EU military sales to China ... US Strikes back

Gloom descended at the Allison engine plant in Indianapolis now HQ of Rolls Royce in the US On Feb 12th when George Bush announced his '07 Defence Budget request . The planned ditching of the alternate engine program for the multi-national USD$ 256 Billion, Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) he announced, would shut them out of a planned 40 year defence program.

The JSF is being built in three variants: a conventional take-off and landing aircraft (CTOL) for the US Air Force; a carrier based variant (CV) for the US Navy; and a short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft for the US Marine Corps and the Royal Navy which will equip the two new RN aircraft carriers under development. The STOVL variant F-35B, has the engine coupled with a shaft-driven lift fan system for STOVL propulsion. The counter-rotating lift fan, developed by Rolls-Royce Defence, can generate more than 20,000lb of thrust. There will be commonality of parts especially the power plants.

Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technology Corp., has a contract to build the engine for the first JSF (a derivative of the F119 fitted on the F-22). GE–Rolls-Royce team won a USD$2.4 billion contract last year to develop a second engine. Mike Ryan, Rolls-Royce’s executive VP for Government affairs said “The merits [of the program] are overwhelming, and we are hopeful that Congress in providing its oversight role [will] recognize those merits and restore the whole program.”

Due to problems over the F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, which relied on one engine, Congress more than a decade ago started an alternative fighter-engine program.

Some observers on the Hill see this simply as a pork barrel issue which will hit Indiana and Ohio (The alternate engine would be made in Bristol, UK Indianapolis and assembled in Cincinatti, Ohio). Others taking a global view (rare in DC) see this as the first public fissure in a transatlantic split about EU military sales to China which explains UK PM Tony Blair's anxious pleading with Dubya.

For the Europeans to undermine US dominance in Asia by resuming arms sales to China (commended by Deputy PM Prescott last year), in a part of the world where the Europeans have little influence and zero responsibility, is seen in the Pentagon as an act just as hostile as the Franco-German blockade in the U.N. Security Council over Iraq. ( Prescott acknowledged the "concerns" - but predicted that "the good sense in Europe will be that they will come to some agreement on this matter and lift that embargo".)

That is the message that Blair gets every time he and Bush sit down to work out what on earth they can do about the mess they have made of Iraq. No doubt Ms Merkel also had her ear bent went she sat down for a chat with Bush.

In May 2004 China signed an agreement to be a full development partner on the EU Galileo project. CGI, a joint venture owned by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, China Satcom and China Academy of Space Technology, was designated by the EU as the Chinese partner on the Galileo Project.In September 2005 at the 8th EU - China Summit there were detailed talks on the conditions related to China's joining of the European GNSS Supervisory Authority which will manage Galileo.

As the official communique on 5th September had it ..

Both sides expressed their satisfaction at China-EU cooperation within the framework of the Galileo programme. They stressed their full commitment to making Galileo a commercial and technical success worldwide, and called for detailed talks on the conditions related to China’s joining of the European GNSS Supervisory Authority and the participation of Chinese enterprises in the Galileo Operation Concessionaire.

This means giving the Chinese government a say in the global management and control of the system. Now, the Chinese are aiming for total control within their own areas of stategic interest, giving them the ability to deploy their high-tech missiles without fear of the EU shutting down to guidance signals as signal continuity is a vital factor for the Chinese military use of the Galileo data..... TThe EU is now China's biggest trading partner.

A shrewd observer at the time claimed

With the ever-strengthening relationship between China and the EU, however, the UK is being dragged further into the China sphere, and arousing increasing distrust in US circles. With crucial production decisions having to be made on the JSF by the end of the year, the US might consider that this current development is a step too far and cut the UK adrift.

Whilst the world has come to welcome the US Global Positioning System (GPS), which is of course a military system which provides a slightly degraded signal for civilian use, that signal can be cut off or hugely degraded at will.

Galileo, conceived as a joint EU civilian project, and like many such projects with a long gestation is now well under way. Significantly in October 2003 India took USD350 Million stake in Galileo ... Israel and the EU and Israel reached an agreement GALILEO agreement which was initialled in Jerusalem on 17 March 2004. More countries are joining, on Jan 12th 2006 Korea was the first to sign up in 2006 and more are expected to join this year.

The new era commenced on December 28th 2005, an experimental 600-kilogram spacecraft named Giove-A was launched into orbit on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan to demonstrate the key technologies required by Galileo, the EU sat-nav system. The first "Galileo" signal was received on 12 January 2006. Four operational satellites for the in-orbit validation (IOV) phase will launch in 2005 the full operational capability (FOC) phase will be reached in 2008.

When fully deployed, Galileo will have 30 satellites (27 operational plus three active spares), positioned on three circular medium earth orbit (MEO) planes - at an altitude of 23,616 kilometers above Earth - with an orbital plane inclination of 56 degrees with reference to the equatorial plane.

Galileo will be under civilian control provide a highly accurate, guaranteed global
positioning service under civilian control, and assure interoperability with the other two global satellite navigation systems, the United States' GPS and Russia's GLONASS (Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System).

The accuracy of the information that the new system will provide is superior to GPS and represents a majorand significant improvement in sat-nav technology.

