BAE Systems explores research ventures with Doha university

A delegation of senior officials from defence contractor BAE Systems has visited Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) yesterday to meet the dean and senior university faculty to explore opportunities for future collaboration.Representatives from BAE Systems included Simon Howison, engineering director, military air and information; Mark Parkinson, business development and strategy director, military air and information, and Michael Bentinck, vice-president, Qatar office.In an interview with the Gulf Times, Howison shared his views on the future of BAE Systems in Qatar. “We see Qatar as a developing opportunity, a developing market and a place of quite a lot of excitement and interest in stuff going on. We have dialogue going on with quite a lot of different organisations - through the government and through education organisations here on opportunities, so at the moment there is a lot of potential to us here, and we’re trying to get a clearer understanding on how we engage with Qatar, what we do that would actually add value to them and how we can be more a part of the infrastructure,” said Howison. “Texas A&M is a technology university, so we’re interested to understand what it was they did, what sort of things were going on, whether there is some opportunity for doing joint things with them going forward.“We overall have a big interest in education. In the UK we run a lot of things from schools’ programmes, academic links and we do that part for self-interest because in the end we want good engineers, but a lot of it is about investment in the community and the engineering community overall,” said Howison. BAE is currently looking at research activities at Texas A&M, working with them to expand their programme beyond oil and gas related research to aerospace, or some other common interest.Howison said a delegation will return to Qatar next year to have more detailed discussions around research opportunities and promoting engineering in schools. In the past, BAE has run joint workshops with Qatar Leadership Academy to raise interest in engineering, which they see was a base starting point for expansion in Qatar. Howison said that the defence firm will undoubtedly be interested in any potential air and space programme at Qatar Foundation or in Qatar’s previously announced Aerospace City, although no new details have emerged about either project.BAE Systems has had a presence in Qatar for many years, and while they do not currently have any products deployed in the country they have a strong presence in the GCC.Saudi Arabia has Tornado and Typhoon combat aircraft, navy ships, infrastructure and substantial education programmes, with a total staff of around 5,500 - half of them Saudi nationals. Oman has land vehicles and aircraft, with more planes on the way and the UAE has bought airplanes in the past. “The nature of most of our relationships, not just in the Middle East but around the world, is to start with a path of trying to enable product and capability, and gradually try and build up the indigenous capability. Education is key part of that,” said Howison. He also said that business is slowing around the world, as most governments are facing economic difficulties, especially in the UK where the government has drastically scaled back defence activities. Most of the growth in sales has come from outside of the UK, especially in aircraft such as Hawks (a jet training aircraft) and Typhoons. Howison confirmed that conversations are going on across the Middle East for many of their products, including cyber-defence systems, ships and submarines although no definite agreements have been announced.