Main headlines from this issue

Special Report: UK industrial participation in serious decline – MOD blocks enquiries

The number of industrial participation agreements implemented in the UK is in progressive decline. At the current rate it will be terminal within a few years. This is evidence, it seems, of restrictive budget cuts for defence acquisitions and a lack of political will in implementing an IP policy, even during a worsening recession and with unemployment in the defence industry on the rise...

Poland signs a blizzard of offset contracts as the year closes

Poland’s Ministry of Economy signed three offset contracts on December 10, 2008. By the end of the month, the country will have added offset contracts worth ZL1bn ($331m), representing an obligation of 100 percent of supply contract value in each case...

Recession bites into Turkey’s offset-generated defence exports

Turkish defence companies, which rely heavily on offsets for exporting their already limited products, will face a 25 percent decrease in Turkey’s overall exports because of the global financial crisis, say Turkish defence industry sources. This is despite the Turkish currency’s 25 percent decline in value against the dollar since the beginning of September...

Bulgarian industrialists complain “Offset programs are just a delusion” – demand protectionist policy

Chief executives of several Bulgarian defence sector companies have complained that the public procurement procedures of the Bulgarian Defence Ministry were formulated in a way that excludes Bulgarian firms from participating...