"The Old Mendicant"

It is strange that sometimes you stumble across a poem that makes an unknown, indefinable chord sing inside of you. You read the poem and notice that certain phrases, thoughts or mere words stream from the sheet of paper through your eyes into your mind, where they spark a simple, satisfied smile. That is the magic of well-chosen, deeply felt words by the poet, which transmit his thoughts, his being in the precious moment of writing.

Well, such a poem is that by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh that I discovered today on a Facebook page dedicated to his wisdom, teachings and art. I just have to share it here and, for German readers also made a translation which can be found here. Enjoy this gem!

The Old Mendicanct

Being rock, being gas, being mist, being mind,
being the mesons travelling among the galaxies
at the speed of light,
you have come here, my beloved.
And your blue eyes shine, so beautiful, so deep.
You have taken the path traced for you
from the non-beginning and the never-ending.
You say that on your way here
you have gone through
many millions of births and deaths.
Innumerable times you have been transformed
into firestorms in outer space.
You have used your own body
to measure the age of the mountains and rivers.
You have manifested yourself
as trees, grass, butterflies, single-celled beings,
and as chrysanthemums.
But the eyes with which you look at me this morning
tell me that you have never died.
Your smile invites me into the game
whose beginning no one knows,
the game of hide-and-seek.

O green caterpillar, you are solemnly using your body
to measure the length of the rose branch that grew last Summer.
Everyone says that you, my beloved, were just born this Spring.
Tell me, how long have you been around?
Why wait until this moment to reveal yourself to me,
carrying with you that smile which is so silent and so deep?
O caterpillar, suns, moons, and stars flow out each time I exhale.
Who knows that the infinitely large must be found
in your tiny body?
Upon each point on your body,
thousands of Buddha fields have been established.
With each stretch of your body, you measure time
from the non-beginning to the never-ending.
The great mendicant of old is still there on Vulture Peak,
contemplating the ever-splendid sunset.

Gautama, how strange!
Who said that the Udumbara flower blooms
only once every 3,000 years?

The sound of the rising tide - you cannot help hearing it
if you have an attentive ear.

(by Thich Nhat Hanh)

1812 / 2013 - Worrying Parallels

Do we lack "training in the rights or duties of citizenship"?


I currently read a lot about the Wars of Independence of South America during the early 19th century and, in consequence, about a man I truly admire for his brilliant mind and actions: Simón Bolívar. Although there is a lot to be quoted from the many writings and speeches by "El Libertador", I would like to offer the following quote today, as it reminds me of some problems that the governments and societies of the so-called Western world are currently experiencing.

The quote is taken from Simón Bolívar's Cartagena Manifesto, titled "Memorial Addressed to the Citizens of New Granada by a Citizen from Caracas". It was written in Cartagena de Indias on December 15th, 1812 and reflects his thoughts on the causes of the fall of the First Republic in Venezuela (read more about the Manifesto here):

The federal system, although it is the most perfect and the most suitable for guaranteeing human happiness in society is, notwithstanding the form most inimical to the interests of our emerging states. Generally speaking, our fellow citizens are not yet ready to take on the full and independent exercise of their rights, because they lack the political virtues marking the true citizen of a republic. Such virtues are impossible to attain in absolutist governments, where there is no training in the rights or duties of citizenship.
On the other hand, is there a country anywhere, no matter how sensible and republican it is, capable of ruling itself during times of internal unrest and external warfare by a system as complicated and weak as a federalist government? It would not be possible to maintain order during the tumult of battle and internal factionalism. The government must necessarily adjust itself, so to speak, to the context of the times, men, and circumstances in which it operates. If these are prosperous and serene, it has to be gentle and protective, but if they are calamitous and turbulent, it has to be severe and armed with a strength equal to the dangers, without regard for laws or constitutions until such time as happiness and peace are restored.

In today's modern societies and seasoned democracies, such thinking might be deemed cold-hearted or brutal - in particular, when considering Bolívar's mentioning of an "exaggerated notion of the rights of man". With the advantage of hind-sight and the enlightenment by so many philosophers and historical mentors, today available to anyone who wishes to acquire it, we know that the Rights of Man are irrevocable, irreplaceable and indispensable. They are universal rights that should never be questioned to easily for the sake of any cause of any nation, group of people or other institution.

However, the age in which Bolívar has lived and the experiences he made during twelve years of war and constant battles for creating a new political system, led by the then-revolutionary ideas of freedom, peace and the sovereignty of the people, may explain and justify his considerations (here in their form a little more than one year after the beginning of the war).

Today, we are facing very similar problems. Although the roots of these problems are entirely different and the circumstances cannot be easily compared, there is a common base to them that lies in the principles of the universal dynamics of societies and humankind itself: While our Western societies have mostly benefited of more than half a century without major wars, rather united than at each other's throats as before, this internal peace has had effects of its own that might be deteriorating the stability of our political system and social cohesion in the long term.

Is the majority of European citizens truly "ready to take on the full and independent exercise of their rights"? Is their moral and intellectual education - be it through upbringing, schools or life experience - sufficient to acknowledge the importance of their own rights and to make the necessary and responsible decisions, being their unquestioned right as members of a democracy? Have we become "to stupid to see the value of [our] rights", as Bolívar described those who did not want to follow the ideals of the revolution in his Manifesto? Were I a more optimistic and idealistic person, without knowing the strong egoistical tendencies in each human being (without any judgement), I would spring to my feet, in the same knee-jerk manner as seen by most politicians wishing to be reelected, and vehemently contradict this diagnosis.

Yet, I do not wish to lie to myself and I truly see unhealthy developments in our societies, having various internal, as well as external, causes and influences. Most persons that were born in Western Europe after World War II have not known absolutist governments. They have not known the struggle to overcome suppression, terror and the unrighteousness of a few against many. But our societies are slowly drifting back towards such experiences, as if we were to be put to a test ... as if everything our ancestors have accomplished throughout the centuries was put to the test. The liberties and rights, that have been acquired by so much blood, strain and suffering, today are being questioned or challenged on so many occasions that we may soon find ourselves fighting the same battles all over again. It would be a sad and unworthy fate for an intelligent race!

Terrorism, possibly being the largest challenge that our generation is facing, has caused many Western governments to intensify security measures as far as constricting certain rights, which only twelve years ago seemed unquestionable. How much should and must the government "adjust" itself to the circumstances and what will be the price of this adjustment? Will our governments be able to restore those curtailed rights "in times of happiness and peace"? Will they be prepared to reduce the degree of control, which they have established in times where it might have been necessary, and, thereby, relinquish a certain amount of power? It is questionable that our political elite is so altruistic and humble to give back power when the circumstances no longer require them to have it. Are the people, as an electoral mass, far-sighted enough to recognise, when this power should no longer be in the hands of a few to be possibly used against the many? Or will the gruesome system of terror and fear win? History has proven that people will only to willingly give up their rights when they hope for deliverance from imminent fears.

Internal factionalism is also a problem that may become an increasing threat to the future of our modern societies. Individuality and personal freedom are high values, but they may also weaken a society when it is required to show solidarity and when suddenly being confronted with the need to fight for a common cause. Factionalism in politics are boon and bane of the prosperity of a country, most prominently to be observed in the United States, which since the Civil War has probably not been as politically divided as it is today. While the United States are still a super power and can (hopefully) afford such factionalism without seriously endangering its geopolitical position, other countries might not have the intrinsic strength and could succumb to its social, political or moral disunity under internal or external pressure.

The superficial consumer societies that we have established during the last decades have made the majority of the people weary of daily political issues and of assuming their responsibilities for maintaining and enforcing a healthy political system. In many cases, they are not even fit to do so. But will the people, and the inert governments that have grown from these circumstances, be able to tackle the truly great internal and external challenges that may await us in the near future?
In addition, money has become the new absolute power, the new aristocratic system of the 20th and 21st century. It is the most driving and defining factor in modern societies. The significance of money for our everyday lives plays a unnaturally important role. The economic system has reached a dimension that can no longer be controlled by individual governments or even unions of many countries. It has developed a momentum which goes beyond the scope of conventional political control. Thus, consumer societies are subject to a global economic system and entirely dependent of it, without being able to have any noteworthy impact on it by means of democratic participation. Do we really realise and comprehend the consequences this could have on the our social, political and moral world?

Simón Bolívar had to fight his way through the endless plains of Venezuela and across the cold and barren passes of the Andes to liberate half of a continent from the yoke of a colonial power, driven only by an idea. By achieving the almost unachievable the armies of Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín established the basis for the modern South America with its various forms of political systems and national identities. They introduced democracy to an entire continent under the most demanding social, economic and political conditions. It is under these aspects that one should read the above quoted excerpt of Bolívar's Cartagena Manifesto. And it is in this light that one should look at today's developments. For to often do we forget what people have sacrificed to create what citizens and politicians of today's modern societies are sometimes neglecting or even compromising. Much is at stake and the price we would have to pay to regain what was already achieved would be enormous.

Bolívar said that the citizen of Venezuela in the year 1811 were not yet ready for democracy and federalism. Could it be that our society will return to such a condition, simply because we have become used to the luxury of peace and freedom? Simply because most of us do not remember the price that has been paid for our fortune? Simply because we equally have a lack of "training in the rights or duties of citizenship", as those who lived during the turbulent Age of Revolution?

The shallow satisfaction of a life in prosperity and serenity should not let us forget that the realities of life can change in the twinkling of an eye. Therefore, we must reassume responsibility for the future of our society. A new Age of Enlightenment is necessary today (regardless of the means offered by the Internet, which is not an enlightenment in itself but, rather, only a supporting instrument). And if we are very lucky we will not have to fight bloody battles to secure and preserve such achievements, as our ancestors were forced to do!

