For the past few days, a controversy around the Camo Cooperation program with France for the modernization of the intermediate armored segment of the Terre component, has hit the headlines and social networks in Belgium.
Indeed, a report from the Belgian Court of Auditors, would have shown that the real cost of phase 1 of the Camo program, which relates to the acquisition of 382 VBMR Griffon and 60 EBRC Jaguar, very close to those acquired by the French army, would not be € 1.5 billion, as announced by the Belgian and French authorities, but € 14.4 billion.
Faced with such revelations, anger quickly rose within Belgian public opinion. And despite the denials of the Minister of Defense, Théo Franken, this one does not seem to want to calm down, as was the case, 8 years ago, now, about another key industrial defense cooperation program for the French defense industry, the Sea 1000 Australian program, and its 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines…
What are the realities behind the figures announced? Why are the controversy and social spread at work in Belgium, comparable to those in Australia in 2018? Finally, is this controversy instrumentalized, or even triggered, by, or for specific interests?
Powerful eddies in Belgium, around the Camo program
For the past few weeks, a report from the Belgian Court of Auditors has aroused significant eddies in the country, about the real cost of the Camo program, the name given to the vast program of Franco-Belgian cooperation, in order to endow the forces of the Terre component (Landcomponent In Dutch), the same equipment and doctrines as those employed by the French army, around the Scorpion program.
This ambition has materialized in November 2018 By signing a first order of 382 armored vehicles Vmbr Griffon and 60 EBRC Jaguar armed recognition armored vehicles, for € 1.5 billion, followed two years later by the order of 9 then 28 Caesar guns, and 24 Griffon Mepac, the version of the VBMR armed with a 120 mm automatic mortar.
Until recently, Camo cooperation (motorized capacity) was presented as an exemplary of what two European countries, and their armies, can undertake together, especially when the Franco-Belgian couple turned into a hole, with the arrival of Luxembourg for 16 Griffon, 38 Jaguar and five Serval-L.
-However, a report from the Belgian Court of Auditors, released a few days ago, caused a wave of indignation in the country. Indeed, he claims that the real cost of the first tranche of the Camo program, would not be € 1.4 billion, as affirmed by the Belgian and French authorities, but € 14.4 billion, rendering the France responsible for this drift, and this concealment.
For this, the listeners of the Court of Auditors, extended the spectrum of the cuts cumulative around the Camo program over 25 years, to take into account the maintenance of vehicles, but also the essential modernization of infrastructure that the arrival of these new armored vehicles, and their capacities, makes it necessary.
Unsurprisingly, it costs much more expensive. But these claims, which, all in all, have nothing surprising, were immediately captured and relayed by part of the press, to make it a state scandal, causing anger and indignation in the country, and finding a second breath on social networks.
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