http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/11/11/219327/dubai-2007-typhoons-missing-link.html
DATE:11/11/07
SOURCE:Flight Daily News
Dubai 2007: Typhoon's missing link...
BAE, not Eurofighter, promotes Typhoon at Dubai
With Eurofighter GmbHs attentions firmly focused on a number of
vital export campaigns, the four-nation organisation responsible
for the Eurofighter Typhoon programme is not exhibiting at
Dubai.
Instead, Typhoon is being presented by one of the Eurofighter
partner companies, BAE Systems, which is showing off the Typhoons
cockpit simulator at the show. Test pilots are on hand to
demonstrate and explain the aircrafts intuitive Man-Machine
Interface, which many believe is the Typhoons key advantage over
many of its competitors.
Eurofighter GmbHs absence looks surprising, especially after Saudi
Arabia finally signed a $8.86 billion contract for the purchase of
72 Eurofighter Typhoons on September 11. But this deal was a direct
government-to-government arrangement between the UK and Saudi
Arabia, and not between the manufacturer and the customer.
The Typhoon procurement was originally outlined in the December
2005 al-Salam agreement between the two governments.
This Understanding Document confirmed Saudi Arabias intention to
procure Typhoon aircraft to replace some RSAF Tornados and other
frontline aircraft. No details were released at the time, though
press reports suggested the deal would be 72 Typhoons, and that
al-Salam would follow the long-running al-Yamamah programme. This
was signed in 1984 and covered the supply of Hawks and Tornados,
generating more than £43bn of revenue for BAE Systems.
The initial contract will be followed by further deals covering the
supply of weapons, support, training and engineering services, and
some have estimated that these will eventually total $40bn over the
lifetime of the aircraft.
The first 24 Saudi Typhoons will be built by BAE Systems at Warton,
north-west England, with the remaining 48 aircraft probably being
assembled locally in Saudi Arabia, though details remain to be
finalised. It was initially thought that the Saudi aircraft would
take 12 RAF line positions, not 24 as widely reported, at the
beginning of Tranche 2, and another 12 extra line positions will be
added later in Tranche 2.
This initial batch of 24 Saudi aircraft will include six
two-seaters. It was widely expected that the first 12 Saudi
aircraft would be interspersed with RAF aircraft on the Warton
line, but recent reports suggest that these Saudi aircraft will now
be delivered as a block, leading to a delay in RAF deliveries,
though extra RAF aircraft will be added at the end of Tranche 2, so
there will be no change to RAF numbers. As a result, the RAFs
third frontline Typhoon unit, No.6 Squadron, is not expected to
stand up until 2010.
The first 22 Saudi Typhoon pilots and an initial cadre of engineers
will be trained alongside their Royal Air Force counterparts at RAF
Coningsby on the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit, No.29
(Reserve) Squadron. The remaining 48 aircraft (including eight
two-seaters) will come from Tranche 3, or will be locally assembled
at a new facility in Saudi Arabia.
These 72 Typhoons will replace the RSAFs Tornado ADV fighters, and
some Northrop F-5s and Boeing F-15Cs, and there may even be an
eventual requirement for up to 200 aircraft.
BAE is a long-standing supplier of defence equipment to Saudi
Arabia, starting with Hawker Hunters and then BAC Strikemasters and
Lightnings, and later BAE Hawks and Panavia Tornados. The company
has a stated strategy of continuing to develop Saudi Arabia as a
key home market. The Typhoon sale also reflects increasing
co-operation between the UK and Saudi Ministries of Defence, which
has included two recent bilateral exercises involving the RAF and
RSAF Tornado forces.
With the Saudi contract signed, a number of other export campaigns
are being actively pursued. In the period immediately before the
Dubai show, Eurofighter GmbH completed a pre-bid RFP clarification
process in India. This was the most professionally put together
and most comprehensive RFP Id ever seen, but we are happy with the
detail, and happy that we understand what they want, and we are
putting together a compliant bid,according to one senior
Eurofighter source.
Operationally, Typhoon is exactly what the Indian Air Force needs,
and I am confident that it will meet their technology transfer and
industrial aspirations. The Indians themselves are stressing costs
of ownership, so I think that our combination of capability and low
lifecycle costs over 40 years will be compelling.
Eurofighter GmbH is also actively participating in the JASDFs F-X
F-4 replacement programme in Japan, where an RFP is said to be
imminent.
Typhoon was actually selected as Greeces new generation fighter in
March 2000, and the Greek Government announced its commitment to an
order for 60 Typhoons later that year. Contract signature was then
delayed due to the cost of the 2004 Olympic Games, however, and the
fighter competition was re-opened by a new incoming Government.
Eurofighter GmbH has continued to try to find alternative funding
arrangements and to resolve budget issues, and Greece has been
offered substantial industrial participation in the Eurofighter
progamme.
Switzerland is also viewed as an interesting prospect for the
Typhoon, especially after Austrias selection of the type.
A number of European JSF partner nations are also being courted as
potential Typhoon customers. Though Norway is a Level Two JSF
partner, the country has been a member of the Eurofighter
industrial partnership since January 2003, when it made an initial
10.8m investment to participate in high technology development
work, later increasing its industrial participation to 23m in June
2005.
A number of other nations have expressed serious reservations about
industrial participation in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
Joint Strike Fighter programme, or about timescales, and are now
viewed as Typhoon prospects. These nations include Denmark, the
Netherlands and Turkey.
There have even been suggestions that there may still be the
possibility of follow-on requirements in Singapore and South
Korea, where the Typhoon lost out to the Boeing F-15 Eagle in
earlier fighter competitions.
