At Eurosatory, French small and medium-sized businesses Aresia, Etienne Lacroix, and Ouvry highlighted the opportunities and challenges associated with offsets in defence procurements, noting technology transfer and intellectual property (IP) as major hurdles and stressing the importance of finding the “right” long-term local partners for successful offset fulfilment.
France’s Thales Group signed four agreements at Eurosatory with Emirati and Ukrainian companies, namely the UAE’s KATIM and Ukraine’s Joint-Stock Company Ukrainian Defence Industry and FRDM.
Austria’s Schiebel Group announced on 20 June that it has established a new subsidiary named Schiebel Aéronaval SAS and opened a new facility in Toulon, France, that will focus on the local production and maintenance of Camcopter S-100 unmanned aerial vehicles for the French Navy.
India and the US are discussing the joint production of Stryker armoured infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell announced during an online briefing. The discussion formed part of the India-US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) dialogue held in New Delhi on 17 June.
To accelerate the development of Australia’s nuclear submarine capabilities under the AUKUS partnership, US shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and British prime Babcock are forming H&B Defence, a joint venture in Australia. Headquartered in Canberra, the joint venture will collaborate with government, industry, and academic stakeholders in Australia to develop a skilled local workforce.
Swiss-German firearms manufacturer SIG SAUER is hoping to bolster its operations in the UK ahead of a British requirement for new small arms. Dr Duncan Stewart, director of business and programme development, said that the company is looking to move beyond earlier small-scale operations in the UK market and is expanding its investment through a local maintenance and support facility, SIG UK.