Posted on 05/29/2016 4:38:59 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The Ministry of Defence is poised to hand another major deal to a US company, with a £2bn contract for new Apache helicopters set to be awarded to Boeing.
Leonardo, the Italian aerospace manufacturer until recently known as Finmeccanica, had been battling to land the deal, which would have seen the refitted helicopters produced at its base in Yeovil, Somerset, where 3,700 staff are employed. Such an agreement would have provided a significant long-term boost to UK jobs and skills.
However, it is understood the MoD has decided to hand the 50-aircraft contract, worth £2bn over its lifetime when servicing is included, to Boeing.
An announcement could come as soon as early July at the Royal International Air Tattoo or Farnborough air show.
The original fleet of 67 British Apaches was produced by Westland in Yeovil, which in 1995 started assembling US-built components and added UK modifications that more than doubled the price to about £44m per helicopter. Westland is now part of Italian state-backed Leonardo.
Boeing is offering the new helicopters at a far lower price by tacking them on the end of a much larger Apache order for the US military.
The deal throws into doubt Britain’s future ability to build combat helicopters, with the Yeovil plant, the nation’s only helicopter manufacturer, set to deliver its last Wildcat model to the MoD next year.
Leonardo has enough work to support its Yeovil staff until 2018 without winning further orders, but it is thought the MoD will hand the business support contracts for the new Apaches.
One defence source said: “Despite concerns about the loss of expertise from not producing the Apaches, servicing them may even work out better for Yeovil.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Regardless of the merits of the Apache and the pricing, I think this news should be a lesson to us all.
Those of us old enough to remember the 1950s & 1960s, remember vibrant British automobile and motorcycle industries. Now they are distant memories. The vast majority of their most revered automobile marques are owned by companies with names like Volkswagon, BMW, Tata and others. Their motorcycle industry is nonexistent, save one. And their aircraft industry. Pfft.
Now in 2016, they must rely on foreign manufactures to build the weapons, they WILL need to defend themselves someday.
what are the conformal pods along the nose???
he GFAS consists of two sensor pods working with the AH-64's other sensors, and a thermographic camera that precisely locates muzzle flashes.
thx...
Well, we do add our own Rolls Royce RTM-322 engines, which improves r#the performance by some margin.
Looks good, sounds good
BUT as I stated most of those are owned by foreign companies. Jaguar is owned by Tata, Bentley is owned by Volkswagen, Mini and others are owned by BMW. and on and on.
As for the motorcycles, there is currently one (1) Triumph in production and available for sale. Royal Enfield is a wholly owned Indian company and has been for over 40 years. The others are at this time mostly a wet dream. I haven’t seen a Norton dealer in 40 years. Same with the others. One or even ten motorcycles does not make a manufacturer. Would you call “Orange County Choppers” a motorcycle manufacturer? I would not.
At least one motorcycle marque on that list never built motorcycles and one was more of a specialty shop building racing bikes.
Metisse was a manufacturer of chassis for most Brit bikes. You could order a chassis and they would stick a Triumph or BSA or some other engine in it. But their business was making good chassis. (FYI: Matisse is french for Mongrel.)
CCM was the Buell of it’s day. Alan Clews like Erik Buell did at HD built competiton bikes for BSA and when they folded, he tried to make a go with left over BSA engines. Never was what most would call a manufacturer, more of a specialty shop.
No. The British automobile and motorcycle industries are long gone. The plants there are like the foreign automobile plants here. Jobs, but not a domestic industry.
I think you maybe misunderstand my thoughts on this.
I am lamenting the demise of the best looking, best handling automobiles on the planet. Caused, in my opinion by Piss Poor management, Worse Union activity and even Worse Government intervention. I live very near a Volkswagen Test facility and damn near weep ever time I see a Bentley go by with MFG on the plates.
Sad part, to me is the same thing is happening here.
Chrysler is now owned by Fiat. FIAT! and the union(s)
Does that not sound like what happened to the British Motorcycle industry, in early 70s? Same three culprits too.
My point is that the resources and skills are still alive and well there, not lost at all, and there are many still being employed as well.
The original fleet of 67 British Apaches was produced by Westland in Yeovil, which in 1995 started assembling US-built components and added UK modifications that more than doubled the price to about £44m per helicopter. Westland is now part of Italian state-backed Leonardo. Boeing is offering the new helicopters at a far lower price by tacking them on the end of a much larger Apache order for the US military.
Why would the Brits want to spend money on offensive weaponry? It’s not like they’ll ever use it to any decent effect.
Imo, the UK would better serve itself if it focused any new spending on developing the ability to actually deploy and use what tiny force they have remaining to them, on their own, without needing to parasite off the US support system.
ROFL!
It’ll be just as useless as the current crap-tastic mess in Europe.
Take the Germans for example. All those armored brigades on record.
Yet, they have 1 brigade worth of armored vehicles. Just one.
All the vehicles are kept and maintained by a private company. Any armored unit wanting to use vehicles for training purposes have to schedule to take vehicles out of storage, use them, then return them.
And if they go into overtime, well, that’s a problem.
thx...
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