Defense Cooperation

France and the United Kingdom signed a bilateral Defense and Security Cooperation Agreement this week. Analyst Jeffrey Lewis on his ArmsControlWonk blog notes the common stockpile stewardship portion of the pact:

7. We have decided:

[snip]

b) to collaborate in the technology associated with nuclear stockpile stewardship in support of our respective independent nuclear deterrent capabilities, in full compliance with our international obligations, through unprecedented co-operation at a new joint facility at Valduc in France that will model performance of our nuclear warheads and materials to ensure long-term viability, security and safety – this will be supported by a joint Technology Development Centre at Aldermaston in the UK;

Lewis further notes:

The new facility at Valduc is apparently going to be called EPURE and will replace France’s current hydrodynamic test facility, AIRIX, and presumably obviate the planned Core Punch facility at Aldermaston.

The agreement also includes language concerning NATO and missile defense:

22. NATO remains the fundamental guarantor of Europe’s security. We share the same objectives for the forthcoming NATO Summit in Lisbon. In particular, we are looking for major decisions on reform to ensure NATO’s efficiency and effectiveness. We also want a new Strategic Concept that: makes clear NATO’s continuing commitment to collective territorial defence and to addressing threats to Allies’ security wherever they stem from; addresses new threats to Allies’ fundamental security interests; and underlines NATO’s desire to work with a wide range of partners. In this context, we will pursue closer co-operation across the board between NATO and the EU, and a lasting partnership between NATO and Russia based on practical co-operation and reciprocity.

23. As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance. British and French independent strategic nuclear forces, which have a deterrent value of their own, contribute to overall deterrence and therefore to Allies’ security. These national minimum nuclear deterrents are necessary to deter threats to our vital interests. We will support a decision in Lisbon on territorial missile defence, based on the expansion of the [Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence] system, which is financially realistic, coherent with the level of the threat arising from the Middle East, and allows for a partnership with Russia. Missile defence is a complement to deterrence, not a substitute.

Inside Missile Defense reported in September that NATO officials earlier this summer had inspected the architecture of the Medium Extended Air Defense System -- being developed by the United States, Germany and Italy -- for compatibility with the alliance's ALTBMD Program. That program's goal is the "upgrade, test and integration of NATO's command and control systems and underlying communication network to enable effective information exchanges between various NATO and national missile defence systems," according to a NATO website. Further:

As part of the Joint Project Optic Windmill 2010 exercise, officials "demonstrated the initial interoperability between the MEADS architecture and the ALTBMD architecture to ensure compatibility, interoperability and alignment in moving forward there," Kee told sister publication Inside the Army Sept. 8. "This was the first step of demonstrating that initial interoperability."

The test showed that MEADS and ALTBMD can pass data and "see" the missile tracks picked up by its sensors, Kee explained. NATO officials view the ALTBMD program as a key component in the eventual creation of a missile shield for all of Europe.