August 2, 2009
BAE Systems' Eurofighter Typhoon factory faces closure
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 736259.ece
Under the Eurofighter deal, the RAF was due to receive 232 aircraft, now known as the Typhoon
Michael Smith
Britain's last fighter aircraft factory faces closure within five years after the government’s decision last week to curtail its purchases of the Eurofighter Typhoon.
The industry, founded on the Sopwith Camel in the first world war, is expected to come to an end when the last of the Typhoons rolls off the production line in 2014. The BAE Systems aircraft manufacturing plant at Warton, Lancashire, would close with the possible loss of 20,000 jobs at the site and in support trades.
Under the Eurofighter deal, the RAF was due to receive 232 aircraft, now known as the Typhoon, in three batches. They were to be built at Warton as part of the joint British, German, Italian and Spanish project. Last Friday, however, it was announced that Britain would buy a total of only 160 aircraft in what is in effect a £4.5 billion defence cut. The number of RAF frontline Typhoon squadrons will be cut to five from the six that were planned.
Gordon Brown repeatedly tried to pull out of the Eurofighter deal while he was chancellor but Britain itself insisted when the contract was negotiated in the early 1990s that each country must pay for all the aircraft it had committed to, regardless of whether or not it took delivery of them.
Last week, however, Quentin Davies, defence equipment minister, said that the government had “no foreseeable plans” to buy any more aircraft beyond the 160 already delivered or on order, signalling that it had managed to find a way out of the contract.
“We have no obligation to our partners to buy any more and we have no current intention or expectation of purchasing more at the present time,” said Davies.
The government diverted 24 of the aircraft from the second tranche to Saudi Arabia in 2005, insisting that it was a temporary measure to relieve pressure on the hard-pushed defence budget and that the RAF would eventually get all of the 232 aircraft it had ordered.
The fighter industry may, though, be given a reprieve by Germany, which is insisting that Britain must buy all 232 aircraft minus the 24 Saudi aircraft or face penalty payments.
Francis Tusa, editor of the newsletter Defence Analysis, said: “
The Germans are saying that the UK will have to take the remaining 48 aircraft in its contract or pay for them anyway.”
BAE Systems referred questions on the government’s Typhoon purchase plans to the Ministry of Defence. It said that it was already moving away from aircraft construction to support services.
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