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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0379.PDF
DEFENCE PRODUCTION TIM RIPLEY / WOODFORD BAE pushes to grow Nimrod work Manufacturer anxious to seal "strip and survey" package to retain skills as development phase begins to tail off BAE Systems and the UK Ministry of Defence are negotiating to begin preparatory work on Nimrod MRA4 production in advance of a final contract being placed. The move to begin "strip and survey" work on five old Nimrod MR2 air frames comes as engine ground tests and taxi trials on the first MRA4 prototype are due to start within days, ahead of the aircraft's first flight in mid-year. The MRA4 s Rolls-Royce Deutschland BR710 engines have yet to be started while installed in the aircraft. Some of the work packages on long-lead items proposed by BAE have already been approved by the MoD and others are being consid ered, say company executives. Nimrod project managers at BAE say the preparatory work is neces- Nimrod engine ground tests will start this month sary to protect the jobs of key staff at the company's Woodford plant, where work on the MRA4 has been undertaken to date. With the signa ture of a final production deal not due until December 2005, BAE is only contracted to carry out devel opment work, which is beginning to tail off. When the Nimrod pro ject was restructured early last year the company projected job losses of 492 at Woodford, but it has so far only had to issue around 40 compulsory redundancy letters. Undertaking the preparatory work and keeping the experienced staff employed are considered to be essential steps in ensuring a smooth transition from develop ment to production to allow the company to meet the MRA4's revised 2009 in-service date. This will be declared with the targeted delivery of the Royal Air Force's sixth of 18 remanufactured Nimrods. Six hundred of BAE's 850 ROTORCRAFT PROCUREMENT BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE South Korea urged to join JSFteam to meet next fighter requirement Tiger wins certification France's DGA defence procure ment agency has approved military type certification for the French army's HAP escort and fire support variant of the Eurocopter Tiger combat heli copter. The multinational OCCAR armaments agency has also qualified the aircraft. Covering the airframe plus its weapon systems and avionics, the certification and qualification process will be extended to cover the German army's Tiger UHT anti-tank and multirole aircraft within the next three months, Eurocopter says. Complementary certification and qualification for the Tiger's inte grated electronic counter- measures suite is set for the sec ond half of this year. France has ordered 70 HAP and 10 HAC anti-tank Tigers, with Germany awaiting delivery of 80 in the UHT configuration. South Korea will be given a US gov ernment briefing on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme early next month, as the country begins evaluating its future fighter requirements. Industry sources say Lockheed Martin is pushing South Korea to join the JSF programme early, and believes its F-35 platform could be an alternative to Seoul's possible purchase of additional F-15Ks from US rival Boeing. Boeing, however, remains confi dent of receiving a follow-on F-15K order before 2008, when it delivers the last of the 40 aircraft now on order, because the JSF will not be available to export cus tomers until around 2012. South Korea may hold a new competition dubbed F-XX to meet the follow-on requirement, with the F-15K considered favourite. South Korea's original F-X next- generation fighter requirement was for 120 aircraft, but budget con straints limited the initial acquisi tion to 40. The first six aircraft are already in production, with first flight scheduled for next March and initial delivery set for late 2005. Seoul will, meanwhile, take delivery of its last of 180 Lockheed Martin F-16s in June. Sources say a badly needed upgrade to its aircraft computer systems, including its newly delivered Block 52 fighters, is being evaluated. A Link 16 datalink is viewed as the ideal solution to this problem, since it would make the F-16s and F-15K interoperable, but its high cost could force South Korea to reduce the purchase of additional fighters. As a result, it has asked the US government to provide infor- employees at Woodford work on the Nimrod project. "We are talking about bringing old aircraft [fuselages] back to a stan dard ready to go into production," says Joe Harland, BAE Systems' Nimrod managing director. "This is low risk and the customer acknowl edges that. It will help mitigate fur ther redundancy while we await the final [production] decision." The five MR2 airframes involved are at Woodford after being deliv ered under the previous pro gramme, which involved simultane ous development and production work. Under the restructuring of the project, production work was halted as efforts were concentrated on development until the design was considered mature enough to begin production. Company executives describe the proposed preparatory activity as "safe structure" work that will not be affected by any future changes to the design. mation on other possible datalink products and is now awaiting a response. The F-15Ks will be delivered with Link 16 equipment and a weapons package that includes Boeing's AGM-84H stand-off land-attack missile-expanded response. Lockheed Martin first briefed South Korea on the JSF late last year (Flight International, 11-17 November 2003), but the US government briefing will provide more details and discuss what lev els of participation are available. South Korea could become the second Asian country to join the JSF programme after Singapore, which last month formally joined as a security co-operation partici pant. Seoul is expected to be offered the aircraft under the US government's Foreign Military Sales mechanism. 16 13-19 APRIL 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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