UK-France declaration

1. At the Lancaster House Summit, we took the historic decision to raise our defence and security cooperation to unprecedented levels. We took this decision because we are natural partners in security and defence and our countries share values, global interests and responsibilities. We signed two treaties, one on our security and defence cooperation, the other on joint defence nuclear facilities. Since then, those agreements have been ratified by our Parliaments. They now constitute the foundation of a wide range of ambitious cooperation programmes that are essential to our present and future defence and security interests.

2. We have expanded our cooperation in every major field: capabilities, industry, operations, and intelligence. As a result, we are stronger today to defend our strategic interests, to carry out our responsibilities as permanent members of the UN Security Council and leaders in the EU and NATO. We are better equipped to face the whole range of threats to our countries and our Allies: weapons of mass destruction and missiles, terrorists, cyber attacks and other technological threats, threats against the freedom of the seas and against free access to space.

3. We are determined to sustain a high level of defence spending, flexible and rapidly deployable forces, interoperability with our Allies and a solid industrial basis. Reflecting this ambition, France and the UK continue to account for nearly half of Europe’s defence spending. Our cooperation has enhanced efficiencies in our respective defence programs.

4. In the current changing strategic environment, we need a stronger NATO and a more effective EU common security and defence policy. We welcome the recent U.S. Global Defence announcement and the continued commitment to NATO and, therefore, European security. France and the UK are determined to play a leading part in this new context and are united in our belief that Europe must play a full role. We call for stronger cooperation among European Allies and partners to develop flexible, deployable, interoperable and trained military capabilities to support NATO and the EU.

5. A threat to our vital interests could emerge at any time. We do not see situations arising in which the vital interests of either nation could be threatened without the vital interests of the other also being threatened.

Lessons learned from Libya

6. Last year, we have seen our bilateral agreements on security and defence put to the test. We met today on the first anniversary of the Libyan uprising. Our cooperation in Libya has been a defining moment – and one on which we will continue to build in the future. We commend the courage and excellence of our armed forces and the contributions of our European and North American Allies. France and the UK successfully answered a UN call for civilians in Libya to be protected and led the NATO mission. The shared experience has validated and accelerated our cooperation.

7. Following an analysis of lessons identified, we have decided to prioritise our joint work in the key areas of: command and control; information systems; intelligence, surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance; and precision munitions.

8. We also recognise the unique contribution made by our Gulf allies, notably Qatar and the UAE, coordinated through NATO.  We will build on existing agreements to strengthen our co-operation with them across the political, operational and technical spectrum.

Combined Joint Expeditionary force

9. France and the UK agreed in November 2010 to set up a combined Joint expeditionary Force (CJEF). Our operation in Libya has proved the relevance of this work. Today we took additional steps to make the CJEF a real asset for our military operations in the future.

10. We agreed the Level of Ambition for the CJEF: an early entry force capable of facing multiple threats up to the highest intensity, available for bilateral, NATO, European Union, United Nations or other operations. A five-year exercise framework is in place to achieve full operating capability in 2016.

11. We agreed to expand the number of exchange officers in our military academies and have established a Force Enhancement Working Group to identify the scope for further cost saving through exchange of services and alignment of military requirements.

12. We will conduct this year a major French-UK exercise, Corsican Lion, to accelerate the development of the CJEF. It will take place in the Mediterranean Sea with participation by sea, land and air forces.

13. On aircraft Carrier cooperation, we will continue to build a joint maritime task group force. The UK and France aim to have, by the early 2020s, the ability to deploy a UK-French integrated carrier strike group incorporating assets owned by both countries.

Joint Force Headquarters

14. We will establish a deployable Combined Joint Force Headquarters. We agreed a step change in our combined UK/FR deployable HQ capability. By 2016, a UK/FR Headquarters will utilise existing French and UK high-readiness, well-experienced national Force Headquarters staff, including officers that we have embedded in each other’s deployable Headquarters. We will ensure that the Headquarters is capable of expansion to include staff from other nations participating in a multinational operation.

15. We agreed to accelerate development of the command and control elements of the CJEF so that in the short term, the combined Headquarters will be able to be deployed on request to command and execute an evacuation operation. This will be developed further to plan for and be ready to execute further operations of mutual interest before CJEF full operational capability in 2016.

Defence equipment

16. Unmanned air systems are crucial to success in the battlefield, as the Libya and Afghanistan campaigns have shown. We have agreed today to take forward our planned cooperation on UAS within a long term strategic partnership framework aimed at building a sovereign capability shared by our two countries. This framework will encompass the different levels from tactical to MALE in the mid term and UCAS in the long term:

Medium Altitude Longue Endurance (MALE) Drone: The Joint Program Office was launched in 2011. We will shortly place with BAES and Dassault a jointly funded contract to study the technical risks associated with the MALE UAV. We look forward to taking further decisions jointly in the light of the outcomes of this risk reduction phase to ensure that our respective sovereign requirements will be met in a cost effective manner.

- Watchkeeper drone: France confirms its interest for the Watchkeeper system recognising the opportunities this would create for cooperation on technical, support, operational and development of doctrine and concepts.  An evaluation of the system by France will begin in 2012, in the framework of its national procurement process, and conclude in 2013.

- We affirm our common will to undertake in 2013 a joint Future Combat Air System Demonstration Programme that will set up a co-operation of strategic importance for the future of the European Combat Air Sector. This work will provide a framework to mature the relevant technologies and operational concepts for a UCAS operating in a high threat environment. We will begin as soon as 2012 the specification of this demonstrator with a jointly funded contract under the industrial leadership of our national fighter aircraft industries (Dassault-Aviation in France and BAE Systems in the UK).

17. A400M. We have established a bilateral Joint User Group to facilitate co-operation on A400M training to inform operating techniques and procedures for synthetic and live training. We will continue to develop a common support plan for our future A400M transport fleets. We expect industry to offer an affordable in service support solution. A contract will be negotiated with Airbus Military so that integrated support is in place for the arrival of the first French aircraft in 2013.

18. Submarine Technologies. A bilateral Memorandum of Understanding was signed in June 2011 to support our exchanges. We will pursue collaborative work to identify areas of technological cooperation and savings. We agreed to look at the feasibility of a co-development of specific sonar equipment.

19. Maritime Mine Countermeasures. We have aligned our plans for our future Maritime Mine Countermeasures capabilities. We agreed to take an incremental approach whose first major step will begin in 2013 with the development and realisation of a demonstrator/prototype of off board systems based on unmanned technologies. The Joint Project Office already established within OCCAR will begin a European competitive process in 2012 for a common assessment phase.

20. Satellite Communications. France and UK will look to confirm their intent to adopt a cooperative approach to meet their need for future COMSAT services, considering they will form a core asset in any Beyond Line of Sight capabilities in the future. A comparative study will be made by mid 2012 to analyse different architectural options.

21. 40mm cannon. We confirm our joint interest in the 40 mm CTA cannon that will equip armoured vehicle platforms. Effort will be made to assure qualification by 2013, jointly promote the export of this system and the elaboration of a NATO standard.