ANDREW DOYLE / SINGAPORE
Japan and the USA are close to agreeing a framework for discussions on jointly developing a mission system to equip their respective Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) replacements.
Agreement on the scope of the talks should clear the way for detailed negotiations to start before year-end, say officials. The timing of the talks is being driven primarily by the Japanese side, which aims to have its MP-X replacement operational by 2011.
Japan plans to base the MP-X on an indigenously-developed platform likely to be powered by four turbofans designed by the Japan Defence Agency's Technical Research and Development Institute. A prime contractor is due to be selected by November.
The US Navy, meanwhile, wants to purchase an off-the-shelf platform to meet its future Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) requirement.
The Boeing 737 is seen as the most likely candidate, though other possibilities include the Airbus A320, BAE Systems' Nimrod MRA4, the Fairchild Dornier 928JET and the Gulfstream V.
Co-operation talks will focus on whether Japanese industry can take a significant share of development work on a common mission system, which would subsequently be manufactured on separate production lines in Japan and the USA.
This would be likely to entail Japanese industry taking responsibility for specific elements of the mission system, say the sources.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are all expected to compete for prime contractorship of the US MMA programme, but Boeing is the only manufacturer that is in a position to offer its own airframe as part of its bid.
Fuji Heavy Industries, Kawasaki, and Mitsubishi are bidding for the right to be the prime contractor on the MP-X, while Japan Aircraft Manufacturing, Shni-Maywa Industries and Showa Aircraft Industry have submitted proposals for airframe and mission system work.
Source: Flight International