BAVARIAN CALL TO ARMS - CSU DEFENDS GERMAN DEFENSE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MUNICH 000241 SIPDIS OSD POLICY FOR RICHARD DOTSON, CIA FOR MARY SANFORD E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2019 TAGS: ETTC PGOV PINR MCAP PREL FR IT UK GM SUBJECT: BAVARIAN CALL TO ARMS - CSU DEFENDS GERMAN DEFENSE INDUSTRY Classified By: Consul General Conrad Tribble for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d ) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) The consolidation of the global defense industry will affect Germany and Bavaria significantly, the Christian Social Union (CSU),Germany's leading regional political party, warned its members at a party congress on September 4 in Munich. Speakers mocked Germany's overly modest and hide-bound support of its defense industry when it should compete self-assured and bare-knuckled. To maintain, much less increase, market share, Christian Schmidt (CSU),State Secretary for Defense, and other leading CSU experts demanded stronger and more coordinated efforts by the Chancellor to promote the sale of German and Bavarian armaments and systems worldwide. To remain competitive with France and the United States especially, speakers said the German defense industry must move beyond its obsession with producing only the best and identify which products buyers really need and get them from design to production more quickly. End Summary. 2 (C) The Christian Social Union convened its first "Military Technical ("Wehrtechnischen") Congress" in Munich on September 4 to discuss the prospects for growth and prosperity of the defense-related industry in Bavaria and Germany. 400 firms representing one-third of the 6.5 billion euro German defense industry are situated in Bavaria or have large subsidiaries here, including major players EADS, Eurocopter, Kraus Maffai Wegmann (KMW),Rohde & Schwarz and Diehl, and medium-sized companies like ESG or LFG. Presenters included Peter Ramsauer (leader of the CSU caucus in the Bundestag),Christian Schmidt (State Secretary in the Defence Ministry),Georg Fahrenschon (Bavarian finance minister), Werner Dornisch (president of the German society for defence technology),and Martin Hauenschild (Director of bavAIRia, a Bavarian marketing association focusing on the aerospace and space cluster). Hans Raidel, member of the Bundestag (MdB), was chair. Among the 100 participants were also local CSU politicians, active and retired military officers, and representatives of Bavarian defense industries. The Congress was closed to the general public but Consulate General Munich Political Chief attended on the invitation of the CSU secretariat; the speakers were not aware that an American was in the audience and the discussion was quite open and lively. WAR IS THE FATHER OF INNOVATION -------------- ¶3. (C) State Secretary Schmidt acknowledged that the defense industry was a critical component of Germany's industrial and technological base, a major economic sector, and an important inspiration for German industrial innovation overall. To protect Germany's market share, he urged manufacturers to become more flexible and responsive to the needs of customers. The industry was "still operating based on defense decisions made years ago, which were now irrelevant," he charged, and he basically accused them of elitism, since they offered "pricey, gold-plated products ("Goldrandloesungen")" that met the very highest standards but were often too expensive or not really what the broad market needed. The Eurocopter UH Tiger was an example, he said, as it was designed to destroy tanks but in spite of the more versatile French version deployed to Afghanistan in July, the helicopter would have problems doing its job fighting insurgents there. Schmidt insisted that the German policy in the defense industry sector must become better coordinated and he said the next governing coalition should set up a special coordinating office in the Chancellor's office. GET OVER HISTORY - GERMANS SHOULD SUPPORT DEFENSE SECTOR -------------- -------------- ¶4. (C) Despite the importance of the defense sector, Germans failed to appreciate its importance, several speakers charged, and they bemoaned the fact that the German public MUNICH 00000241 002 OF 002 still failed to support the export of military equipment, for visceral historical reasons that were out of step with modern Germany. High-ranking German politicians normally do not lobby openly for German defense technology on trips abroad, Werner Dornisch pointed out. In contrast, competitors like France and America supported their defense sectors on a grand scale at the official level. Lobbying for French products by President Sarkozy was the prime example, seen recently in the United Arab Emirates and in India. Schmidt urgued German businesses to invest more outside Germany in order to gain the upper hand in deals as the industry consolidated. POLICITAL COMPETENCE SHOULD MATCH TECHNICAL COMPETENCE -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) Schmidt said that political support of the defense sector from the German federal government was anemic and uncoordinated. Several Bavarian-based speakers added that there was also no effective cooperation between the federal and state governments. Lacking good political coordination, the German defense industry suffered further because it was privately organized at the industry level, Dornisch said. Speakers charged Chancellor Merkel with doing German defense industry a disfavor by not engaging more openly on major international arms deals, such as the contest for India's medium multirole combat aircraft (MMRCA). Fahrenschon, Dornisch and Hauenschild noted that in the big European cooperation programs, such as in the aeronautic and space sectors, the Bavarian industries cried out for more political support. Asking "what comes after Eurofighter," speakers urged Germany to fight for a leadership position by capitalizing on its reputation for competent production. They warned that failing to do this, Germany could one day find that advanced production was taking place in France, Italy and UK, and German sites could end up with the manufacture of minor and less complicated components. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) The CSU appears determined at the federal and state level to move beyond German history and bureaucracy to embrace strong marketing and political tactics to promote German defense products as well as German leadership in a very competitive global environment. Earlier this year, the deployment of Bundeswehr Eurofighter jets to India, to take part in a demonstration during in the Indian fighter jet tender, met with much criticism in Germany. CSU speakers openly admired French savoir faire in getting more than their share of cooperation projects in European defense, where hard national interests count first. The next Chancellor will find concerted pressure from the junior partner CSU to model Nicolas Sarkozy and do more at the level of the Chancellery to support the defense industry, not least to keep Bavaria on top as one of the major hubs of the defense industry in Europe. TRIBBLE