Posted on 09/13/2007 10:29:32 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
UK and Italy weight Eurofighter options
Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:41am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Defence officials from Britain and Italy have asked the Eurofighter consortium for information on their options as they weigh budgets to buy fighter jets from both Europe and the United States.
A spokesman for the Eurofighter consortium said it was working on implementation of an existing plan for the sale of 236 planes to four countries. This proposal is due by the end of the year.
These make up the last tranche of 620 ordered under the four-nation programme involving Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
"We were asked to deliver information on certain options for the UK and Italy to support their business cases," the Eurofighter spokesman said, noting defence officials in the two countries have to weigh budgets as they also consider how many of the Lockheed Martin Corp-led (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Joint Strike Fighter they might buy.
The Times, citing unnamed defence sources, reported on Thursday that the UK was seeking information from Eurofighter with a view to reducing, delaying or entirely cancelling its final order for 88 aircraft.
"I reject this as pure speculation," the Eurofighter spokesman said.
Any nation that reduces its orders would owe compensation to the others under the Eurofighter contract, which uses the level of orders to set terms for the deal including how many jobs are created in each of the four countries.
Another option for the nations is to take delivery of their planes and sell some of them on to other countries.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the newspaper report, but stated that negotiations on the third tranche of Eurofighter would last through 2008.
In addition to 88 for the UK, the final tranche calls for 68 for Germany, 46 for Italy and 34 for Spain.
The Eurofighter is built by a consortium of Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), BAE Systems (BA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Alenia Aeronautica, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research).
Tranche 3, or no pretty new planes for your pretty and large new aircraft carriers.
The UK’s deficit isn’t bad at all. This sort of purchase, given the timeframes, shouldn’t be such a major issue.
‘Tranche 3, or no pretty new planes for your pretty and large new aircraft carriers.’
Wrong. The new carriers will be equipped with JSF aircraft as British Aerospace are a 20% JSF partner.
‘The UK’s deficit isn’t bad at all. This sort of purchase, given the timeframes, shouldn’t be such a major issue.’
It’s not about money, it’s about whether future operations will benefit from more Typhoons or more JSF’s.
“Wrong. The new carriers will be equipped with JSF aircraft as British Aerospace are a 20% JSF partner.”
BA’s partnership doesn’t have much to do with the issue, which is _specifically_ that there is not enough money to purchase both T3 and the full JSF complement - including for ‘ideal’ carrier rotations.
“It’s not about money, it’s about whether future operations will benefit from more Typhoons or more JSF’s.”
Which means there’s head-butting now over whether to spend the money that’s being permitted on the Typhoons or the JSF, which means it’s about the money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.