Fibular aplasia – Break a leg! (Part 1)

Living with the fibular aplasia lower-leg disability


Should you write about something like that? Especially when you are affected yourself? What will other affected people say: will they share your points of view? And what will the people around you think? How will your family, which has brought you up with this handicap, feel about it? These kinds of questions come to mind when writing about such a sensitive and personal matter. Sensitive, because is touches and influences every aspect of an affected person’s life; personally, because I was born with the fibular aplasia disability.

Special by nature

Before I provide a definition and explanation to those people who do not yet know this disability, I would like to explain my approach and motivation for this article. Indeed, it is not easy to write about something that distinguishes someone to such an extent from the everyday “norm” of people (the words “disability” and “deformity” make this fact very clear in a very rigorous way). For some it may be easy, for others it will be quite difficult. Obviously, this is related to whether you have an up-front self-confident character and have “always” had a laid-back attitude towards your handicap (which is strongly influenced by the parents’ attitude), or if this is not the case. The latter must not necessarily be the extreme opposite – thus, repressing or at least hushing up the fact of having a disability. It can also result from never having made a big fuss about being disabled and simply accepting it. Yet, a possible result of this attitude could be that one rarely speaks about it and that a conscious examination, externally as much as internally, might be neglected.

The latter is mostly related to the affected person’s environment: His or her way to cope with the disability and other peoples’ way to react to it. However, the person itself will never remain unaffected. The disability will influence almost all experiences and emotions, mindset, relationships to other people and the attitude towards life. Moreover, it defines to a large extent the individual perception of one’s body, which in turn has a significant impact on a person’s behaviour and self-esteem.
You are never part of the so-called norm that is often suggested to exist in everyday-life (but almost never truly exists). Whether you want or not: you are literally something special “by nature” – as is any person with a physical disability. You must or, rather, may make experiences that will always remain inaccessible to others. And this goes beyond both the optimistic idea that we all are something special and unique and the pessimistic idea that we all have our cross to bear. A congenital physical disability will inevitably be worn on display during your entire life, for everyone to see in different situations. It cannot be unlearned or changed like a character trait, nor can you come to terms with it or overcome it like a bad experience. For affected persons it is omnipresent – it becomes an inseparable and fundamental part of your life, intrinsically tied to your mind as it is to your body.

Whether this will have a positive or negative impact on your character and emotional world depends and many different factors, which you can be influenced only to a very small extent and for which the basis is established in early childhood. It this regard, people with a disability and those without are identical: each human life is a huge puzzle that is put together slowly piece by piece and never in the same way – and sometimes one piece just doesn’t want to fit.

All this should not lead to the impression that I have a pessimistic view on the fact of having a disability. The fact alone of writing this article will show the reader that I do not repress this issue. On the contrary, I am very conscious of the unique possibilities that dealing with this nature-imposed disability provide to my personal development, and I’m very thankful for this. Beyond that, I am a huge fan of shorts, which I wear from February till November.
Nevertheless, it isn’t nor shouldn’t be easy for me to write about it. For it is something that confronts affected persons (in this case equally including children and parents) with many anxieties, considerations and necessities which they were never prepared for. “Everyday life” is something that will only return when you have learned to cope with all this ... a life-task. However, this also does not have to be something negative per se. It is up to each person to judge this for him or herself and to shape his or her life accordingly.

Finally, I would like to emphasise that this article exclusively represents my personal experiences and views. In no way do I claim for myself to speak for other affected persons. This is but one from a myriad of different perspectives. However, this article may perhaps help young parents of a child with fibular aplasia or another walking disability to cope with something that they were unprepared for and for which outsiders can only prepare them to a limited extent, if at all. The children themselves do not need any preparation, they grow up with whatever they are provided with; they grow into a life with certain physical limitations, which they often overcome due to the wonderfully naïve self-conception that everything is possible.

What is fibular aplasia?

In simple and very general terms fibular aplasia is a congenital (but probably not hereditary) deformity of the fibula, the rear and weakest of the two lower-leg bones. The word aplasia is of Old Greek origin and signifies “undeveloped“. In the Latin medical terminology it is used for such deformities in which organs are not being developed despite existing organ rudiments (primordia). In this particular case, it describes the total absence of the fibula. Further, there is also the fibular hypoplasia, which represents an incomplete development of the fibula.

A good initial overview of fibula deficiencies is provide by the website of the Standbein e.V. (www.standbein-ev.com; only in German and Russian), which is the European Association for PFFD, Fibula and Tibia Defect. For convenience, I quote excerpts from the website’s description of fibula deficiencies:

“The fibula deficiency often occurs in conjunction with additional deformities of the hindfoot and/or fibular longitudinal defects of the foot (absence of toes). When the fibula is entirely or partly absent, the hindfoot will not be supported by the knuckles of the tibia and fibula. The foot “dangles” in and out (lateral luxation). The fibula deficiency always involves a reduced linear growth of the lower leg. Probably due to the strong tension of the fibular connective tissue (fibula strand), the disease often also involves an antecurvation (distortion) of the tibia. [...]

“The fibula longitudinal defect represents the most common congenital deformity of the long hollow bones. It occurs with 7.4 to 20 per 1 Million newborns. As yet, the cause is unknown. The gravity of the disease depends of the deficiency’s characteristics.

“In rare cases the fibula deficiency is also connected with an ulna deficiency at the forearm and is classified as FFU (femur fibula ulna) Syndrome.

“Irrespective of the deficiency’s severity, Kids with a fibula deficiency feature a more or less pronounced shortening of the affected leg. The knee is over-articulated. The tibia is often curved to the back towards the bone’s distal third with a dimple in the skin at the point of greatest angulation. The foot can be considerably modified in terms of form and position. Often one or more toes are missing.

“If both legs are affected, they usually feature only a marginal difference of length. However, the length of the lower extremities and the torso will be unproportional. Apart from the above mentioned deficiencies, the patients show good health and do not manifest other diseases. The mental development is unimpaired.”*

As this article is intended to focus on my personal experience with fibular aplasia and due to my lack of sufficient medical expertise, I kindly ask the reader to visit the website of Standbein e.V. or similar pages and forums to receive additional information and to find suitable contacts within the medical specialist fields for professional advice.

Options and methods of treatment

Physical disabilities such as fibular aplasia naturally are not “curable” and cannot be “remedied” or entirely “adjusted” by any special treatment. The above quoted description provides a rough idea of the complexity and possible scope of the clinical circumstances. The possible options and methods of treatment are equally diverse. The methods mentioned below represent only the most common treatments, which I was personally confronted with, for my particular type of fibula deficiency (Type 2 according to Coventry and Johnson [1952] as well as Achtermann and Kalamchi [1979]). The slightest variation in the deficiency’s characteristics may require an entirely different treatment or open up other options.

Amputation / Amputation of the forefoot

For instance, I was spared to be born with a stiff foot (often in a pes equinus position, in some cases fixed at a horizontal angle of 90° and/or twisted to the side [so-called Valgus deformity]). Among other, this is caused by the lateral pull of muscles and tendons due to the absence of the fibula or by the lack of the lateral malleolus. If the deformation cannot be corrected by surgical means, the foot may have to be amputated to allow for better prosthetic care. In the United States and other countries doctors often automatically amputate the leg below the knee, whether or not the foot is stiff, in order to provide the patient with uncomplicated off-the-shelf prostheses. However, this is a procedure that, in my eyes, is inconsiderate and that I don’t support. Moreover, I presume that it has fundamental social causes and motives, which to discuss here would go beyond the scope of this article. I was lucky that the length of my shortened right leg and my articulated foot, which could carry my weight to a certain extent, allowed me to walk barefoot by walking on my toes on the right side (This is particularly important, for example, when going to a swimming pool without having to use your prosthesis or crutches to get from the changing room to the pool).

My orthoprosthesis (N.B.: An orthoprosthesis equally supports/corrects and replaces missing and/or wrongly developed limbs) was built in that tiptoeing position, thus accommodating my body weight at the metatarsus (which is fully enclosed by the lower prosthetic socket), underneath the heel, as well as partly onto the half-round socket that sustains the tibia up until right beneath the knee. My first orthoprostheses featured the opening of the half-round socket on the front side (allowing me to slide into the orthoprosthesis more easily) and was attached to the leg with the help of three Velcro fasteners and leather pads across the tibia and ankle. Unfortunately, these tended to break under high strain, in particular when playing soccer (it is a very odd view for children when suddenly a “leg” flew through the air). Later this construction concept was inverted so that the closed part of the socket was in front and the fasteners were mounted towards the back.

In both cases it was very difficult to prevent pressure marks and to adapt an off-the-shelf prosthetic foot to the socket. Therefore, this complicated prosthetic care prompted my orthopaedic surgeon to repeatedly suggest to me to amputate my forefoot – a loss of 13 centimetres that are most important to me in my everyday life. It would have been pure madness to follow this advice in my particular situation and I’m very happy that my parents supported me in my decision (after all, I was only 13 to 18 years old during that time) and did not yield to the doctor’s pressure.

However, all this does not mean that an amputation for patients with a different form of fibular aplasia or with different personal needs would not be the right solution. As I was told, many have agreed to that solution and would do it again anytime.

