GICAT, French excellence in Defence and Security
At our association’s general meeting on 1 July 2024, I was appointed the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. I am honoured by this display of trust, at a key time for our industry, and I firmly believe that GICAT plays a major role in its defence and promotion.
The past two years have been a historic turning point for our industry. Not only is the wartime economy model requiring a ramp-up in production and greater industrial resilience, our industry was also mobilised in 2024 to provide security for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were an opportunity to demonstrate the excellence of our security industry.
The success of Eurosatory 2024 in June, confirming its status as the world’s largest defence and security industry exhibition, with 20% growth from the previous event, further displays our dynamism and moves our sector into the future.
After a long career in the French government (Ministries for the Armed Forces and Finance) and the aerospace industry, I have been CEO of KNDS France (formerly Nexter) for over three years and Vice-Chairman of GICAT for two years. I have been able to fully appreciate the many issues and challenges facing our industry and I have become all the more convinced that GICAT has a key role to play in federating the air-land defence and security sectors, for the benefit of all our members, and in particular the mid-cap companies, SMEs and start-ups which represent vital players.
Today, our association is experiencing sustained growth and fully contributing to the outreach of our members. We have demonstrated our agility and our determination to support them, particularly through the innovation action developed as part of our accelerator GENERATE, and our effective measures in favour of business financing. We have also taken action with Ukraine, in particular with the organisation of the first Franco-Ukrainian industrial cooperation seminar. I will be very keen to see this momentum pursued and expanded in future.
I would like to share with you the strategic directions that, in my opinion, we should be focusing on in the years to come:
- The reinforcement of our air-land DTIB and its entire supply chain, as a key factor of French military sovereignty. In this regard, the war in Ukraine and the needs of the wartime economy model have underlined the importance of our land defence industry, and identified certain weaknesses. The new organisation of the French Defence Procurement and Technology Agency DGA, and the creation of a directorate dedicated to the defence industry (DlD) represent a unique opportunity to build a common roadmap with the French government in order to strengthen and consolidate the land DTIB and its supply chain. This should enable us to outline prospects for the sector and opportunities for its growth.
- Strengthening our positioning in Europe to take full advantage of European funding instruments. Europe has indeed become an essential part of our environment, in terms of regulations (requiring action to advocate our specific features to European institutions) and trade (with the multiplication of security and defence funding instruments creating numerous business opportunities), at the level of both the European Union and NATO. In particular, close attention should be paid to the European Defence lndustry Strategy (EDIS) and the associated European Defence lndustry Programme regulation, recently presented by the European Commission for review by the European Parliament elected on 9 June 2024. GICAT can play a vital role in federating a ‘French team’ in Brussels for the land defence sector, particularly for SMEs, and namely by better identifying opportunities.
- Increased focus on the security industry, and particularly the major challenge of cyber security. The 2024 Olympic Games were undoubtedly an opportunity to demonstrate our sector’s excellence in this regard. Building on the experience and momentum gained, we must continue its development, notably in the areas of smart borders and cities, cyber security and security for major international events.
- An increase in our export efforts. Accounting for approximately 50% of our activities, export is a key dimension of our business model and must be a major focus area. In this context, our subsidiary COGES Events is a remarkable asset that we should leverage to the full.
- A new step in our digital transformation, drawing notably on the development of artificial intelligence. While we have collectively anticipated this move by supporting the creation of a Data lntelligence Cluster as early as 2017, a report on AI in land and air-land systems in 2019, and the launch of a Digital and Cyberspace Committee in 2022, we need to step up our work on the adoption and integration of these high value-added technological solutions for our sectors of excellence (design and production, integration and development of connectivity in objects, etc.).
- Promoting our CSR efforts, which are essential to the attractiveness of our sector, in order to develop our talent, diversify our recruitment, increase women’s representation, meet our regulatory obligations in this area, particularly in terms of environmental responsibility, and improve our ability to respond to increasingly demanding calls for tenders (B2B or B2G).
This strategic roadmap will allow us to strengthen GICAT’s action in our role supporting the performance of our members and their national and international outreach.
I would like to express my ambition and resolve to fulfil my mandate for the benefit of all GICAT members and the collective interest of our industry.
Nicolas CHAMUSSY,
CEO of KNDS France and Chairman of GICAT
