DTS Paper.qxp - Royal Aeronautical Society

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electronics and complex weapons. UAS technology, especially software and control systems, will also receive special attention. In all cases, the key focus for national sovereignty in this sector is control over systems architectures and interfaces. However, the DTIB required for UAS development and acquisition would be radically different from that traditionally demanded by conventional aerospace systems. 21. The recent announcement of the £124 million Taranis UAS demonstrator programme in some respects goes beyond the priorities outlined in the DTS. Led by BAE Systems, this will involve Rolls-Royce, Smiths Aerospace and QinetiQ in a joint MoDindustry (75-25%) funded national programme. Key areas for industry will be advanced power systems integration and power distribution as well as exploring autonomous control concepts. Taranis may indeed be viewed as a test case for industry investment in a MoD programme to investigate areas of particular interest to industry. 7 22. Despite programmes such as Taranis, looking beyond the current generation of fixed wing aircraft, it would seem that there is a major threat to the UK’s conventional design and manufacturing capabilities. There will be considerable business in upgrade and support work that in some areas will be of a very high quality, but this will be no substitute for developing a sophisticated fixed wing platform. There will be a contraction of the present UK-based supply chain and a threat to UK equipment suppliers whose technological competence has historically been honed by access to a major programme where the UK has had critical influence over design and systems integration. Advanced aerodynamics and structures research will be facilitated through co-operation with the UK university research base. Rotary-wing Aircraft 23. AgustaWestland’s partnership with the MoD gives the company primary design authority for the management of most of the MoD’s existing helicopter fleet. Equally, national capabilities in network enabling, modelling and simulation for rotary military aviation will remain essential. However, as most of the crucial rotary-wing platform technologies will be available on the world market, they are not assigned a high priority in the DTS. New rotary aircraft also increasingly will be procured through international competition. The need to maintain security of supply and access to control software essential to operations, on the other hand, will qualify for investment. In short, AgustaWestland will have to secure its future through private venture funding, Italian MoD investment, civil applications and collaboration, and export sales. The MoD recognises that this implies a major business transformation for AgustaWestland and other industry players; as a result, it will create an MoD/industry Rotorcraft Technology Steering Committee to plan investment in the sector. Propulsion 24. The MoD will retain the necessary national capability to sustain its current and planned fixed wing propulsion systems as well maintaining an adequate supply base for upgrades. There will be targeted investment to ensure “both a strategic influence and a viable source for key capability-enhancing propulsion technologies.” But the MoD “will not invest in hot section technologies for new build or higher performance engines.” This continues a trend first evident seven years ago when the MoD ceased funding a significant proportion of its engine hot section technology programmes. However, the MoD will work with the supply base to enhance through life management and may participate in AeIGT programmes to de-risk hot section 7 Aerospace International, January 2007, 34, (1), pp 30-31. 8 Aerospace and the UK Defence Industry and Technology Strategy New rotary aircraft increasingly will be procured through international competition. technologies. This may also entail some limited dedicated investment in relevant hot section research. Over all, however, the result is that the MoD will have a smaller portfolio of hot section research activities. 25. There is a commitment to aspects of novel power generation concepts and UAS propulsion systems that could have important industrial applications. Although some of these will flow from developing civil technologies, even here systems integration and specific military requirements will demand some investment in dedicated propulsion/power generation research. The result will be a more subtle and complex relationship between MoD investment and the aero-engine sector. Complex Weapons 26. The DIS rightly observes that complex weapons possess ‘battle winning’ capabilities. They are also a critical element in enhancing the overall capability of platforms throughout their lifetime. However, many of the most recent acquisitions have been of COTS or near-COTS weapon systems, stifling indigenous development. More critically, all current EP funding is predicated on COTS purchases. Both the DIS and the DTS identify several critical technology areas in which the UK must retain sovereignty but there remains an imbalance between this desire and current funding plans. Nevertheless, the DIS is looking to retain on-shore capabilities in this sector largely through conceptual studies in synthetic environments or through a limited use of technology demonstration. While there may be some short-term protection afforded to UK-based suppliers, the implication is that the MoD will be prepared to accept a greater future dependence on external sources of supply. The MoD is working with the UK’s main supplier, MBDA, to develop a strategy to maintain UK competence in this sector; clearly this is one that must be retained as an on-shore technological and a manufacturing activity. 27. The DTS notes that the UK has a strong comprehensive national capability in most of the critical technologies underpinning Complex Weapon development. However, the challenge will be to sustain this in the face of and limited R&D budget and the reduced numbers of orders expected over the next decade. This will be met through a stress on international collaboration, especially with Europe (aided by the trans-national characteristics of MBDA) and several technology demonstration programmes in critical areas. Work will be based on a strategic partnering arrangement with industry. 8 8 DTS Section B2.