Lengthening of the leg

Due to the reduced length of the affected leg(s), which can amount to 30 centimetres, a very common method of treatment is the lengthening of the tibia or tibiae. This is not medically necessary and conducive in every case. Not to mention the fact that girls with “lofty” model dreams in countries such as Russia voluntarily undergo this most painful procedure that may involve several surgeries (thus, representing a high risk for your health and very life)! However, it can help patients with fibular deficiencies to partly or entirely adjust the length of their legs. During my numerous hospital stays I repeatedly met children who carried wire and steel constructions (so-called fixators), piercing their leg’s flesh and bones at various points, to slowly stretch their legs inch by inch. This is done in a speed and time that will allow the bone to close and strengthen the artificially created gap, resulting in months and years of treatment. Up to nine centimetres are feasible, as my orthopaedic surgeon – an internationally well-respected specialist for fibular deficiencies – told me then. Yet, as my right leg featured a larger shortening I was also spared to experience this ordeal.

Axial correction

However, a fibula deficiency will never remain without any need of surgery. During the growth phase, which unfortunately lasted quite long in my particular case, my leg constantly grew into an x position (this does not have to be the case with all fibula deficiencies). In order to prevent an increase of inappropriate strain onto the joints and bones, and to allow for a healthy gait, I had to undergo a total of 13 surgeries between 1982 and 2005. Six of these surgeries were necessary for axial correction of the lower and upper leg. Further surgeries were required to correct the foot’s and ankle’s position as well as to remove fixing material one or two years after the axial correction. To carry out an axial correction the respective bone will be cut through (e.g. at the supracondylar region of the femur) and a wedge in the desired correction angle will be cut from the bone. Then, the bone will be put into the intended alignment (horizontally and vertically) and fixed by metal plates and screws, which have to be removed after a certain time.

Further possible implications

Beyond the treatment necessary during childhood and the growth phase, additional medical conditions may develop during advanced age – which is not yet the case for me, thus limiting my ability to report about it. These may in particular be related to high strain of both knee joints (especially in the case of absent anterior and/or posterior cruciate ligaments), poor posture (e.g. by assuming a discharging position when walking or due to an uneven gait caused by complicated prosthesis care), as well as by a deficiency or excessive strain of the hip joints and acetabular cups. Surgeries can hardly be avoided in these particular cases and may, at the utmost, be delayed by a healthy and prophylactic way of life.

Prevention and strengthening through sport

Sport represents a vital basis for patients with fibular aplasia to reduce and balance negative physical effects caused by the deficiency up to a certain extent, as well as to somewhat delay long-term impairments as described above. It is self-evident that not all sports are adequate. However, depending of the deficiency’s characteristics, only few sports are entirely impossible to exercise.

The top priorities should be a healthy strengthening of the leg muscles (to balance the effect of missing or extended cruciate ligaments, as the case may be) and the back muscles (to prevent back injuries by a suboptimal gait), a healthy body weight (to reduce strain on the joints), as well as to generally promote an overall health condition.

Naturally, in the case of a deficiency involving missing cruciate ligaments and a high strain of joints, sports which increase this strain are rather detrimental. As there are already enough people with a healthy locomotor system who are not doing their joints and feet any favour by adopting a bad style of running, patients with fibular aplasia should completely renounce to jogging. Sports with a high amount of stop-and-go movements and causing significant strain, such as soccer or tennis, should also be left out, as long as it is not limited to occasional games with friends allowing for enough rest and respecting the individual physical limits.

Fast walking and hiking promote your endurance and musculature just as well. This also applies to bicycle riding, which is a good balance, but which requires an optimal posture in order not to cause impairments of the hip and back (for instance, due to a shortened upper leg that may cause uneven movement while pedalling).

The ideal sport for patients with fibula aplasia is swimming as it is most joint-friendly, provides an effective strengthening of arm, torso and leg muscles, and significantly increases your endurance. In addition, it contributes to developing a healthy and positive sense of your body. Speaking from my own experience, I can say that excessive breast stroke should, however, be avoided or at least carried out under professional medical supervision. The involved external rotation of the knee joint leads to high strain and might cause damage to the cartilage. Other swimming techniques, such as the front crawl or the butterfly stroke cause much less strain of the knee joints while still sufficiently exercising leg muscles.

Moreover, every type of physical exercise should be carried out as long as it does not represent a risk to your health or could cause long-term damages. Especially children should not be limited in their natural gaming and exploration impulse. A child with a positive sense of its body will quickly develop a healthy posture and self-assessment of its own limits. My parents have always encouraged me to try everything that was physically possible to me: from climbing on trees and climbing scaffolds to swimming, horse riding, bicycle riding, hiking and mountaineering – and I regularly played on the football grounds with my friends. However, all activities that go beyond this level and involve regular training or high strain should first be discussed with the attending physician.

(As soon as completed, part 2 of this article will provide additional insights into a life with fibular aplasia and its consequences.)


_____
* This translation was made by myself and does not represent an official translation by the operator of the original source. As I don’t have sufficient knowledge of medical terminology, I cannot guarantee for the accuracy of the translation.

On a Personal Note: A New Start

I recently decided to revive this little blog project, which I had started in January 2010. Unfortunately, at that time, I couldn’t continue my work due to time issues, and thus it lay idle all these years.

Originally, I led this blog anonymously as I feared my comments might have a negative impact on my work as an journalist/editor and would prevent me from writing as free as I intended to. Being no longer the case, I am now able to publish comments, articles and similar work under my full name. Although I cannot promise to write on a regular basis and at a high frequency, I will try to publish some bits and pieces from time to time and hope to meet the interests of my readers.

As a first action for the reactivation of this blog, I expanded its scope by adding a multilingual quotes collection. This collection can be accessed through the banner on the left screen side and is divided into different topic categories. The quotes mostly come from books that I have read and that I until now wrote down into a pocketbook. Now, everybody is to benefit of this collection. The generally reflect my interests, views and considerations or show noteworthy perspectives and nice phrases.

In addition, I published in the English edition of this blog a selection of articles and interviews, which I made during my time as a journalist, fearing they might sometime get lost in the internet. These entries can be found in the blog archive. Naturally, this also serves me as a reference of my past work.

I look very much forward to breathe new life into this blog!

AHRLAC to Spread Its Wings Across Africa ... and Beyond

Interview with John Craig, CEO of the Paramount Group


While the Paramount Group is preparing for Africa’s leading defence trade show, the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) taking place September 19th – 23th in South Africa, the company is making progress on one of its most prestigious aircraft development projects. Claimed to be Africa’s first indigenously developed and constructed aircraft, the Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC) can be expected to attract a considerable number of interested looks at the company’s aerospace exhibit.

Nicolas von Kospoth of defpro.com talked to John Craig, CEO of the Paramount Group, about AHRLAC, as well as the company’s role as one of Africa’s largest defence contractors in regional and international defence and security markets.


NvK: First, could you please provide our readers with a brief overview of the Paramount Group?

Craig: The Paramount Group is at this point Africa’s largest private defence contractor and one of the fastest growing defence companies in the world. It was founded in 1994 and focuses on providing a broad spectrum of fully integrated turnkey solutions to global defence, peacekeeping and internal security forces.

Paramount has established itself as a global innovator with the development of one of the world’s most modern and advanced families of armoured combat vehicles, and a revolutionary aircraft, the first aerial platform of its kind. Integrated with the latest technologies in electronic systems, these world-class platforms enable Paramount to deliver a total defence system to its customers. The Group is a leading innovator in the design and development of state-of-the-art products that it manufactures in locations throughout the world. It is partnered with some of the world’s largest and most reputable organisations in the global defence community.

Paramount Group has the unique ability to understand its client requirements and to use its extensive knowledge and experience to design cost-effective, future-proof solutions. As a result, Paramount has enjoyed strong growth and achieved an excellent track record of delivering successful projects.

NvK: How do you assess the achievements of the Paramount Group during the first half of the year and what are your overall aims and prospects for 2012?

Craig: 2012 is proving to be a very good year for us. We obviously don’t measure our results in half years. But, certainly, this year we are growing by almost 30 per cent over the previous year. Thus, it has been a good first half for us; our facilities and our personnel are all very busy on various orders and I think that the second half of the year is equally important for us. We are at the point of hopefully closing some major deals, which you will naturally hear about in due course. But we will have a lot of very important activities in the second half of the year.

NvK: In September 2011, the Paramount Group unveiled the Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (AHRLAC). Could you first please portray this aircraft to our readers?

Craig: AHRLAC is a unique type of aircraft. It is a manned aircraft operated by two persons, a pilot and a systems operator, sitting in a tandem configuration as they would in an attack helicopter. To our knowledge there currently is no other aircraft in this solution space.

AHRLAC offers a number of unique aspects. This includes its unrestricted canopy, purpose-designed to give you all-round visibility for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) roles. Further it has a turboprop pusher-propeller configuration, offering the crew an unrestricted forward-visibility. So it not a conventional “engine front/propeller front” aircraft that has been pushed into a reconnaissance role for which it was not originally conceived.

NvK: When the aircraft was unveiled, Aerosud’s Managing Director Paul Potgieter called AHRLAC a “revolutionary aircraft”. Which are the main characteristics and capabilities of AHRLAC that make it revolutionary?

Craig: The aircraft was designed with a flexible ISR and light attack configuration in mind. So this is not a commercial light aircraft that in an afterthought has been configured for these roles. That is what gives rise to a unique construction and concept.

A second aspect is that multi-mission capability was part of the initial consideration. It carries a payload pod underneath the fuselage that can be fitted with different mission payloads. This allows the aircraft to be reconfigurable and rapidly adapt to various types of missions. As you can imagine, this has great benefits for the customer’s investment, as one base platform can be adapted to various missions, according to the need and the time.

NvK: Let’s run through the development history of AHRLAC: When was this project conceived and which development stages have since been completed?

