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Defense News January 22, 2010 French Industry Pushes Radar for Missile Defense By Pierre Tran PARIS - French industry has rallied to support the new GS1000 radar and related command-and-control systems, seen as potential building blocks for a European contribution to a NATO ballistic missile defense system, said Gilbert Le Bris, a member of parliament. "There is a sort of consensus," he told journalists Jan. 19 at a presentation of a private report on missile defense. The priority for government funding on research should go to advanced radar detection and C2 systems, both made by Thales, he said. Industry has been split between EADS Astrium's request for funding of Exoguard, a missile to intercept outside Earth's atmosphere, and the Aster road map group comprising MBDA, Thales and Safran. Executives said the government should invest 50 million euros ($70.5 million) annually in technology studies on extended missile defense, Le Bris said. A missile defense could complement and add "credibility" to France's nuclear deterrent, he said. In the longer term, a budget of 2.5 billion euros should be adopted in the 2015-25 period, spending about 250 million euros a year, to develop a European capability based on the Aster missile and GS1000 and GS1500 radars, the report said. The ballistic missile defense report was prepared by members of parliament Le Bris, Christophe Guilloteau and Francis Hillmeyer, members of a private bipartisan group, Cercle Interparlementaire d'Etude Air-Espace de Defense. The report was intended to stimulate debate ahead of the 2011 NATO summit in the spring. MBDA Chief Executive Antoine Bouvier has also called for decisions to be made on French and European industrial contributions to the NATO and U.S. missile defense systems. Thales and MBDA executives privately estimate up to 5 billion euros would be needed to field a European defense in 2020 against ballistic missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometers. France should lead Europe's approach to ensure its contribution to the NATO missile shield could be made in kind rather than through funding, Le Bris said. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected] or [email protected] Daily digest option available. ============================== --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bNM5nn.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [email protected] For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------
