Lockheed Martin’s future in France looks promising following positive feedback and interest.

Our sources insisted on the quality of the fire control unit’s integrated day and thermal imaging sights: French forces use them constantly for observation and detection. Finally, the soldiers explained they were very happy with the system and the general feeling amongst French forces deployed in Afghanistan was just as positive as far as they knew.

But French Soldiers were not the only ones showing enthusiasm for the Javelin missile. A source at Nexter (a French Defense company) reported a meeting was scheduled during Eurosatory with the Javelin Joint Venture (Lockheed Martin and Raytheon) to discuss the possible integration of Javelin missiles on their future 40 CTAS (Cased Telescoped Armament System) turret.

Our source praised the qualities of the Javelin missile and explained that its performances could be increased even more if associated with a turret like the 40 CTA by Nexter. Our source also insisted on the fact it would make economical sense for the French Army to integrate the most modern anti tank missile available in its inventory on a future turret rather than let the Javelins sit in storage (which seems likely with the now official pullout of French Forces from Afghanistan). Questioned on this matter, a Lockheed Martin official confirmed a meeting was going to be held and added that any Javelin integration work on a turret would be conducted in the United States.

Nexter was not the only French defense company eager to cooperate with Lockheed Martin. Panhard General Defense, working in collaboration with Lockheed Martin UK, has continued to develop its Sphinx medium 6x6 armored vehicle concept to address French Army and potential overseas requirements.

First unveiled in 2010, the Sphinx incorporates the best adapted technologies and solutions to fulfill operational needs within today’s budgetary constraints. Lockheed Martin has been working alongside Panhard to enhance the Sphinx through its proven turret technology utilized in the UK Warrior and Scout SV programs.

« Within an aggressive budgetary environment, Panhard has offered an affordable EBRC solution to the French Army, as it significantly reduces development costs by putting forward a reliable and qualified asset. A weight in combat configuration of about 16 tons enables us to offer a vehicle with a lower procurement cost in comparison with much heavier conventional solutions. In line with the 2012 Lancaster Treaty on Anglo-French cooperation, we have been working in collaboration with Lockheed Martin in the United Kingdom to further develop the shared programs,” Christian Mons, Chairman and CEO said.

“The Lockheed Martin turret perfectly meets the French Army’s requirements. And, together, we are already considering the integration of future common equipment coming from Scorpion in order to complete the perfect adequacy of this turret to the French requirements.” Eric Hervet, Panhard Development Manager added.

Richard Muir, Business Development Director at Lockheed Martin UK highlighted the advantages of Lockheed Martin UK’s low risk approach.

He commented: “Our EBRC CT40 turret is based on our proven integration of the CT40 cannon on the UK’s Warrior and Scout programs. We take a modular approach to our turret design. That means we get a lot of commonality and re-use between different solutions, which is particularly important on critical parts of the design where you don’t want to reintroduce risk. We’re also able to minimize our design and development costs.”

Last but not least, at Eurosatory 2012, officials from Lockheed Martin exclusively showed us a model of VBCI with two notional configurations:
- One of the configuration had a 40 mm Turret with two ATGM canisters similar in concept to the Scout SV or Sphinx turret.
- The other configuration consisted in a 8x Hellfire/DAGR launcher turret

Regarding the DAGR, Lockheed Martin officials told us that the French Army are showing interest in the system:
- For operational use (because of its smaller warhead compared to those found on larger missiles)
- Because of its lower cost
- As a Hellfire missile training round (DAGR is Plug-and-play compatible with HELLFIRE systems)