Craig: AHRLAC is an opportunity or a gap in the market that we recognised about four or five years ago and leading us to embark on the development of an aircraft. The only aircraft comparable and operating in the sort of sphere might have been the Bronco, an American aircraft that has not been in production for many years.

It required the spark of somebody making the decision that South Africa should develop its own aircraft. Our chairman, Ivor Ichikowitz, loves all things related to aviation and came to realisation that South Africa actually had competence with the development and construction of aircraft. Although South Africa already had a big chunk of this competence, which is shown in the development of the Rooivalk attack helicopter, in service with our Air Force, it is really a first in Africa that an aircraft is conceived and designed from scratch.

Ivor had the idea that it is time for South Africa to step up and not just be a maintenance facility for other companies and for products designed a long time ago. The more exciting part of life is to develop an own intellectual property. This is the only way to grow real competence and great careers.

In terms of milestones achieved, the concept works and the wind tunnel testing is completed. Further, we have accomplished hundreds of missions with a quarter-scale model, which demonstrated the aircraft’s fundamental stability and flight performance.

We are now in the phase of building our first full-scale flying aircraft, which is well advanced. We will be showing key subsystems of the aircraft to selected visitors to the AAD trade show in September and we are hoping to have the first platform assembled towards the end of this year, with the first flight scheduled for the first quarter of 2013.

NvK: Which key industrial partners are involved in this project and to what extent have governmental agencies contributed to the development effort?

Craig: AHRLAC is a private-funded initiative. The Paramount Group is funding the development and commercialisation. Our technical partner is our associate aerospace division, Aerosud. We benefitted from their experience with previous aircraft, such as the AH-2 Rooivalk attack helicopter, and their general aerospace competence. Although our technical partner helped us in the development effort, this remains a programme funded as a private venture by the Paramount Group.

Of course, we have a lot of interest and support from the government, in the broader sense, as this is seen as a strategic type of project around which aerospace competence would be developed here in South Africa. But it is important to know that this is not a government-funded project.

NvK: Do you consider AHRLAC as a platform that complements the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or, rather, as a manned competitor?

Craig: I think AHRLAC is both. There are a number of roles in which it is complementary to UAVs. However, our philosophy is that a man in an aircraft for surveillance roles has got huge advantages over UAVs, which are able only to see and feed back the information of what the camera is looking at in the particular point in time. To our mind, the human being still offers the best all-round surveillance. An aircraft crew can recognise objects of interest at a distance and then zoom in their cameras or sensors for a closer look. Therefore, we believe that a manned aircraft makes a lot of sense in this role.

There are a number of missions which you can naturally only carry out with UAVs and we are not suggesting that UAVs are dead because AHRLAC was conceived. There will always be missions in which it would be extremely dangerous to send a manned aircraft. But a general all-round aircraft, which can be deployed from training through to general surveillance to protecting borders and key installations, as well as having the ability to intervene and deliver an end-effect with weapons? This is a spectrum of capabilities, which we don’t believe can be found with UAVs at this point.

NvK: An often-cited argument in favour of UAVs is lower costs. Considering that AHRLAC is a manned platform, does is still offer the affordability advantages over platforms with comparable capability profiles?

Craig: Of course, otherwise we would not have invested in such a programme. It is important to recognise that UAVs range from very light hand-launched close-range aircraft to massive and incredibly expensive aircraft with high-altitude/long-endurance capability and high payload competence. The latter cost up to a hundred million of dollars per unit and only the richest countries on earth can afford to acquire and operate them. The initial acquisition cost for a UAV is only one part of the equation. You then need operators trained and a vast footprint of support, personnel and equipment to be able to launch, support and recover a UAV.

This is an area where AHRLC is completely differentiated, being designed to be self-sufficient, with a two-man crew operating from unprepared airfields and performing their mission with a minimum of personnel to support them. When you look at mission costs or the entire systems costs, the type of UAVs that you would compare to AHRLAC in terms of mission competence, are vastly more expensive.

NvK: Which particular markets do you target with this product and what market potential do you assess for AHRLAC?

Craig: AHRLAC is not only a product for the developing world. We received a huge amount of interest in this concept from developed-world air forces and security forces. And there are a number of potential customers who are very actively monitoring and tracking the system’s development. I think that global demand will run to thousands, if not tens of thousands, units of the system. But time will tell.

We have plans to set up production facilities in South Africa. But it is important to note that our global aspirations will also see us, in time, set up manufacturing activities in other regions of the world. This will certainly include Asia, where we had a lot of interest in major programmes and from industrial partners wanting to be part of our global manufacturing set-up.

Our projections for the market size say that it could support more than one manufacturing centre abroad. Our plan is not only to create a global manufacturing centre in South Africa, but also to go and seek out partnerships abroad and to establish regional manufacturing and distribution arrangements.*

NvK: I understand that the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) tradeshow in September 2012 will be an important event for the Paramount Group. Which particular trends in the African defence and security market do you perceive and how is the Paramount Group positioning itself at this year’s AAD show to address these trends?

Craig: AAD is for us an important market trade show that reaches most directly the African market, which is our natural expanded home market. This coming edition will see an expanded exhibition from Paramount, representing our largest presence at an exhibition so far. This will include a considerable number of new products from the fields of land systems, aerospace and electronic systems, which we plan to make visible at the show.

Another trend is that the show itself is growing, becoming well-entrenched as the leading show to reach the African market, much as IDEX is for the Middle East. The regional importance of the show is being confirmed and that is also evidenced by an unprecedented amount of international exhibitors – not only from the South African industry but everyone who has an interest in the country’s market in general.

The AAD trade show is an important event where South African companies can show that they are still innovating and coming up with new and relevant technologies for global demand.

NvK: Would you say that the international awareness of the potential of South African defence industry is growing in terms of cooperation and foreign investment?

Craig: Yes, I think so. Wheeled armoured vehicles have long been a figurehead of South African defence industry, going back to even before the Second World War. That is evidenced by the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles of many allied forces, which have seen high-profile use in modern-day conflicts. All of those really have their origin in South African technology.

Nevertheless, there was a period some years back when the industry in South Africa was shrinking, re-examining itself and uncertain as to where it was going. But this year’s AAD exhibition will show that there is a resurgence and growing relevance of South African technology, not just to African but also to global markets.

NvK: The Paramount Group has made the headlines with interesting development and production cooperation projects with countries such as Azerbaijan, Jordan and naturally many African customers. Would you say that the Paramount Group has a special feeling for the needs of emerging markets, as well as countries that are not gifted with voluminous defence budgets?

Craig: The simple answer is “yes”. These are the markets that we have been working in for almost 20 years, since our inception in 1994. We listen to the market demand and are responsive, in terms of the products that we are creating for these markets, but also with respect to our business model, of creating supplier credit finance and funding structures, which allow our developing-world customers to take on large projects and spread the financial burden over several years. We have projects that we fund for developing-world governments up to 15 year terms. That is something we have done in response to market demand, which has helped grow the business and customer demand.

It is not only the appropriateness of the products for the developing world, meaning that they must be robust, flexible and good value for money. It is also a flexible business approach, which helps customers fund the project, as well as actively supporting the transfer of skills, competence and technology, and creating regional partnerships in key markets to manufacture and support products. These are all fundamental elements of our business philosophy, which possibly gives us a better fit to the market requirements than some of the more traditional NATO-based manufacturers.

NvK: African air forces mostly still operate fleets of ageing US, European, Russian and Chinese aircraft. Many of these aircraft are not in an operable condition and budgets will not allow for considerable modernisation or procurement programmes. Will the African military aviation market still be dominated by donations or low-cost sales of surplus aircraft?

Craig: This is an interesting question. You are quite right that there are a lot of legacy fleets dated back to the cold war and largely Soviet-origin aircraft dotted around the continent. More and more of these aircraft are reaching their end of life and it will be very difficult and probably not economically worthwhile to look at doing life-extension programmes. The question is: what after that?

Part of the solution we have found is in supplying and supporting surplus aircraft, such as the South African Air Force Mirage fighter aircraft, which Paramount actively supports. Further, we have a number of customers to whom we have transferred aircraft, providing a fundamental air force capability. But of course, that is only a small part of the market.

From what I can see, the African market is still a key market for lead-in fighter trainers and multi-purpose jets. In a few instances there is demand for super-sonic fighter aircraft –the Chinese are quite active in that respect. However, the new-built super-sonic aircraft market in Africa is not really one that the Paramount Group is going to enter in the short term. There are only very few countries in the region that can justify the acquisition of a top-end type of combat capability.

But this is a market in which an aircraft such as AHRLAC can actually play an important role, considering the real-world requirements, which involve national and border security, as well as securing economic zones.

NvK: How do you assess the potential of closer industrial cooperation with companies from emerging markets to field new solutions for customers in these regions? Or are projects such as AHRLAC emblematic for Paramount’s own efforts to field suitable products for these markets?

Craig: The field is wide open. Both, from the point of view that there is regional demand, as we observed in the case of AHRLAC, as well as due to existing regional competence. India and Brazil have well-established industrial competence in aircraft manufacturing. Further, our business model is such that we would encourage partnerships with competent industrial partners in those regions. There are a number of discussions on the way. So don’t be surprised if in a year or three we have industrial manufacturing centres in various regions.

NvK: To sustain the level of quality and diversity of the Paramount Group’s products and services, the company requires competent specialists from many fields of activity. How is the Paramount Group involved in creating and fostering a workforce that also builds on the potential of South Africa’s and other African countries’ labour market?

