Aviation Week & Space Technology - January 15, 2015

46 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY 1, 2015 AviationWeek.com/awst

DEFENSE EXPORT TRENDS

partnerships between Western

companies and their local counterparts.

One place where this has occurred

has been in the local development of

armored vehicles, initially for domestic

use, but which have been subsequently

exported widely. Companies such as

FNSS Savunma Sistemleri, a joint

venture of Nurol and BAE Systems,

developed wheeled and tracked

armored personnel carriers.

Another beneficiary of this ap-

proach has been state-owned aero-

space company Turkish Aerospace

Industries (TAI), which was born out

of Turkey’s need to modernize its air

force. TAI and similarly named TEI,

Turkish Engine Industries, license-

produced F-16 Fighting Falcons and

the engines for the Turkish air force.

TAI’s experience grew to the point that

the company is now producing entirely

indigenous products for the Turkish

air force, while also generating inter-

est from abroad.

The TAI Hurkus turboprop training

aircraft and the TAI Anka medium-

altitude long-endurance unmanned

aerial vehicle are being actively

promoted to the international market.

TAI’s experience, along with Turkey’s

trade connections, has meant that

TAI has taken over development and

marketing of the AgustaWestland

AW129 Mangusta attack helicopter,

which TAI is now developing as

the T129 ATAK. Italy has struggled

to export the aircraft since it was

developed in the 1980s but now the

Bradley Perrett Sydney

New to the Game

For Japan, making weapons is one thing.

Learning to export them is another.

A

round 1900, the Royal Navy had

a problem with boilers. Unusu-

ally, it had adopted a French

design, which was performing poorly,

even though it worked well in French

ships. Part of the problem turned out

to be that, in building these Belleville

boilers, British licensees had not fol-

lowed all the French procedures.

So the challenges of technology

transfer are hardly new. Both sides

need to be on their toes: The technol-

ogy recipient needs to follow instruc-

tions, and the transferor needs to know

what information to give. It is not al-

ways obvious what a customer does

not know; foreigners may well be used

to doing things diferently.

This presents a clear challenge to

Japan, which decided last year to end

a decades-old ban on arms exports.

Japan is really well practiced at one

side of the technology transfer pro-

cess, receiving, and not at all on the

other side, giving. It also seems likely

that Japanese industry, having worked

for decades on developing and build-

ing military systems for only domes-

tic customers, has many idiosyncratic

processes and standards. But it may

not realize that some are idiosyncratic.

Accentuating the problem, Japan

already has a wide range of products

that it can conceivably ofer, from air-

craft to radars and warships. Other

countries gain experience in dealing

with customers as they build up their

arms industry. To exploit its prod-

uct range, Japan needs to learn fast.

The Society of Japanese Aerospace

Companies says it has begun investi-

gating “rules and regulations on joint

development and procurement in for-

eign countries, analysis of success and

failure cases and so on.” It is doing that

by working with foreign counterpart as-

sociations, the society’s president, Ko-

suke Imashimizu, tells Aviation Week.

The society declines to say which for-

eign groups it is working with, but Brit-

ish industry association ADS should be

high on its list, since Britain was the

first country with which Japan agreed

to undertake joint arms development,

though Tokyo already had limited col-

laboration with the U.S.

Japan agreed in July to collabora-

tive research with Britain on improve-

ments to the MBDA Meteor air-to-air

missile, to which it would contribute

seeker technology. Japan has also re-

portedly proposed that Britain buy the

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) P-1

maritime aircraft.

In the case of the missile seeker, the

customer came to Japan. London asked

for the technology, according to Japa-

nese media. That is not typical. Usually,

defense sales come from winning com-

petitions. Experienced arms manufac-

turers such as Dassault and Raytheon

have large teams of people who know

how to promote weapons to a diverse

range of governments. Japanese com-

panies know how to promote to Japan.

The biggest early prospect for a

Japanese defense export is the sale of

submarines or submarine technology

to Australia, with which Tokyo has also

signed an arms cooperation agree-

ment. But that question of Japanese

Japan is reportedly proposing that

Britain buy the KHI P-1 maritime

KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES aircraft.