MAIN HEADLINES FROM THIS ISSUE:

• Political stalemate leaves Belgium in a bind on IP policy, changes grind to a halt

  Belgium’s coalition government remains deadlocked over its approach to defence industrial participation and has failed to approve or reject a pending IP proposal. The proposal was put forward last year for the forthcoming F-16 replacement program.

• Australia: Submarine competition catches fire – Japan gets serious

  A former commander of the Japanese navy, Admiral Takashi Saito, will head a 40-strong delegation to Australia this month to negotiate roles for local industry should Japan be successful in its bid for a submarine contract. The delegation will include government officials and specialists from Kawasaki and Mitsubishi.

• “Blame Spain” for EU’S rampant embargo on defence offsets

  Another manuscript has been published seeking to explain how the European Union, by challenging national defence offsets, brought discord to a formerly exclusive member state competence. The authors say, with indubitable understatement: “Our process-tracing analysis shows that the EU’s recent challenge of defence offsets was a case of supranational self-empowerment.”

• Canada awards radar contract based on ‘value proposition’ policy

  The Canadian Department of National Defence has awarded Rheinmetall-Canada and ELTA Systems, an IAI subsidiary, the Medium Range Radar (MRR) program. The deal used the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy’s Value Proposition to rate and weight bid proposals.

• BAE Systems overhauls Saudi industrial participation portfolio

  BAE Systems is advancing its re-organisation of the group’s portfolio of interests in a number of industrial companies in Saudi Arabia to comply with commitments under the Kingdom’s industrial participation program….. An expansion of the Omani program has also been agreed.