Craig: Sustainability for the long run requires the renewal of your product line-up and renewal of your human resources – human capital is the most important one. In our land systems and aerospace fields we established an innovation and training centre, which is separately funded and set-up from our ongoing production activities. That is where we grow and nurture young talents – the next generation of innovators – and create an environment in which they can learn from the more experienced colleagues, but also have the freedom of mind to think outside the box and develop new skills. This is not just about product development, it is also about technologies including production techniques. We are actively supporting and investing a lot of money to make sure that we are sustainable in the long run. We need to attract and grow the right talents to take the company forward.

NvK: What is your assessment of the South African government’s efforts to creating a favourable economic environment for defence companies and encouraging indigenously developed defence solutions?

Craig: I took a while for our new government during what I would call the dawn of the new democratic era to understand the position and the value of the indigenous defence industrial complex and to recognise that defence industry can actually have an important national economic function. However, our government is being very supportive in terms of developing and creating high-value jobs and creating a platform in which intellectual property can be generated in South Africa. This helps South Africa to become an economic centre around which the commercial benefits of value-add of intellectual property may steadily increase.

There are a number of initiatives that our government is pursuing, including through our Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Among them is the creation of aerospace and defence villages, attempting to create a cluster of like-minded business that support each other and yield a critical mass of industrial partners.

So, in general, our government has a realisation of the role that they can play and they are creating and facilitating an enabling environment.

NvK: Finally, what are your personal visions and aims for the course of the Paramount Group in the next years?

Craig: One of the objects that we have set to ourselves is to become a billion-dollar company in the next three or four years, in terms of our sales revenue. I know that size is not everything, but it is certainly a globalised target that we have set ourselves. Even though we are not there yet, we are well on target.

Apart from that, our objective is to remain a company which is fun. Of course we are a serious player, dealing in serious matters of defence and security. But Paramount is a company which is committed to allowing its employees to work in a fun environment and to be free to innovate and think of new ways of doing things. There is a strong desire in the Paramount Group, while continuing to grow, to retain its core cultural values and to be a company that is different and a good place to work.

NvK: Thank you very much, Mr Craig.

(This entry is an interview I originally made for the defence news site defpro.com in August 2012. For a list of all interviews I made, please click here.)

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* Additional information, specifications and resources for Paramount’s AHRLAC can be found on the company’s website at www.paramountgroup.biz/en/ahrlac-rad-aircraft.

REMUS AUVs – “It Comes Down to Reliability and Availability”

Interview with Christopher von Alt, President and CEO of Hydroid, Inc.


When a ship crew slips a small yellow and black painted vessel into the water, it is usually a so-called autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), preparing to go on its mission into the remote and harsh environment of the deep sea. There it silently conducts its pre-programmed tasks and, after hours, surfaces with a large amount of gathered data. While robotics continuously advance into almost all fields of defence and security operations, AUVs have been among the first systems to operate at the highest degree of autonomy, requiring a significant amount of faith by their operators. However, the systems have proven their worth in demanding scenarios, such as mine-countermeasures (MCM) and debris field mapping in the search for aircraft that crashed into the sea.

Nicolas von Kospoth of defpro.com talked to Christopher von Alt*, President and CEO of Hydroid, Inc., about the company’s commitment to providing the necessary reliability and availability to build and sustain this vital trust among the users of Hydroid AUVs. Read the interview published below to learn more about Hydroid’s wide range of activities, its role as a subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime, as well as trends in the AUV market.


NvK: Mr von Alt, could you please give our readers a brief overview of Hydroid, as well as its range of products and services?

Chris von Alt: Hydroid has revolutionised marine and ocean exploration by developing a line of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) called REMUS. They are used to replace the traditional ways of conducting mine-countermeasures (MCM) and hydrographic survey operations by manned surface vessels. We are a leader in the industry and have seen steady growth since 2001 when Hydroid came into being in the commercial market place.

There are currently three primary product lines. First, there is the REMUS 100, which is a man-portable system providing great logistic advantages to its users. Next there is the REMUS 600, a 500-pound vehicle that has been designed to operate to depths of up to 600 meters. It provides greater endurance and capability to support more advanced sensors that require larger apertures. Finally, with the REMUS 6000, we offer an AUV that operates in the deep ocean to 6,000 meters.

NvK: What is the approximate share of defence activities in Hydroid’s overall portfolio?

Chris von Alt: Approximately 60 to 70 per cent of our business is related to defence. However, this can vary from year to year, depending on the order situation. It also quite well reflects the share in the AUV industry as a whole. Although the commercial segment is there, it is not as strong, due to the limited numbers required by civilian operators and the high costs involved.

NvK: In January, Hydroid celebrated its 10th anniversary. How did the AUV market evolve since the company’s early years, and what role has this development played in the merger with Norway-based Kongsberg Maritime?

Chris von Alt: In 2001, there wasn’t much of a commercial marketplace, if you want to define that as one group buying what another one sells. At that time, for the most part, academic groups were developing vehicles and were selling very limited numbers. Prior to that, in the period from 1989 to 2001, I was leading the Oceanographic Systems Lab within the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) where we developed the family of REMUS vehicles and delivered 17 systems, predominantly to academic institutes.

Since 2001, we have witnessed a six-fold increase in the number of systems sold per year. Hydroid has delivered more than 230 AUVs to domestic and international customers since it was founded in 2001, with an annual average of approximately 23 vehicles.

Although the general opinion is that there are many opportunities in robotics, the acquisition of Hydroid by Kongsberg Maritime in 2008 is not directly related to the marketplace of that period. Both Hydroid and Kongsberg Maritime have very customer-centred approaches and share the same values. Hydroid’s record of producing reliable systems with a high availability supports Kongsberg’s commitment to remain a leader in this industry and to provide customers with capabilities they cannot get anywhere else. We felt that the two teams would be stronger together.

NvK: To what extent does this constellation provide synergies to increase your range of solutions and enhance your market approach?

Chris von Alt: As a United States contractor, we operate independently of the Kongsberg Group, under a Special Security Agreement with the Defense Security Services. At the same time, and while acting within the laws of international arms transfers, we work very closely with Kongsberg Maritime. Our commitment is to provide the best AUV systems to all civilian and defence market places. We are well situated and the leading AUV manufacturer in the world market, which made us attractive to Kongsberg Maritime.

REMUS was invented from one perspective, while Kongsberg’s HUGIN AUV was invented from another perspective, both by very talented groups of people. Together we take the best aspects of those two systems and harmonise them to enhance both, offering our customers the best AUVs in the world. Based on our combined resources, we will offer even better products in the future.

NvK: The AUV market is rapidly growing, and industrial capabilities, as well as know-how among competitors, are increasing globally. How is Hydroid positioning itself and its products to meet the challenges of this market?

Chris von Alt: Currently, the Hydroid team consists of 90 people who continuously strive to offer the highest level of product quality, support, and innovation. The only way to ensure this is to hire the best people that you can find. I can’t say enough about the contributions of our employees. They are smart, capable, and efficient, and are highly tuned to the needs of our customers. With the commitment of our team, we ensure the high reliability of our products, as well as the quality of our service.

NvK: Which capabilities do the AUVs of the REMUS family provide to their operators, and which different sensor payloads are being used for these purposes?

Chris von Alt: The REMUS AUVs are typically used by operators from the defence and the gas and oil sectors for mine-countermeasures (MCM), hydrographic surveys, as well as search and survey operations at depths from three metres to 6,000 metres.

The vehicles are typically configured with an advanced GPS-aided inertial navigation system and a Doppler velocity log that can also be supported by long baseline navigation. Among the significant technical advancements that are coming at us in the field of navigation are terrain-relative and single transponder navigation.

The REMUS vehicles are usually equipped with side scan sonar as well as a forward-looking sonar that helps to smooth the vehicle’s flight over rough terrain. The larger vehicles can also be fitted with a multi-depth sonar. Conductivity and temperature sensors, as well as a range of different environmental sensors, further complement the sensor technology that can be installed on REMUS AUVs.

Finally, the vehicles offer a host of capabilities that are embedded in their software, including the very important autonomy capabilities.

NvK: Is Hydroid working together with specialised industrial partners and sub-suppliers to develop the sensor technology, or are these exclusively in-house efforts? What role did academic and other collaborative research efforts play in the development of these systems?

Chris von Alt: Hydroid teams with a number of industrial and academic partners. We recognise that the real strength comes from the benefits of working with other people in the industry and in the research and academic fields. This enables us to come up with solutions that meet our customers’ needs at the best price and as quickly as possible. To accomplish that, we utilize an open system architecture, permitting users to further enhance the capabilities of the systems themselves.

Furthermore, we maintain a very strong link to academic institutions, and many of our customers come from that field. REMUS was originally developed at WHOI with a lot of support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and HUGIN was developed in cooperation with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and Statoil. We truly appreciate working with these people; they have played a strong role in the development of the systems and will continue to do so. Working with observationally-based institutions such as WHOI and FFI, where brilliant, innovative people have experience deploying first-generation systems at sea, enables us to stay in the forefront.

NvK: The multi-national military operation in Libya has clearly revealed the requirement of modern navies to operate in unknown littoral waters and even to counter attempts to mine ports and sea lanes, such as observed in Misrata. How do you assess the importance and the need for AUVs in today’s military operations, and in what way do the solutions offered by Hydroid meet these requirements?

Chris von Alt: When you are working in the defence industry, it just comes down to the reliability and availability of the systems you produce; if you have a system that works, then they will use it. AUVs are very important for navies because they gather information while keeping troops out of harm’s way, in particular in mine-countermeasure operations.

We have proven with many of our naval customers throughout the world that the systems we produce are reliable. There is growing momentum in the understanding that Hydroid’s AUV solutions will perform successfully in the field and that operators can count on them to obtain the required information and bring it back in a timely manner to support decision-making. That is what makes our systems so important. Therefore, our focus remains on offering this level of reliability and availability.

