FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1985
1985 - 1102.PDF
DEFENCE Austria plumps for Draken VIENNA Austria's Council of Ministers met on April 2 to rubber stamp a Defence Ministry decision to buy 24 secondhand J35 Drakens from Swedish manufacturer Saab Scania. Dr Friedhelm Frishen- schlager, Minister of Defence, announced the decision to buy the Drakens on March 26, but the purchase needed the offi cial endorsement of the Ministerial council. The contract will be signed before the end of May, says Saab. Sweden clinched the contract in the face of fierce competition from Britain, France, and the USA by offer ing "a hell of a lot of offset," as one source puts it. British Aerospace offered 24 Light nings, Dassault 24 Mirage Ills, and Northrop either 16 or 24 F-5E/F Tiger lis. UK close British Aerospace is reported to have come within a hair's breadth of winning the contract with its offer of 24 Lightnings. Although the Lightnings were offered at the lowest price (approximately ASch.1,900 million) the Drakens offered at AS2.700 million won the order. Pressure from the left wing of the ruling Socialist Govern ment to buy the new inter ceptor from a neutral rather than ' an allied nation militated against the Light ning, Mirage III, and F-5. British Aerospace had hoped to supply Lightnings bought back from Saudi Arabia in a deal designed to offset the possible sale of Tornadoes and Hawk trainers to the Royal Saudi Air Force. It now seems unlikely that Lightnings will be re purchased from Saudi unless another customer can be found, says BAe. Northrop was the first of the competitors to fall out of the bidding when it was dismissed on February 26 over Twenty-four ex-Swedish Air Force Drakens will form Austria's new interceptor force. Mountains and glaciers will be a familiar backdrop several complex legal and contractual details. Northrop says that selection of the Draken "was more or less the decision we expected". New F-5s rejected Northrop, the only com pany to offer new aircraft, says that the decision hinged on the issue of initial versus life-cycle costs of the aircraft. Northrop argued that, although 16 new F-5s would have cost more to buy (ASch6,600 million, compared with ASch2,700 million), the new aircraft would cost some ASchl40 million a year less to operate and would have lasted for 33 rather than eight years in service. The F-5s would also have had a 75 per cent residual value, says Northrop. In some senses the Draken is an odd choice for Austria, as it is one of the most expensive of the contenders to operate and has the shortest remain ing service life. But Austria has a long tradition of buying Swedish, with the Saab Safir, J29 Tunnen, and Saab 105 previously on the inventory. Saab says that although the J37 Viggen was demonstrated in Austria in 1975 as a pos sible contender for the Austrian Air Force, it was decided that the Draken would be a more logical step on from the Saab 105. Now Saab says that the JAS 39 Gripen, currently under development in Sweden, would be the most suitable fighter for Austria if and when the newly ordered Drakens are replaced. As Saab has not started marketing the Gripen, and judging by the amount of time Austria took to settle the latest order for new aircraft, this is likely to be a long way off. The small Austrian Air Force is limited to intercept missions only by the nation's neutral stance. While the latest order was being discussed, some argued for a larger order of 50 aircraft but, as the Ministry of Defence pointed out, 50 interceptors would be no more effective against a massive air invasion than 24. Anglo-Italian ties tightened m YEOVIL Westland and Agusta are to extend their collaboration on the design, production, and marketing of helicopters, following the signing of an industrial agreement. Further collaboration will centre largely on the West- land W.30 transport heli copter and the Agusta A.129 Mangusta scout/attack machine. But the main aim is "to integrate the marketing and design capacities of the two companies as far as we can", says Westland. The two companies began collaboration five years ago on the EH.101 naval and civil helicopter for the 1990s. The new agreement, details of which will be finalised be fore the Paris Air Show in May, seeks to extend col laboration at a much deepen level. Westland has long been deliberating on collaboration with either Agusta or the Franco-German consortium, Eurocopter, to join in building a two-seat attack helicopter. Westland deferred a decision until it could get a clear indi cation from the British Government on which of the two helicopters, the A.129 or the Eurocopter PAH-2, was wanted by the British Army Air Corps. Westland's decision to team up with Agusta is not the result of express Army inter est in the A.129, although the Service has said that it does not want the PAH-2 accord ing to Westland. The latest collaboration is rather the result of Defence Minister Michael Heseltine's commit ment to European collabo ration, which is endorsed by Westland chairman and managing director Sir Basil Blackwell. The move appears to be further evidence of increasing polarisation between Italy and the UK against France and Germany in the Euro helicopter market. Plessey has a 35 per cent share in the Italian firm Elettronica, and Racal has a co-operative agreement with Selenia to bid jointly for the EH.101 avionics orders as well as for other contracts. FLIGHT International, 13 April 1985
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
