After last year's sales procedure, which saw the offers from Nexter/KNDS and the Belgian CMI deemed insufficient by Volvo, Renault Truck Défense changes its name to Arquus, bow in Latin.
Arquus is a major player in the SCORPION program, working on both EBRCs and VBMRs, and today has a comfortable order book of almost €2 billion, or 5 years of activity. The group also signed a major contract with Kuwait for the delivery of several hundred armored vehicles, notably VAB Mk3s.
The fact remains that the failure of the sales procedure will have left its mark, as well as the aftertaste of a missed opportunity, while the European Defense industry must concentrate. Perhaps it would have been interesting for CMI and Nexter, rather than competing, to join forces using RTD and the Belgian SCORPION program as a glue for collaboration. While many voices in Belgium are being raised to denounce the absence (for the moment) of industrial compensation for the order of Belgian Griffons and Jaguars, which even works to the disadvantage of Rafale in this country, such a collaboration would have been likely to reduce the financial weight of each actor, while opening up new opportunities for collaboration...