NvK: In 2011, Hydroid announced that it passed Critical Design Review (CDR) to provide Littoral Battlespace Sensing (LBS) AUVs and associated technologies to the US Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR). What is the current status, and what is the future schedule for this prestigious programme?

Chris von Alt: We recently completed the test readiness review and are now in the midst of developmental testing and evaluation (DT&E), after having delivered the first prototype system. Milestone C for the programme is planned for April/May 2012. We are on schedule and on budget and are demonstrating that the systems meet or exceed all key performance parameters.

What makes this programme a little bit different from others is that it is a US Navy programme of record, rather than a User Operational Evaluation System (UOES) programme. UOES programmes offer a much closer working relationship in development with the Fleet, allowing us to gain more experience about how they would use the system and shape specifications. It has been a very powerful way of developing and integrating this new technology, and we have been lucky to have been part of many programmes of that nature. Both types of programmes have their advantages.

NvK: Hydroid recently delivered a REMUS 6000 for WHOI, which will use it in close cooperation with the U.S. Navy. Could you please describe the deep ocean capabilities of the REMUS 6000?

Chris von Alt: Eight REMUS 6000 systems have been delivered so far, including one to the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, where it is used extensively for deep ocean research.

Another quite prominent example of the use of these systems was the Air France Flight 447 recovery operation in the Atlantic Ocean. The search for the wreckage of the aircraft was conducted by WHOI, using three REMUS 6000 AUVs operating simultaneously off of one ship at depths of more than 3,500 metres. The systems helped to locate the wreckage in quite mountainous undersea terrain and documented the debris field, so that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) could carry out the recovery work.

The combined use of these three vehicles made a dramatic difference, enabling a very small team to benefit from a manifold level of effectiveness that a traditional single surface vessel could not have offered.

The example of the search for the wreckage of Flight 447 has shown that future AUV operations will involve multiple vehicles, working together autonomously, with limited groups of people, greatly increasing their ability to gather information in the ocean. You can transition that example, and the larger statement that is reflected by the systems’ performance, into MCM operations of the future.

NvK: Taking a look at the bigger picture in the market: Are the sale numbers of AUVs being affected by ongoing defence budget issues, or would you rather say that AUVs brave the general trends?

Chris von Alt: There are many ways of looking at the current development in budget discussions. Certainly, there are budget constraints throughout the world, and we are watching closely to see how this plays out.

There is a growing faith in the reliability and capabilities of AUVs, and navies are increasingly investing in these systems. They offer a more cost-effective way to conduct mine-countermeasure operations and harbour-defence support functions than the traditional approaches, such as re-outfitting an MCM vessel with a new sonar system. Despite a certain downturn in budgetary numbers, opportunities are increasing for the use of these systems. The austerity budgets may, indeed, push some countries to consider moving more in this cost-effective direction.

Nevertheless, it remains a matter of faith for operators to put an expensive piece of equipment into the water and let it go, expecting it to come back with the required information. It takes a long time to earn this level of trust. In contrast to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are in constant communication with the operator on the ground, an AUV carries out its mission in a fully autonomous way. After it has been programmed, you may, perhaps, follow its trajectory, but you do not normally actively control it while it is doing its work. On the other hand, the advantage of this mode of operation is that you can send the vehicles on their missions while being free to do something else, without the necessity of constant supervision.

Making the leap, in the sense of having an asset of this importance doing a mission by itself and trusting that it can be done successfully, is still a realisation that is emerging among many potential users. The people who use the AUVs see the advantages, but they also have to go back into the budget conferences and convince the decision-makers to allocate money to those areas.

NvK: Due to the quite specialised capabilities of AUVs, do you perceive a possible trend of outsourcing such capabilities to specialised institutions or companies?

Chris von Alt: REMUS was originally designed to be operated by somebody with a high school education and only five days of training. It does not necessarily take a great deal of specialised skills to use these systems. However, being creative with them and running them in bizarre and tough environments, while exploiting their full capabilities, will require more know-how and experience. To date, we haven’t seen a trend of outsourcing AUV capabilities. The naval users want to have these capabilities among their assets.

NvK: How does Hydroid specifically support its military customers with integrating the systems into their units and adequately training the operators?

Chris von Alt: Typically, what has been very effective in the past is to integrate future users into the factory acceptance testing.

When these systems were first introduced to navies, we tried to build up the knowledge and understanding of how the system works and to create confidence in its capabilities among future users. We would work with a customer team during the acceptance period and teach them early-on how to work with the system. This would also include time in a classroom, acquiring the basic understanding of programming a vehicle, as well as practical operations at sea.

Mission planning and mission analysis are the most important aspects of training, including learning to understand and interpret the sonar. We offer courses that can be provided specifically to the user in accordance with their individual specifications, generic courses that are attended by a maximum of five people, as well as open enrolment classes using a virtual environment for the entire range of products, configured with different sensors. This allows the student to programme the vehicle, watch how the mission is being executed and then download and analyse the data in a simulated environment.

NvK: As our last question, we would like to ask what your personal visions and aims are for the future of Hydroid.

Chris von Alt: AUVs operate in the harshest environments on earth, they are unmanned, and they are expensive. It’s akin to sending a pre-programmed, unmanned probe into outer space, except that there is not the same budget for AUVs. Therefore, in our industry, reliability is the key factor. Our vision is to make the systems that we produce more and more reliable. That is what we have demonstrated in the past, and we are seeing a greater and wider acceptance for these systems as a result of these efforts.

NvK: Thank you very much, Mr von Alt.

(This entry is an interview I originally made for the defence news site defpro.com in March 2012. For a list of all interviews I made, please click here.)


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* Christopher J. von Alt received his B. E. in Electrical Science from the University of NY at Stony Brook in 1978 and an M.S. in Ocean Engineering from the MIT in 1984. He has worked in the underwater marine construction industry as well as holding research appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He has sat on or chaired numerous technical symposia and was the 1997 recipient of the WHOI Technical Staff Award. He has led many at-sea operations and pioneered the use of AUVs in the fields of mine countermeasures and Deep Sea Survey operations. Mr von Alt has also written numerous publications. In September 2011, Mr von Alt received the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society for his leadership in the development and use of AUVs. Mr von Alt is currently President and CEO of Hydroid, Inc.

Don’t Manage the Piracy Problem, Solve It

Interview with H.E. James Michel, President of the Republic of Seychelles


Only a few countries are exposed, to a similar extent, to the effects of Somali piracy as is the Republic of Seychelles. Located at the southern edge of the pirates’ main area of operation in the Indian Ocean, and dependent upon safe sea lanes, the island country finds itself in the front line of a difficult struggle against the criminal fruit of a destabilised and war-ravaged neighbourhood at the Horn of Africa.

Nicolas von Kospoth of defpro.com asked His Excellency James Michel, President of the Republic of Seychelles, to portray the country’s considerable efforts to ward off this threat and to promote the Seychelles as an anti-piracy hub for its international allies. Read below the President’s statements on economic, social and political effects of piracy on the Seychelles and his hope for a more determined and effective approach to solve the problem by the international community.


NvK: Even as we make this interview, many captured commercial vessels remain anchored in the ports of Somali pirates and scores of captives desperately hope to be released. Mr. President, how do you assess the current development of the Somali piracy issue?

James Michel: Piracy has developed into a lucrative business model and therefore more emphasis needs to be made to target the financiers of piracy, to eliminate the criminal networks and bring to justice the main profiteers of this business.

We can fill our prisons to the brim with the Somali pirates who are at sea, but they are not the instigators, they are not earning even a drop of the vast amounts of money from the ransoms, so our efforts to capture them will not be efficient, in the overall picture, if we do not capture those who profit the most from this criminal activity.

We are in the process of setting up a Regional Anti-Piracy Prosecution and Intelligence Centre, with the support of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the UK and its Serious Organised Crime Agency, that will coordinate the tracking of financial transactions and enforcement operations. This will, in turn, assist law enforcement agencies to build cases needed to issue international arrest warrants and prosecute the financiers of piracy.

Piracy is rooted in the instability in Somalia, and that is why I have appealed to world leaders to consider taking more action in Somalia itself, in order to implement a comprehensive approach to the instability there. This is summarised in these key areas:

1) Increased commitment and support to peacekeeping forces within Somalia, particular to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces operating in Mogadishu, as well as a maritime presence for the mission that will enable the patrolling of the coast;
2) Targeted interventions against all criminal and terrorist groups to displace hubs of criminal activities;
3) Reinforcing and strengthening existing areas of stability within Somalia, with the establishment of rule of law in these areas and creation of economic opportunities as a key part of the effort;
4) Strengthening the capacity of coastal states to better defend the maritime zones, allowing for improved patrolling and surveillance capabilities;
5) And the improvement of intelligence sharing networks that will allow for a more efficient and systematic approach in targeting all angles of the criminal network, with particular attention to the financiers of piracy.

NvK: Due to their geographic location, the Seychelles are an important ally to those countries who are engaged in the fight against piracy off the Horn of Africa. Further, the country is itself affected by this unfortunate phenomenon. How would you describe the Government’s role in this complex situation?

James Michel: Seychelles has taken a lead in the region to highlight the scourge of piracy and has been seeking the assistance of the international community, since it is apparent that piracy is a global issue and not just a regional one.

We are committed to coordinating international efforts and seek greater participation by all countries in terms of assets, resources and to highlight the adverse effects for small island states such as Seychelles. We have also been at the forefront of prosecuting pirates by framing new anti-piracy laws and formulating partnerships with Somali authorities for the transfer of convicted pirates. We have taken these initiatives despite the tremendous strain on our limited resources.

