SENIOR MANAGEMENT from GEC, Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) and Eurofighter have met in an attempt to iron out critical problems surrounding the development of the radar and radome for the Eurofighter EF2000 .
The problems are threatening to delay the first flight of an EF2000 prototype equipped with the ECR-90 pulse-Doppler radar by at least six months, claim German sources.
Neither GEC nor DASA is willing to make a public comment, but privately each blames the other for the bulk of the difficulties. One German source admits that the radome, for which the DASA-led team has system-design responsibility, is "too thick, electronically speaking".
The radar's radio frequency (RF) signals are being modified and distorted by the radome. Although this can be allowed for in the raw radar-data processing, calibration of the RF distortion is proving difficult, says one source.
German industry sources claim that hardware and software problems with the radar itself are also delaying development.
The UK Ministry of Defence is aware of the problems, although senior scientific advisors believe that all of the technical problems can be resolved satisfactorily.
Another problem area for the programme has now been resolved, however, with DASA and the German Federal Ministry of Defence settling their long-running dispute over the cost of the 1992 re-orientation of the Eurofighter programme.
The parties have been at loggerheads since early 1994 over DASA's demand that the Government cover DM570 million ($400 million) of the estimated DM1.2 billion cost of downgrading and stretching the programme - at German defence minister Volker Ruhe's insistence. Ruhe initially refused to pay more than DM160 million.
DASA and Bonn refuse to reveal the amount finally settled until the agreement is ratified by parliament in Bonn, although it is believed to be rather less than the DM500 million reported in some accounts.
According to the defence ministry, the settlement will finally clear the way for Germany to sign the fourth Eurofighter memorandum of understanding (MoU).
This formalises the re-orientation of the programme and clears the way for discussions on the production memorandum, MoU 5, which should be settled in the third quarter of 1995.
Source: Flight International