VIENNA, July 29 (AFP) – 10:50 GMT – Austrian left-wing opposition parties on Monday launched a petition drive to block the purchase of a fleet of Eurofighter warplanes.
The five-day initiative is aimed at gathering 100,000 signatures in order to force parliament to re-examine the intended purchase of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets chosen by the government earlier this month.
The opposition Green Party and a contingent of Socialists sponsoring the petition argue that the estimated 1.8 billion-euro (dollar) price tag is too steep.
The Eurofighter Typhoon (won out in a Europe-wide bid launched last January to replace Austria’s ageing fleet of JAS-35 Draken and Saab-105 fighter planes.
The two-seater, two-engine fighter jet is made by a consortium composed of Britain’s BAE Systems, Germany’s Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa), Italy’s Alenia and the Spanish group Casa.
In the past weeks, Vienna said it had not yet decided on the total number of planes, hinting that the number could fall short of the 24 expected.
Austria will be the first country outside the Eurofighter consortium to purchase the plane. More than 600 have already been sold to consortium members.
-Got this from http://www.defense-aerospace.com. Why does Austria need/want to buy only 24 highly expensive aircraft anyway? Wouldn’t second-hand F-16C’s w/AIM-120 be a cheaper and perfectly capable fit for their defense needs?
SOC
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July 29, 2002 at 3:49 pm