Greece cancels tender for Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft

Source: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/11830/

December 9, 2009 defpro.com | Greece obviously entirely gave up hope of continuing its tender for the procurement of up to five multi-mission maritime aircraft (MMA) for the Hellenic Navy. The European Defence Agency (EDA) today updated the contract notice EDA-2394, officially stating that “no suitable tender or request to participate” was received for the Greek tender.

Greece intended to procure 5 MMAs with an option for one further aircraft for only €200 to €250 million (~$295 – $368 million). Although the Greek Navy has an urgent requirement for such aircraft, in order to replace its four ageing P-3B Orion maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), it is probable that the tender has been called off due to the already troubled financial situation of the country.

The procurement of five new aircraft for the above stated range of costs (it has not been specified it this are expected costs per unit or the total available amount) would not have been very realistic anyhow, considering the currently available systems such as the ATR-72MP of Alenia/EADS, Boeing’s P-8A, Embraer’s P-99 or the EADS CASA C-295MPA. If the money that has reportedly been set aside for the procurement of new aircraft, rather, will be spent for an upgrade of the P-3s as yet is not foreseeable.

Taking into consideration the price range as well as the further award criteria, including domestic industrial participation, offset agreements and technical merit of the respective contenders, a success of this procurement effort seems to have been quite unpromising from the beginning. Furthermore, past quarrels between the Greek government and industry regarding the payment fulfilled contracts, such as in the case of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (see http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/407/), may not have encouraged industry to step forward in this particular tender. (nvk http://www.defpro.com/news/details/11830/)