En kartlegging av kunnskap og kompetanse innen forsvarsindustrien i Norge

This report presents results from a survey and analysis of knowledge and competencies in the defense industry in Norway. The mapping is done on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, in association with the implementation of White Paper No. 38 (2006/2007) Forsvaret og industrien – strategiske partnere. One of the measures outlined in the White Paper is that the "8 technological competence areas" should be further developed and emphasized, among other things, in relation to the military's competence requirements (cf St.meld. no. 38, Chapter 11.7.3). FFI has in this context been asked by the Ministry to conduct a survey of what the defense industry in Norway can offer in terms of goods and services and what kind of expertise it has, and to identify which companies that are particularly suited to take a system integration responsibility, and find niches where the defense industry in Norway has technological advantage relative to foreign industry. The survey revealed that the defense industry in Norway has a broad knowledge and skills base that covers 2 / 3 of what the European Defense Agency (EDA) defines as key defense-related knowledge and competence areas. Despite that, the survey also revealed that the defense industry had knowledge and competence gaps in areas such as semiconductors, electronic warfare and sensor systems. Some of the knowledge and competence gaps were considered to be critical, such as lack of knowledge of smart materials, speech and natural language processing and lack of expertise in infrastructure to support information and dissemination at a strategic command level. The analysis reached the conclusion that there are a limited number of defense companies that can take system integration responsibility. By using indicators such as size, system integration expertise and knowledge and competence width, the analysis showed that it was only 4 defense firms that were particularly suited to take a system integration responsibility. The analysis also revealed that the defense industry in Norway was in possession of a technological advantage in relation to foreign industry in several areas, such as the information and communication technology, material and mechanical based technologies, and system integration in the electronic, mechanical, and command, control and information- (CCI) systems.