It seems Eurofighter GmbH is offering work worth 5 billion Euros to Norwegian industry, that is afaik much more than Lockheed and quite a bit more than Gripen International.

Here’s a link in Norwegian:
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article342959.ece

Great news! According to this article the funding is over 200 million pounds!!! 🙂 😀 😎

SUAV(E) Could Have Big Impact on U.K. UAVs
By ANDREW CHUTER, LONDON
September 20, 2006
A team of top British companies and universities is nearing an agreement with the Ministry of Defence that could significantly improve unmanned air vehicle (UAV) and unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) capabilities here.
One government source said that more than 200 million pounds ($376 million) could be poured into the technology demonstrator program over the next few years. Britain wants a better understanding of key technologies and operational capabilities as part of its Strategic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Experimental), or SUAV(E), program — an effort to look at UCAV technology, cost-effectiveness and interoperability in various long-range roles.
Building a strategic UAV is likely to be the largest technology demonstrator program launched by the British since the Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) was agreed by government and industry in 1982.
EAP led to the launch of the Eurofighter Typhoon program and helped save Britain from slipping out of the combat aircraft sector. The SUAV(E) initiative could have a similar impact.
Andy Wilson, BAE Systems director of sales and marketing for military autonomous systems, said the hope is that the UAV demonstrator could be the precursor to a full production program in Britain.
Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE, which leads the industry UAV effort, said it was a “very important development for the future of the U.K. defense industrial base.”

BAE is in talks with the government regarding the future consolidation of the military aircraft sector here. As the Defence Industrial Strategy document published by the MoD late last year made clear, the current size of the industry is unsustainable, and development of UAV and UCAV know-how has an important role in retaining jobs and capabilities in the sector.
Turner said the UAV demonstrator talks with government were nearing the end during a meeting with journalists Sept. 13 following release of BAE’s interim financial results ending in June.
“I think we will see a very large technology demonstrator program in the not-too-distant future,” he said.
An industry source said that while some minor points still needed resolution, he would be disappointed if the deal wasn’t announced by the end of the year.
The British effort will be in the form of an MoD-sponsored partnership, with the government providing the major part of the funding and industry providing the rest, Wilson said.
Industry Teams With Academia
The industry-academic team undertaking the work with the MoD will include QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce, Smiths Aerospace, two leading universities and a string of small and medium-sized companies drawn from across Britain, Wilson said.
The British effort will be aimed at offering an independent capability free of the technology-transfer problems that have dogged the proposed Joint Strike Fighter deal with the United States.
“We are very keen on UAVs to go it alone,” Turner said. “We want to be able to offer the vehicles to the U.K. armed forces subject to U.K. technology only. We have been very deliberate in that policy. A lot of it is U.K.-eyes-only. Whether in due course the government — having gotten the technology under its belt — decides to go out to Europe or America [for joint programs], we will have to wait and see.”
Earlier this year Nigel Whitehead, BAE’s air systems group managing director, told journalists that although countries in Europe continued to focus on their own national requirements, there could come a time when common programs emerge.
Whitehead said BAE was already sharing data with Eurofighter consortium partners EADS Military Aircraft of Germany and Alenia of Italy. Both companies have jet-powered UAV programs of their own.
Europe’s major effort in the sector to date is the Dassault Aviation-led Neuron demonstrator. France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland are cooperating to build a technology demonstrator.
BAE already has spent about 100 million pounds of its own resources secretly developing a string of UAVs at its aerospace facilities in northwest England in recent years, and Turner said he was “keen to put some of our own money” into this latest program.
BAE took the wraps off the vehicles earlier this year after the government revealed the existence of the work in its Defence Industrial Strategy white paper. The document revealed the government was in talks about the technology demonstrator program.
BAE’s work on low-observable platforms, such as the flying wing-configured Corax, Raven and others, has already helped reduce the risk on the demonstrator program.
Wilson said that once the funds are released, the demonstrator will be constructed as fast as possible using the rapid prototyping and build techniques developed for the production of Raven. The white paper reported that Raven went from concept to first flight in 10 months.
In July, the government and industry announced they were launching a jointly funded 32 million pound Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment program. That work aims to develop technologies allowing safe operation of UAVs in civil airspace.
Revenues Up
BAE’s figures for the half year saw revenue rise to 8.2 billion pounds from 6.7 billion pounds last year, with operating profit rising from 566 million pounds to 788 million pounds. The results reflect the boost in trading from the June 2005 acquisition of United Defense Industries.
Turner said company performance in the United States had been excellent, with the expansion in the market in recent years now bearing fruit.
“We were very fortunate. We came to the market late, starting with only about $1 [billion] or $2 billion turnover seven years ago,” Turner said. “We were able to choose the parts of the market impacted by transformation and modernization in concert with the way forward for the armed forces, so we are in the key sweet spots. We are confident we can keep growing 5-6 percent ahead of the U.S. [defense] budget.”
Turner said Pentagon budgets are unlikely to continue at current high levels indefinitely. “The rises will not continue at the 7-8 percent level we have seen in the past, but probably slow down to the 3-4 percent level,” he said.

Link:
http://www.c4isrjournal.com/story.php?F=2112461