Germany tries to push stalled Eurofighter talks
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BERLIN, July 11 (Reuters) – Germany’s Defence Ministry has suggested splitting up the planned delivery of the last batch of Eurofighter jets to four European countries in a bid to break a deadlock in negotiations over the multibillion euro tranche.
In a letter sent to his counterparts in Britain, Italy and Spain, German procurement chief Ruediger Wolf has offered a possible solution to the problem created by Britain and Italy who are considering cancelling or cutting their orders.
Wolf stressed there was a contractual obligation for the four nations to approve the third tranche of 236 aircraft and said he was worried about the consequences if the countries did not agree.
“My perception is that the procurement programme might develop into a critical situation if nations fail to define a common programme that will be suitable for all of us,” said Wolf in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
The letter, dated July 7, was also sent to NETMA, the arm of NATO that oversees the project.
“Germany could accept a two-step approach,” wrote Wolf.
“The first batch would be ordered when the contract is signed and the second step would be an option to be contracted at a later date, which needs to be defined,” he continued.
“In case some nations are not in a position to opt for this second step at the agreed date, the contract has to implement solutions to indemnify the other nations,” he said, noting that Germany intended to contract its whole tranche of 68 aircraft.
Wolf said the first part of the delivery should include a “substantial” number of aircraft, noting that Germany would expect more than 50 percent of the total originally agreed.
He said he wanted to get the contract signed within six months.
Under the original plan, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain would have received the third batch of 236 aircraft between 2012 and 2017.
The Eurofighter consortium includes Britain’s BAE Systems BA.L, Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Alenia, a unit of Italy’s Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research). The aircraft engines are made by Rolls Royce (RR.L: Quote, Profile, Research), MTU Aero Engines (MTXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and ITP.
A Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed the existence of a letter in which Germany had outlined its position in further talks with partner nations.
Some lawmakers in Berlin have estimated the cost of the third tranche to be around 5 billion euros for Germany, bringing the total cost for the 180 Eurofighter jets in the three tranches to around 15 billion euros. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Erica Billingham)
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