Two of the largest aerospace companies in Belgium, Sonaca and Orizio, are set to strengthen their commercial and operational collaboration in the Belgian defence sector to meet the needs of the Armed Forces, L’Écho reports.
The two companies have concluded an agreement strengthening their cooperation to produce joint military commercial offers with the goal of strengthening the role of Belgium’s industry in its defence sector.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a flurry of interest and investment in Belgium’s army. Last year, the Federal Government pledged to reach NATO’s 2% GDP defence spending targets, earmarking €1.8 billion towards military R&D. In Flanders, the aeronautical sector has swelled with military orders and regional funding.
Sonaca has previously worked on projects for Europe's hypersonic missile defence system, as well as developing parts for the Airbus A400-M transport plane, Lockheed F-35, and UAV market. Orizio, the managing company of Sabca, builds parts for the F-16, Alphajet, Agusta, and Mirage projects.
“We want to align our skill and strengths to meet the needs of the army in the coming years and even decades, given that we are talking about large-scale projects,” explained Sonaca CEO Yves Delatte. “Sabca and Sonaca have often been presented as competitors or enemy brothers… but we have extremely complementary skills. We are therefore very happy to combine our strengths to provide solutions to the Defence sector.”
Deepening cooperation
This new agreement is in line with a previous partnership first started between Sonaca and Sabena Aerospace, forerunner to Sabena Engineering. This resulted in the creation of a joint subsidiary, Ignition!, which was created to win a contract for Belgium’s replacement of its F-16 fleet. The company is dormant as it has yet to receive its first deliveries.
CEO Sonaca Aircraft Yves Delatte poses for the photographer at Sonaca Aircraft in Gembloux. Credit: Belga / Virginie Lefour
“We wanted to go further this time by trying to be more concrete and to fit in with our role as a defence support industry,” Stéphane Burton, head of Orizio, told L’Écho. The two partners will now work on four projects together.
The first is related to the maintenance and other support for Belgium’s future F-35 aircraft, the first of which are set to arrive in 2025. A second relates to similar services for the Army’s purchase of new helicopters. The Federal Government recently greenlit the acquisition of 15 light helicopters, as well as five for the police.
Next generation
The two companies are already looking ahead to the government’s plans to purchase future aircraft for Belgium’s special forces. These projects are expected to “create jobs, but will also lead to the development of skills that do not exist 100% in either of the companies.”
“We will develop products for the army, then sell them in Europe or NATO. Then there are also spin-offs for dual-use. Every time we make a new development in the military field, we also have a 10-20 times economic multiplier in spin-offs for the civilian sector,” noted the Sonaca CEO. The two companies have declined, as of yet, to cooperate in the civilian aviation sector.
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The two CEOs also called on the Belgian Government to quickly make its decision about projects for its sixth generation fighter aircraft. Belgium has been slow off the mark to put its backing towards a project. These are built outside the country with reduced economic benefit.
“When you don’t participate in the development of an aircraft, the tasks are already distributed among the first partners, you arrive too late, only the crumbs remain,” Delatte said. Burton notes that a decision should now be made on new fighter aircraft projects before 19 June, which is the start of the Paris Air Show.
