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 6/2004

Last updated 7 May 2004

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