E - Finmeccanica

D E F E N C E S Y S T E M S
9/2010 FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE
MBDA
THE FUTURE
AS A
STRATEGY
Taking partnership into the
halls of learning
NEW SYSTEMS, EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, INVESTMENTS,
PARTNERSHIPS WITH UNIVERSITIES: MORE THAN EVER, RE-
SEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ARE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN THE
EVOLUTION OF MBDA’S BUSINESS
MBDA’s Internal Research And
Development (IRAD) organisation
plays a key role in developing
the products and technologies that
represent the company’s future, experimenting
with new assemblies and subsystems,
focusing on generating functional
capabilities and emerging technologies
and identifying priorities for
new investment through a continuous
decision-making process based on the
market inputs summarised in the company’s
Integrated Strategic Business Plan
(ISBP). The international team, which
draws its members from France, Italy,
Germany and the UK and is headed up by
Marcello Pacifici, Group Director Engineering
& Seekers and Deputy Executive
Group Director Technical, works within
an integrated organisational structure,
ensuring that projects are subject to
strict technical and financial governance,
and that performance is measured using
regular analyses. The Product Evolution
and Technology Plan (PEATP) is updated
each year, and gathers together investment
proposals from the Product Strategy,
the ISBP and the operating lines to
improve capabilities and acquire or develop
technologies using a combined
top-down and bottom-up approach.
Once it has been agreed, the PEATP is implemented
through the Strategic Technology
Programmes (STPs), which are
used for long-term planning of projects
with the aim of increasing system knowledge
by enhancing the company's ability
to develop specific products, develop prototype
assemblies and sub-assemblies,
acquire the necessary technology for the
development of demonstrators and prototypes
and support risk-reduction programmes.
A full development cycle normally
takes between three and six years,
so assessments covering a period of up
to ten years need to be carried out when
putting in place a strategy for technology
investment. The IRAD R&D budget is allocated
on the basis of a model correlated
to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL),
which is a tool for measuring the maturity
and availability of technologies, in order
to encourage the development of
new products through short- and medium-term
programmes. In 2009, a number
of important programmes were put
in place using the technology plan, including
Ballistic Missile Defence,
SHORAD air defence, the MPCV (Multi-
Purpose Combat Vehicle) platform, highly
mobile armoured vehicles equipped
with Mistral missiles for classic
VSHORAD missions, the CAMM (Common
Anti-air Modular Munition) missile
co-funded by the UK Ministry of Defence,
and MARTE, an anti-ship missile with a
number of different configurations. Particular
attention was paid to certain key
sub-systems and technologies, such as
SEEKAM (a millimetre-wave radar seeker),
co-funded by the Italian Secretariat
General of Defence/National Armaments
Directorate (Segredifesa), Datalink
systems, the IR sensor for the Scalp Naval
anti-ship missile, millimetre-wave phased
array antennas and new nanostructured
ceramic materials for hypersonic missile
radomes. In its technology research programmes,
MBDA collaborates closely
with its shareholders, Finmeccanica,
EADS and BEA Systems, with which it has
signed co-operation agreements. Its involvement
in MindSh@re in particular
has helped to foster far-reaching technical
co-operation with other Finmeccanica
companies. There is also an ever
greater need to involve major European
universities (see box), due to the strong
trend towards state-of-the-art programmes.
All of these crucial initiatives
to tackle future challenges have enabled
MBDA, in its ongoing engagement with
the scientific world, to establish and develop
a network of highly knowledgeable
technical experts whose experience
bridges a range of technological fields.
Through its investments, the IRAD organisation
has helped MBDA to win major
development and production contracts
while minimising technological risks.
Internal Research
& Development Funding
detect
understand
apply
The best Italian universities, including those in
Milan, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Cassino,
Naples and many more besides, have signed a
technical and scientific co-operation agreement
with MBDA. In France, the company works with
centres of research and universities such as ISL
(Institut Saint-Louis), ONERA (the French
Aerospace Lab), IRSEEM (Institut de Recherche en
Systèmes Electroniques Embarqués), UTBM
(Université Technologique de Belfort
Montbéliard), INERIS (Institut National de
l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques), CSTL
(Coopération Scientifique et Technologique pour
la Lorraine), the National Physics Laboratory and
Université de Bourgogne. In the UK, partnerships
have been established with the universities of
Cranfield, Lancaster, Manchester, London,
Nottingham and Cambridge.
validate
10% IRAD 40% IRAD 50% IRAD
LONG TERM
Radical concepts
Emerging technologies
Future products 5%
Emerging technology 5%
Budget distribution
MEDIUM TERM
Evolving products
Developing technologies
Future products 30%
Functional capability 10%
deploy
SHORT TERM
Demonstrating products
Exploiting technologies
Design integration
Future products 40%
Functional capability 10%
TRL1 Technology Readiness Level TRL7
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