Douglas Barrie/PARIS
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
GEC-MARCONI'S VENOM bid for the UK's £2 billion attack-helicopter programme hangs on its ability to provide the UK with a four-bladed development of the Bell AH-1W Cobra, according to a senior US Navy official.
GEC and the US Marine Corps are attempting to set up a joint US/UK attack-helicopter programme based round the Bell/GEC-Marconi Cobra Venom, with senior defence officials from both countries continuing to try to patch together a transatlantic deal. A $1.5 billion funding shortfall for the complete four-blade programme is driving the USMC efforts.
The crux of the deal is that the USMC funds a four-bladed upgrade while the UK provides a cockpit upgrade for the USMC.
In details of the US/UK negotiations, seen by Flight International, Daniel Czelusniak, the USN's leading negotiator in the recent discussions, highlight the critical nature of the four-blade option.
"The Ministry of Defence [UK MoD] is very interested in the rotor upgrade. It is clearly the only configuration that keeps Cobra in the running with Apache and Tiger," writes Czelusniak. "UK industrial work content is also paramount in their minds to make the Cobra politically viable."
A MoD decision is expected in July, with the Venom competing against, the Eurocopter/British Aerospace Tiger and the McDonnell Douglas/Westland AH-64D Longbow Apache.
Following a meeting by the MoD Equipment Approvals Committee, the AH-64D is believed to have emerged as the preferred option. Senior BAe and GEC officials, however, believe that the gap is narrow enough to be closed by political issues.
Czelusniak identifies USN budget issues as pulling the programmes together. The extent of the navy's funding problems, was identified in an 8 May letter from Nora Slatkin, then assistant Secretary of the Navy (research, development and acquisition), to the US Under Secretary of Defense (acquisition and technology).
Even cancelling the proposed AH-1W cockpit upgrade, costed at $706 million by Slatkin, would leave a shortfall of $765 million.
According to Czelusniak, the USA would not be asked to share the cost of the Cobra Venom cockpit development if the USA pays for the four-bladed-rotor programme.
Under the proposed timetable, should the Cobra Venom be eventually selected, the USA and UK would affirm the principles of co-operation in July to be completed by November, with a contract placed in January 1996.
Source: Flight International
