PARIS \u2014 MBDA expects Britain and France to sign an intergovernmental agreement by the end of the year to allow the legal transfer of technology and production, a key note in cross-border cooperation in a highly sensitive area, said Antoine Bouvier, chairman of the European missile maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The intergovernment agreement allows a necessary convergence,” Bouvier told journalists Monday March 16 <\/span>as he announced 2014 financial results and set out the major issues for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbus and BAE Systems each hold 37.5 percent of the company and Finmeccanica the remaining with <\/span>25 percent. of MBDA.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The bilateral agreement reflects four years of detailed, and <\/span>discreet work since the 2010 Lancaster House bilateral treaty, with MBDA taking on the role of “laboratory” for an<\/span> industrial specialization in the defense industry, Bouvier said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the specialization, four centers of excellence will be the base for research and development (R&D) and production of subsystems. For example, the Lostock site, near Manchester, has just produced the actuator fin for the Missile Moyenne Port\u00e9e (MMP), a medium-range weapon to replace the antitank Milan for the French Army, he said. There is also a British center specializing on datalinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bourges factory, in central France, has a test bench for Brimstone, a British missile, he said. Another French site will specialize on weapons controller technology. Those are four of 12 centers of excellence that will handle the work share packages agreed on programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That specialization concept aims to curb the <\/span>duplication in of <\/span>research and development and production of missiles in Britain and France, which are already close partners in Europe. New programs, notably the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy), or Anti-Navire L\u00e9ger, helicopter-borne missile, will be developed and built under that industrial specialization, while current programs will gradually be transferred to that system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That European duplication, which reflects a n understandable <\/span>national insistence on retaining a defense industrial capability, handicaps d<\/span> MBDA as it competes with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in world markets, Bouvier said. The US companies did not have the overlap of competences commonly to be <\/span>found in Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The specialization accepted the principle of a certain level of “mutual dependence,” he said. That goes beyond R&D and production, and includes a handover of export rights to the partner country and development of capability, which is a strategic issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n