With Israel and China being supportive, the US has been suspicious of the Galileo project since it's tardy birth.On December 1, 2001, then US deputy secretary of state Paul Wolfowitz sent a letter to EU defense ministers to "convey [his] concerns about security ramifications for future NATO operations if EU proceeds with Galileo satellite navigation services".

Pressure was intense from the Pentagon but in in March 2002 the EU and the European Space Agency agreed to fund Galileo. Not only had Washington's pressures failed to stop the program, they had irritated France, Germany and other EU members (Old Europe !) at a time of looming trans-Atlantic discord over the forthcoming illegal invasion of Iraq.

Launched officially May 2003, China joined the project in September 2003, by investing US$259 million.(As did India where Bush is due soon to talk military aid, sales and nuclear issues) This gave the US two headaches,how to avoid possible malfunctions and useless duplications in the trans-Atlantic security system, and, above all, what to do about China's participation.

A conference was held in Ireland on June 26th 2004 after 4 months of very intense diplomatic negotiations. The two systems would "navigate side-by-side", and would not
interferewith each other's signals. The project's commercial natures was stressed but its military potential remains.

GPS is pivotal and critical in assuring strategic air dominance to the US in the 1st Gulf

War, and since then the world definitively discovered how the concept of air power - and of power itself - had changed thanks to space technology.

The geopolitical equilibrium is changing at a frightening speed, the EU and US arms embargo on China ( a 17-year arms embargo imposed after the bloody Tiananmen Square protests in 1989) is keeping the lights on in Embassies as a careful diplomatic stance is maintained with the US to maintain the civilian nature of the program. This is re-inforced by the unwillingess of EU nations to discuss military expenditure directly with their electorates European citizens, and make funding more difficult.

Beijing (now rumoured to be building their first aircraft carrier) is becoming increasingly technically sophisticated and their language is increasingly peperred with concepts "battlefield digitalization", "anti-satellite weapons", "cyberwar" and "space strategy" in strategic discourse, reflecting fast-growing Chinese technological capabilities.

Furthermore there is confusion over what the EU arms embargo means for there is no precise and univocal interpretation of the ban.Essentially it seems to mean the sale of major weapons systems and breaches in spirit have surfaced ...engines for China's new Song-class diesel submarine are German and its newest 054-class frigates have French engines. The United Kingdom sold China naval aviation radars and France has sold Crotale ship-to-air missiles and launchers.

Israel now a Galileo partner is China’s second largest arms supplier. Coincidentally, the newest addition to the Chinese air force, the F-10 multi-role fighter, is an almost identical version of the Lavi (Lion). The Lavi was a joint Israeli-American design based upon the F-16 for manufacture in Israel, but financed mostly with American aid. Plagued by cost overruns, it was canceled in 1987, but not before the U.S. spent $1.5 billion on the project.

In 2001 when the Navy EP-3E surveillance plane was forced to land in China after a Chinese F-8 fighter flew into its propeller, photos showed Israeli-built Python 3 missiles under the fighter’s wings.

A row brewed up in 2000 for Israel to scrap a $250 million deal to sell China the Phalcon airborne radar system (similiar to US AIWACS) equipped with advanced Israeli-made aeronautics on board a Russian-made plane. Washington’s argument was that providing Beijing access to the technology would upset the military balance over Taiwan and threaten US interests in the region. When the US Congress threatened to cut the annual $2.8 billion military aid to Israel they gave in and scrapped the deal. Read this article "Chinese Whispers" 10/3/05

European governments and defense companies have an incestuous relationship and they know that the US is a crucial political, strategic and economic ally. To boost sales of dual-use technology (which is where Galileo fits in) to China may be a huge business opportunity for the EU. The cancellation of the JSF alternate engine highlights the political, security and economic consequences of ignoring the transatlantic connection.

U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense annual report issued July 19th 2005 -- The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2005 – reviewed China’s growing space capability and flatly claims that China is developing and intends to field anti-satellite (ASAT) systems.

"China is working on, and plans to field, ASAT systems. Beijing has and will continue to enhance its satellite tracking and identification network - the first step in establishing a credible ASAT capability. China can currently destroy or disable satellites only by launching a ballistic missile or space-launch vehicle armed with a nuclear weapon."

The report also claims China is conducting research on the development of ground-based laser ASAT weapons .. " [China could] eventually could develop a laser weapon capable of damaging or destroying satellites." Critics argue there is no evidence to substantiate these bald assertions.

"Building a modern ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] architecture is likely one of the primary drivers behind Beijing’s space endeavors and a critical component of its overall C4ISR modernization efforts," the report states.

China launched its first manned spacecraft into Earth orbit on October 15, 2003.

Finally, remember that one of the 5 main goals of the Project for the New American Century is clearly stated as ...

CONTROL THE NEW “INTERNATIONAL COMMONS” OF SPACE AND “CYBERSPACE,” and pave
the way for the creation of a new military service – U.S. Space Forces – with the mission of space control.

(Pic Pratt & Whitney (P&W) FX631, the CTOL/CV was successfully tested for the first time on 11 October 2003. JSF website )