28. In July 2006, the MoD announced its intention to form Team Complex Weapons (Team CW), a partnership built around MBDA, QinetiQ, Thales Air Defence and the MoD. Other companies in the guided weapons supply chain will be drawn in. There are a number of legal issues (notably anti-trust regulations) to overcome, especially if Team CW is to include Raytheon. 9 However, Team CW will address some of the problems of maintaining core competences and skills in the guided weapons area and its success or otherwise will play a major part in determining the future for this key sector in the UK defence industrial base. Mission Systems 29. Both the DIS and the DTS recognise the world-class standing of UK mission systems capability, especially in sensors. The MoD will work with industry to develop capabilities in this area, especially in those areas central to the ‘networked battlespace’. Over the long term, with TLCM in mind, there will an emphasis on developing “flexible, modular and open platform architectures.” This will be the key to “realising the affordable through life employment of fixed wing and unmanned platforms.” 10 It is also an important way to ensure that the MoD does not become dependent upon a single or limited number of vertically integrated prime contractors — a risk frequently noted in the DIS; and recognition that high-level equipment companies possess key integration skills. Space 30. Both the DTS and the DIS recognise the increasing importance of space systems to the MoD’s future effectiveness. In particular, both documents assign a high priority to aspects of satellite telecommunications. However, it is disappointing that the DTS makes no mention of the special arrangements required to deal with Private Finance Initiative programmes. While decrying the low level of industry R&D investment, the DTS fails to lay down guidelines for how R&D will be funded between the varying parties in a major PFI such as the Skynet 5 satellite telecommunications programme (£3bn). These need separately to specify the respective responsibilities of the MoD, the PFI contractor, other Skynet 5 contractors and industry. Unless this is better defined, the partners will be unclear as to the ownership of any resulting innovation. There is a body of best practice on this topic from the UK civil government sector that the MoD could draw upon as the basis for a more satisfactory approach. Until this issue is resolved industry may be reluctant to commit R&D funds. 31. Surveillance from space is also recognised in the DTS as an area involving high priority technologies. The DIS identifies small satellites as an important element of MoD’s ISTAR solution — calling for “a sovereign ability to design, demonstrate and perhaps build.” 11 The DTS echoes this priority. Recognition of the benefits of an indigenous UK industry surveillance satellite capability is welcomed by industry after two decades in which especially French, but also German and Italian, industries have been the beneficiaries of major national programmes. Homeland Security 32. Homeland Security is one area where the Government may be able to provide some encouragement for the UK defence industrial base. This market is growing rapidly world-wide but it is still not clear whether the UK Government has a co-ordinated policy to deal with this market and the industrial and technology base that would provides the products, services and integrated 9 Aviation Week & Space Technology, 1 January 2007, p 62. 10 DTS Section B2. 11 DIS Section B8.45. The JSF generated much debate on technology transfer. systems. Developing such systems is not strictly the sole remit of the MoD or the Home Office. It requires cross-departmental coordination and sponsorship including other ministries such as Trade and Industry. 33. It would be highly desirable for both Government and the UK Defence industry to create a joint approach to Homeland Security technology acquisition. Most of the major aerospace and defence companies are already participating in this market to a larger or smaller degree. There is also an emerging European Union research budget for this area. However, a clearer strategic direction from the Government to provide the UK with a safer environment, co-ordinated through one department (with the resources and budget to deliver) would give the UK Defence Industrial base an opportunity to grow despite the impending down-turn in some segments of the UK defence market. 6.0 INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION, MARKET ACCESS AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 34. The UK is unusual if not unique in its degree of openness both to overseas competition and to inward investment in the domestic defence industrial base. UK defence companies have also acquired an unparalleled position inside the US market. While noting the possibility that the latter may be at the expense of investment in the UK as well as expressing concern at the problems of technology transfer entailed in working with US partners, HMG appears to have made little progress in shifting US practice to the benefit of the UK customer or UK industry. The UK has undoubtedly benefited from inward investment, affording access to resources and technology that otherwise would have been acquired expensively from domestic resources, but, if the UK has benefited from overseas investments financially, UK companies may be limited in their ability to repatriate new technology for incorporation into new products developed onshore. This could have serious consequences for the long-term health of the UK defence industrial base. Equally, as the lure for inward investment is the buoyancy of the UK defence market and the relative size of its R&D investment, there is a danger that this investment will be vulnerable to any future contraction in defence budgets. While ownership is no longer as important in the defence sector as it once was, lack of national control over key capabilities increases our vulnerability to external events and decisions made by foreign governments and companies. 35. This would be less of an issue if there had been sufficient progress to open both European markets and to improve the FEBRUARY 2007 9
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DTS Paper.qxp - Royal Aeronautical Society

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