For this reason, I have placed an emphasis on Seychelles becoming the anti-piracy hub for our international allies, who are committed to the fight against piracy. It is important to note that the anti-piracy action off the Horn of Somalia, as well as the wider Indian Ocean, has been the largest and first international operation of its kind, where the navies of the major world’s powers – the US, Russia, China, India, and EU nations – are all working together to combat this security threat.

NvK: How are the Seychelles security and defence forces positioned for the fight against piracy, and to what extent does the country rely on international co-operation to enhance current and future capabilities in this regard?

James Michel: Our concern for sovereignty is vital and that is why we are committed to protecting our maritime territory, as well as our fishermen, by all available means.

The Seychelles Coast Guard has been continuously deploying its ships and boats for surveillance, along with regular patrols being undertaken by the Twin Otter from the SPDF Air wing. Since February 2011 we have also had an Indian Dornier aircraft based at Mahé for assistance in surveillance efforts.

At the beginning of 2011 the United Arab Emirates donated two patrol boats and three fast boats to the Seychelles Coast Guard to add to its fleet of two patrol ships, the Topaz and the Andromache, which were donated by the Government of India some years ago. The UAE also donated and constructed a new Seychelles Coast Guard base last year. In 2011, the Government of China also donated two Y-12 aircraft for surveillance missions. The EUNAVFOR has also assisted us with their own aerial surveillance mission, with a Luxembourg maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as the French E-3F aircraft based in Seychelles. Further, the US Air Force has unmanned aerial vehicles stationed in Seychelles for anti-piracy surveillance missions.

But considering the size of our Exclusive Economic Zone of 1.3 million square kilometres, these are still not enough. We need more assets for aerial surveillance missions, as well as maritime patrols, and we are seeking greater assistance from the international community in this regard.

We have already shown the effectiveness of our Coast Guard, which has undertaken three successful rescue operations at sea where Seychellois and other national hostages were liberated from their captors and the pirates responsible were arrested and prosecuted (involving the following pirated vessels: Faith, Galate and Gloria).

We have also established a national security support system for Seychelles-based vessels, whereby armed protection teams are deployed. But some types of vessels are very hard to defend because of their small size. This is why we must continue to try and target the root causes of the problem: the instability in Somalia and the criminal financiers of piracy. We must solve the problem and not just manage it.

NvK: Estimates of the annual costs of piracy to the international community range from $7 to $12 billion. Could you please outline to our readers exactly how the Seychelles are being affected by piracy in terms of financial, political and social effects?

James Michel: Seychelles, being a small maritime state, has been adversely affected by piracy. Piracy is costing Seychelles an average of 4 per cent of its GDP* every year, which includes direct and indirect costs as well as losses in shipping, fishing, tourism and increased spending on maritime security.

Particularly hard hit are the local fisheries, where between 2008 and 2010 there was a drop of 46 per cent in local fishing, which is, coincidentally, also the equivalent of the rise in the price of fish on the local market during the same period. Our local fishermen, whose livelihood depends on the sea, have been the victims of piracy on several occasions and some have been taken hostage to Somalia and suffered terribly. Presently, two of our brothers, fishermen in their sixties, are being held hostage in Somalia. Since we are a very close-knit community with a small population, these events have been very traumatic, and many families and their friends have suffered.

Tourism has not been impacted overall in terms of visitor arrivals. Indeed, we had two record years consecutively, but the yachting tourism has seen a sharp drop, as yachts are not allowed to sail far from the main islands.

Also affected are local consumer prices for imported goods, which have increased due to the high costs of imports (and insurance premiums as well as risk factors), thereby affecting the Seychelles economy and cost of living.

We are a maritime nation – the sea-lanes are the highways that connect us to the world. Piracy increases our sense of isolation.

NvK: You have repeatedly raised the issue of piracy in different multi-national forums, for instance during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth in October 2011. What impression do you have of the international community’s willingness to take action against piracy?

James Michel: I was encouraged at the CHOGM in Perth by the willingness of Commonwealth leaders to address the issue of piracy, but in practice it is clear that the efforts of the international community are not adequate. Piracy is still rampant, despite the presence of ships and aircraft operating under EUNAVFOR, CMF, NATO and other independent navies.

Rules of engagement established by different forces are too often limited and do not allow robust responses. Regretfully, once hostages are taken, too many companies and governments are perpetuating piracy as a business transaction.

We need to tackle the root of the problem in Somalia more directly, as well as those financing this criminal activity.

NvK: Would you say that the political and legal framework within which multi-national fleets, such as EUNAVFOR or the Combined Task Force 151, are currently operating provides sufficient hold and flexibility to effectively tackle piracy?

James Michel: Considerable efforts have been put in by the multinational forces, and while there have been improvements in the coordination and effectiveness of multi-national operations, the results have not been commensurate. We are still at the management stage of the problem, and not at the stage of solutions.

We need to have a standard political and legal framework to combat piracy, as well as prosecute and convict pirates expeditiously in order to demonstrate an active deterrence to this menace.

While many potential attacks by pirates have been thwarted by the forces deployed, there have been numerous cases of pirates being set free because of a lack of evidence or non-acceptance by any country to prosecute them. This clearly permits them to return for another attack.

We need to, therefore, adopt new strategies and policies in dealing with piracy in order to always be one step ahead of them.

NvK: In mid-November, a German frigate captured a pirate mother ship with 19 pirates. As no country was willing to take charge of the criminal prosecution, the naval vessel brought the pirates back to Somalia where they are now free to launch new attacks. How can the international community overcome its current incapacity to address the problem?

James Michel: There needs to be consensus by the international community on the global nature of the problems of piracy and the need to share the burden of prosecution and conviction. As we have seen, the range of operations of the pirates has steadily increased over the last few years and it is imperative that all countries contribute their resources. Much more needs to be done by the international community regarding sharing the burden of prosecution.

Seychelles is one country that has successfully prosecuted pirates- but we are a small country that can only do so much. Already over 12 per cent of our prison population is made up of Somali pirates.

We commend those countries that have also proceeded with prosecutions. We also look forward to having fully functioning and internationally monitored prisons within Somalia so that we may transfer convicted pirates to serve their sentences there.

NvK: There are increasing numbers of reports about ship crews or hired security teams fighting back attempts to board their ship. This indicates a growing intensity of violence on both sides. How do you assess this trend and will it be possible to counter piracy without escalating the spiral of violence?

James Michel: As you are aware, no ship with an armed security team onboard has been pirated to date. While the safety of the crew is paramount, the growing menace of piracy has forced ship owners to adopt other means of protection at the risk of escalating violence.

We must remember that to take a ship hostage is an act of violence, and that these pirates are brandishing sophisticated weapons that are aimed to kill.

The response to these attacks, therefore, needs to be met with force as the pirates are not interested in dialogue. Failure to act with force results in months of imprisonment in poor conditions in Somalia.


NvK: You have warned in the past of the connections between piracy and terrorism in Somalia. Could you please elaborate on your views of this calamitous relation and the trends that you observed during recent years?

James Michel: Somalia has several paramilitary groups, and many agencies operating in Somalia have reported that payments are made to these groups by pirates – either as a form of tax or as part of an organised relationship. Some of these groups use terrorist tactics and have conducted attacks in Uganda and in Somalia, itself.

Various experts, on numerous occasions, have linked piracy to radical Islamist groups in Somalia. Furthermore, we have seen the growing level of violence adopted by the pirates, including the abuse of hostages. The kidnapping and killing of tourists in the Lamu resort of Kenya has been a worrying new phenomenon regarding the situation in Somalia. Thus, there is a very thin line between piracy and terrorism today.

It is therefore very important that all regional and international stakeholders cooperate closely to try stopping this from spreading, as both piracy and terrorism have no borders.

NvK: In this context, how do you assess the Kenyan military offensive and its effects on the region?

James Michel: The hijacking and killing of tourists in a resort in Kenya is totally unacceptable and a heinous and needless crime. The perpetrators need to be brought to justice. It is every country’s right to protect its sovereignty and citizens.

NvK: During the visit by Chinese Minister for National Defence and State councillor General Liang Guanglie in December 2011, you signed an agreement with China to develop closer cooperation in the fight against piracy. Could you please outline the exact aims of this agreement and what is your assessment of the Seychelles’ partnership with China?

James Michel: We have simply renewed our military cooperation with China. The aim of this agreement, which dates to 2004, is to increase military cooperation and boost the Seychelles’ capacities to fight the threat of piracy. We will receive training, equipment and exchange visits from China and will work towards improving our military relations.

We have also invited the Chinese navy to make more frequent port calls for rest and recuperation, and to increase their maritime surveillance in our economic area. Seychelles and China have a special relationship built on mutual respect and cooperation, which has brought about significant developmental gains.

NvK: Thank you very much, President Michel.

(This entry is an interview that I originally made for the defence news site defpro.com in January 2012. For a list of all interviews I made, please click here.)

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* The 2010 GDP of the Republic of Seychelles is estimated at USD 2.053 billion (PPP) / USD 0.919 billion (nominal).

It’s Got to be Team Play – The Navy and the US Industrial Base

Interview with RADM Joe Carnevale (ret.), SCA Senior Defense Advisor


The US Navy is sailing towards troubled waters, as tough decisions between strategic requirements, budget necessities, and the sustainment of the industrial base lie ahead during the upcoming years. On the occasion of the Surface Navy Association’s 24th National Symposium, taking place in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 10-12, Nicolas von Kospoth of defpro.com asked Rear Admiral (ret.) Joseph A Carnevale*, Senior Defence Advisor of the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), to provide his insight on current issues and trends within the US shipbuilding sector in this challenging environment.


