Alenia Aermacchi, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin UK have submitted offers for the Polish air force's advanced jet trainer (AJT) requirement, but only one of the rivals has come in below Warsaw's revised price estimate for a purchase.
The Polish defence ministry's inspectorate of armament on 20 November opened bids submitted by the three companies, respectively for the M-346, Hawk and T-50.
An earlier programme estimate of zlotych (Zl) 1.5 billion ($484 million) had been set, but defence ministry representatives now say that a sum of only Zl1.2 billion has been allocated for the purchase of an AJT system.
Alenia Aermacchi
According to the defence ministry, the prices of the individual offers submitted are almost Zl1.17 billion from Alenia Aermacchi (M-346 pictured), just over Zl1.75 billion from BAE Systems and slightly more than Zl1.8 billion from Lockheed Martin UK.
With pricing offers now in, the last step in the acquisition process will be for the air force to assess whether they meet the criteria stated in its tender documentation. Evaluation elements include price, life cycle cost and so called “bonus parameters”. Warsaw – which has previously outlined a requirement for eight new aircraft, plus related ground-based training systems – plans to sign an agreement with the winning contender in the first quarter of 2014.
Source: Flight International
