Sintra escreveu:Os Sauditas finalmente assinaram o contrato para os 72 "Tiffies". Agora é oficial. São 123 milhões de dolares por avião, isto cobre a compra do avião propriamente dito, treino, logistica e, mais importante, a construção de uma fábrica na Arábia Saudita. Apenas os primeiros 24 sairão da fabrica da BAE´s na Grã Bretanha, os restantes 48 serão construidos no Reino Saudita.A statement from the Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry released today (Sept. 17) confirms that the final contractual element of the government-to-government deal is now in place. It was followed several hours later by a short statement from the UK Defense Ministry.
The follow-on to the Al-Yamamah program, called Project Salaam, will be built around the purchase of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. The last piece of the paper was signed on August 28th, and is thought to have been inked by Des Browne, the British Defense Secretary, and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi statement said the cost of the 72 aircraft was 4.43 billion pounds ($8.86 billion).
No ano passado o valor total divulgado para o contrato girava em torno de 19 bilhoes de libras.
Hoje (ver BBC abaixo) o MoD confirma o contrato no valor de 4,4 bilhoes de libras, podendo chegar a 20 bilhoes de libras incluindo manutencao e treinamento.
Ou seja, cada caca custara 123 milhoes de dolares sem manutencao e treinamento. Se incluir manutencao e treinamento o preco unitario chegara a impressionantes 277 milhoes de dolares.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6998774.stm
Saudis buy Eurofighters from UK
Monday, 17 September 2007, 15:11 GMT 16:11 UK
Maintenance and munitions contracts are also expected
Saudi Arabia is to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets BAE Systems, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.
The deal is worth about £4.4bn but contracts for maintainance and training are expected to take the bill to £20bn.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) dropped a probe last year into a sale of jets to the Saudis in the 1980s.
The UK government said this was on national security grounds, but reports said the Saudis had threatened to pull out if the probe went ahead.
Blackmail claim
The official Saudi news agency SPA says that the price paid per aircraft is the same that Britain's Royal Air Force pays for the aircraft.
UK-based BAE Systems said it welcomed "this important milestone in its strategy to continue to develop Saudi Arabia as a key home market with substantial employment and investment in future in-Kingdom industrial capability".
Critics attacked the decision to drop the SFO investigation, saying the government had put commercial interest before ethics and had given in to Saudi blackmail.
In addition to the price paid for the planes, there is also expected to be a lucrative deal for the munitions that go with them.
The negotiations had been overshadowed by a UK inquiry into allegations Saudi Arabia took bribes from BAE under a military-plane deal struck between the two nations two decades ago.
Britain's Serious Fraud Office last year investigated BAE Systems' £43bn Al-Yamamah deal in 1985, which provided Hawk and Tornado jets plus other military equipment to Saudi Arabia.
However the investigation was pulled by the British government in December 2006 in a move supported by then-prime minister Tony Blair amid statements about the UK's national interests.
![[012]](./images/smilies/012.gif)
![[000]](./images/smilies/000.gif "Maneiro")