NvK: First, could you please outline the mission and the activities of the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) to our readers? How does to SCA promote the shipbuilding industrial base in the defence sector?

Joe Carnevale: SCA is the national trade association representing the US shipyard industry. The SCA members constitute the shipyard industrial base that builds, repairs, maintains and modernises Navy ships and craft, United States Coast Guard vessels of all sizes, as well as vessels for other government agencies. In addition, SCA members build, repair and service America’s fleet of commercial vessels.

The Council represents 50 companies that own and operate over 120 shipyards, with facilities on all three US coasts, the Great Lakes, the inland waterways system, Alaska and Hawaii. SCA also represents 72 affiliate members that provide goods and services to the shipyard industry.

SCA members also directly employ 50,000 American jobs. SCA works with the Congress, the Department of the Navy and the US Coast Guard to promote shipbuilding and ship repair, maintenance and modernisation.

NvK: The United States are carefully shifting their attention from current operations in the Middle East and Central Asia to the Pacific. Do you expect that this strategic shift, and a possible reassessment of budget priorities due to changing naval requirements, could benefit the shipbuilding industry?

Carnevale: Recognition of the critical role our Navy has in national defence is important, not just to our industry but to the American people. The Navy’s importance in the Pacific cannot be overstated. However, the Navy’s contribution to ballistic missile defence, strategic deterrence, and promoting stability worldwide is equally important. The Trident strategic ballistic missile defence programme is the Navy’s survivable leg of the nuclear triad and, thus, a key element as well.

One would hope that all of these essential missions would be considered, as budget priorities are reassessed. However, it remains to be seen how this scope of capabilities will be supported in future budgets. I think there is a sentiment that, at some point, the budget pressure becomes so significant that the Department of Defense will have to decide what missions they cut back on. There will be capabilities or options that they will not be able to sustain because they do not have the necessary budget. We rely on that process being a rational one, with sufficient analysis that is built essentially on the important missions the Navy will have to accomplish.

NvK: Today, affordability is the determining factor of future shipbuilding programmes. Which efforts must the US naval shipbuilding industry undertake to meet the Navy’s financial options while remaining competitive and sustaining key capabilities of the national industrial base?

Carnevale: Industry must work with its Navy and Coast Guard customers to stabilise programmes, promote efficiencies and resolve issues. It’s got to be team play. Shipbuilding, and especially lead ship building, is a complex, difficult undertaking.

Our shipyards have made significant capital investments to deliver quality products. Continuing, essential efforts have been made to build a trained workforce and provide them the necessary tools and processes needed for efficient production. Those efforts must continue.

NvK: While European shipbuilders, in particular submarine manufacturers, can no longer exclusively rely on their domestic markets and make great efforts to expand into important export markets, US shipbuilders appear to avoid looking abroad. What has been the reason for this position?

Carnevale: US shipbuilders have looked abroad on many occasions. Offering ships, craft and systems that are supported by and in operation with the United States Navy is a great selling point. The complexity and sophistication of most of the ships being procured by the US Navy have typically been more than most foreign navies have wanted. There are variants of the sea-based Aegis ballistic missile defence system being fielded by foreign countries. The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) affords an opportunity for foreign sales that we haven’t seen since the construction of the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate (FFG-7) concluded.

NvK: From an opposite perspective, it appears to be difficult for foreign companies to enter the US defence market. However, Austal has been able to make an impressive entry with the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) and the LCS programme. What is your explanation for this particular success story and what is your assessment of opportunities for other foreign manufacturers, suppliers and service providers on the US market?

Carnevale: Traditionally, there has been a great presence of US manufacturers in Europe. All big US defence companies have had for a long time significant operations in Europe and other places overseas. I would not agree that it has been difficult for foreign companies to enter the US defence market. Quite the contrary! Over the last 10 years we have seen a great influx of European companies into the US market; we have seen Thales, BAE, Fincantieri, Rolls Royce, Alstom and numerous other foreign companies open successful American subsidiaries. Considering that they are manufacturing in the United States, it certainly helps the American industrial base.

Austal’s success, in my opinion, resulted first and foremost from offering a product that met the Navy’s needs then following through in delivering it. Beyond that, they developed a very productive partnership with their local community and the members of government at all levels that represent that community.

I don’t see any significant obstacles to foreign manufacturers, suppliers and service providers but they must realise it is a highly competitive field in a decreasing budget environment. They will need to evaluate their opportunities and measure that against the investment necessary to pursue them.

NvK: The replacement of the United States’ Trident ballistic-missile submarines, planned for 2027, is not that far away, when considering the usual time spans for R&D and production. The budget for this project can be expected to be very tight. How is the submarine shipbuilding sector positioned to address the Navy’s future requirements under these market conditions?

Carnevale: I think the submarine shipbuilding sector is very well positioned for the replacement of the United States’ Trident ballistic-missile submarines. The success of the Virginia class submarine construction programme is a testimony to the solid base they have built. There are many lessons learned, systems and processes that will roll over from Virginia class to the Trident replacement. One thing is certain; they must get it right the first time. This programme must be provided the resources to ensure success.

NvK: Which key lessons learned from the Virginia class submarines programme would you highlight with regard to the development and production of future submarines for the US Navy?

Carnevale: The essential lessons learned from the Virginia class programme are, first, that evolutionary development is of great importance. The evolution from Los Angeles/688 to Seawolf to Virginia was to a great extent leveraged by the submarine community. This evolutionary approach paid significant dividends.

Further, the Navy’s ability to fix the requirements before the involved companies entered the design phase significantly benefitted them. They also completed a substantial portion of the design before they went into production.

Finally, the programme recognised the need to get onto a learning curve. That was challenging at first, with procurement of only one submarine a year and two shipbuilders building the submarines. Each shipbuilder builds all of a specific submarine section. One half is kept and assembled there and the other half is shipped to the other builder for assembly. Manufacturing two submarines a year, as considered in the Navy’s 2012 shipbuilding plans, will enhance the learning curve. Some of the pricing associated with this rate of production reflects that.

NvK: With the landing platform dock (LPD), the JHSV, the LCS and the DDG 1000 Zumwalt class, the US is executing important programmes to shape the future of its fleet of surface combatants. Will these programmes provide a sufficient basis for US shipyards to adequately sustain their capabilities and workforce during the next decade?

Carnevale: The 2012 shipbuilding plans presented by the Navy, while not necessarily robust, did have carriers on five year centres, two submarines a year, amphibious ships, DDG 51 restart, LCS, TAO-X pull ahead and other positive features. However, even with all the positive aspects, it did not meet the Navy’s own goals for the size of the fleet.

We are very concerned that the budget cuts being faced will fall heavily on the procurement accounts in general, and for us, the Navy’s Shipbuilding and Conversion (SCN) account in particular putting the fleet at risk of even fewer ships. There will be a collateral effect on the industrial base.

NvK: What are the prospects of small- and medium-sized businesses in the supplier community? Which trends can be observed in terms of market structures as well as business opportunities with prime contractors within this increasingly competitive market?

Carnevale: Given the potentially dire effects future budget cuts may have on the industrial base, small and medium sized businesses face some level of risk. While we haven’t seen many go out of business yet, we do continue to see consolidation in the industry.

It is in the small- and medium-sized area in which we will see the most change. That is a trend that we have observed for quite a while now, but it ebbs and flows. I do not perceive any probable mergers among the giants of the shipbuilding industry. Mergers and procurements will mostly remain in the small- and medium-sized sector.

NvK: Constantly increasing energy prices, in particular that of oil, are becoming a serious issue for both the Navy and industry. How do you assess the impact of energy prices on the fleet’s future energy alignment and, in consequence, on the shipbuilding industry?

Carnevale: I see energy prices having only a secondary impact on the shipbuilding industry. If prices go up significantly, then fewer funds will be available for construction, maintenance and modernisation. For some there will be opportunities to present energy efficient systems.

NvK: As our last question, could you please share with our readers your personal outlook onto and your wishes for the future of US naval shipbuilding?

Carnevale: All of us at Shipbuilders Council of America strive for a healthy shipbuilding and ship repair industrial base. It is absolutely essential to the national security of our maritime nation. I hope that the American people come to understand how dependant they are as individuals on their Navy, their Coast Guard, their Merchant Marine, and all the ships that fly the American flag.

NvK: Thank you very much, Mr Carnevale.

(This entry is an interview I originally made for the defence news site defpro.com in December 2011. For a list of all interviews I made, please click here.)


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* Rear Admiral (retired) Joe Carnevale represents Shipbuilders Council of America before Congress, the US Navy, US Coast Guard and other Federal agencies, applying over thirty years of experience to defence acquisition issues. He focuses on ship maintenance and construction.
Prior to joining SCA in June of 2005, Mr. Carnevale led the professional services division of one of the fastest growing Fortune 500 companies. He served as Director of Fleet Maintenance for the Commander, Fleet Forces Command where he addressed the complete range of fleet maintenance issues as well as the recovery operation for USS Cole (DDG 67). As Program Executive Officer (DD 21) for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development & Acquisition) he led the development of the next generation of US Navy surface combatant. He has directly participated in the construction of six different ship classes.
After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 1971), Mr. Carnevale joined the Navy, participating in combat operations in Vietnam. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology earning two postgraduate degrees, (M.S. Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, Ocean Engineer’s Degree, 1980). He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (lower half) in 1998.
Other Navy assignments included Executive Assistant to ASN(RD&A), Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, DASN(SHIPS) Director for Surface Combatants, AEGIS Area Commander, Pascagoula and Test & Trials Officer for FFG 7 Class Ship Construction.