Clash of Arms

WESTERN EUROPE

Armaments are once again a big and growing business in Western Europe. The defense budgets of the major NATO powers have increased by about 45% since 1959, but few nations maintain defense establishments large enough to match their ability to produce arms. Result: A fiercely competitive battle for contracts, and the possibility of financial disaster for a company if its new plane or tank fails to win enough customers.

Tank Trouble. The arms makers sell chiefly to their own governments, but most of them also vie with each other for NATO contracts and for sales to nations--such as Greece, Portugal and Norway--that do not have their own major armaments industries. Britain does a good business in selling arms on the Continent and around the world. From 1960 to 1963, the French did well in foreign sales, thanks largely to the popularity of their light tanks and the Mystere II interceptor jet. West Germany still relies heavily on arms purchases from the U.S., but its own defense industry, just emerging from a postwar eclipse, is beginning to look for more export markets.

The competition is growing much tougher, and so are the tactics. In current negotiations about building a Franco-German turboprop transport, the French are holding out for a fifty-fifty split of the contract, while the Germans argue that they have ordered more of the planes and should get more of the production. Right now the tanks of four nations are facing each other across battle lines: the British Chieftain, the West German Leopard, the French AMX30 and the U.S. M60. The French, whose armaments salesmen are trying hardest, have sold many of their light AMX13 tanks, but are having trouble with the newer AMX30; it has failed to win a clear military endorsement over the Leopard, which Germany has just begun to produce to replace its Standardpanzer. Belgium recently balked at signing an order for the AMX30, and The Netherlands grumbled that some of the AMX13s it bought have become immobilized with cracked gun mounts. Other European armies are not so sure that they want any new tanks at all, preferring to wait until a more sophisticated joint U.S.German tank is introduced in the 1970s.

New Pattern. To overcome national bias and to broaden their markets, several defense companies are forming international joint ventures. French and British companies have joined to develop air-to-ground missiles. Last week the U.S.'s General Dynamics and France's C.S.F. established a Paris subsidiary called Sestro for the research and production of aerospace instruments. A new pattern of NATO armaments cooperation may be set by companies now seeking the contract for the $300 million NADGE (for NATO air defense ground environment) system, an electronic "fence" to be strung from Norway to Turkey. There are no jealous national bidders for the job--only international consortiums.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.