Italy, France target land warfare in new industry partnership deal

ROME — Italy and France have committed to more closely integrating their land warfare firms as the former seeks to join long-awaited Franco-German tank program.

A letter of intent, signed Monday in Corsica by the defense ministers of France and Italy, called for the creation of a “European industrial land hub” that would partner businesses from the two countries.

“It is fundamental to put the best European technologies together and create ever-stronger hubs,” said Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, who signed the letter with French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

Crosetto said the hub system is the only way to keep up with China. “Divided we are weak, but a united Europe can be strong thanks to its historical and cultural heritage, and its values based on centuries of history and the extraordinary industrial capacity and know-how of our countries,” he noted.

The deal named the Main Ground Combat System, or MGCS, as a focus for teamwork. Years in the works, the Franco-German MGCS tank program took a major step forward on April 26, when the two countries signed off on an industrial work-share pact , with Germany to award contracts for the first demonstrator phase by the end of this year.

Looking for a way to enter the program, Italy previously signed an action plan for broad cooperation with Germany in November, which mentioned the possibility of working together on the MGCS project.

A wide-ranging cooperation deal signed in December between Italian defense firm Leonardo and the European business KNDS, also cited cooperation on MGCS. This deal had also dealt with Italy’s purchase of Leopard tanks.

KNDS is a consortium of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter.

“Italy considered entering MGCS two years ago, but there was no opening from France or Germany,” said Alessandro Marrone, who leads the defense program at the Italian think tank IAI. “The new deal with France mirrors the deal struck with Germany last year, and both are aimed at bringing Italy into MGCS. But to get Italy a seat at the table, it needs a trilateral deal, not bilateral deals.”

The Italy-German action plan also envisaged cooperation on a new €5 billion (U.S. $5.4 billion) Italian program, formerly known as AICS and since redubbed A2CS, to build up to 1,000 infantry fighting vehicles.

In February, Italy’s procurement office asked CIO, which involves Leonardo and local vehicle-maker Iveco, to conduct a feasibility study for the new vehicle. Work on that platform is currently underway, and CIO is now due to enlist partner firms to join the study.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——意大利和法国承诺将更紧密地整合其陆战公司，因为意大利正寻求加入期待已久的法德坦克项目。

法国和意大利国防部长周一在科西嘉岛签署了一份意向书，呼吁创建一个“欧洲工业用地中心”，以促进两国企业的合作。

“将欧洲最好的技术汇集在一起​​，并创建越来越强大的中心，这至关重要，”意大利国防部长圭多·克罗塞托说道，他与法国武装部队部长塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努共同签署了这封信。

克罗塞托表示，枢纽体系是与中国抗衡的唯一途径。“分裂的我们很弱，但团结的欧洲凭借其历史文化遗产、基于数百年历史的价值观以及各国卓越的工业能力和技术，可以变得强大，”他指出。

该协议将主战坦克系统（MGCS）列为合作重点。经过多年的筹备，法德联合研制的MGCS坦克项目于4月26日取得重大进展，两国签署了一项工业合作协议，德国将在今年年底前授予第一阶段演示验证项目的合同。

为了寻求加入该计划的途径，意大利此前于 11 月与德国签署了一项广泛合作行动计划，其中提到了在 MGCS 项目上开展合作的可能性。

意大利国防公司莱昂纳多与欧洲企业KNDS于去年12月签署了一项范围广泛的合作协议，其中也提到了在MGCS（导弹防御系统）方面的合作。该协议还涉及意大利购买豹式坦克。

KNDS是由德国克劳斯-玛菲·韦格曼公司和法国奈克斯特公司组成的财团。

意大利智库IAI国防项目负责人亚历山德罗·马罗内表示：“意大利两年前就考虑过加入MGCS，但法国和德国都没有开放合作的渠道。与法国达成的新协议与去年与德国达成的协议类似，两者都旨在让意大利加入MGCS。但要想让意大利在MGCS中占有一席之地，需要的是三方协议，而不是双边协议。”

意大利-德国行动计划还设想在一个新的50亿欧元（54亿美元）的意大利项目上开展合作，该项目以前被称为AICS，后来更名为A2CS，旨在建造多达1000辆步兵战车。

今年2月，意大利采购办公室委托CIO公司（该公司由莱昂纳多和意大利本土汽车制造商依维柯组成）对一款新车型进行可行性研究。目前，该平台的研发工作正在进行中，CIO公司接下来将邀请合作伙伴公司参与这项研究。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。