National financing arrangements for NATO’s €3.5 billion alliance ground surveillance (AGS) requirement could be finalised within the next four months despite uncertainty surrounding plans by the USA to reduce its contribution, say programme officials.
Meanwhile Germany’s planned acquisition of five Northrop Grumman/EADS RQ-4B Eurohawks faces more delays in the wake of German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s decision to seek national elections a year earlier than expected.
AGS programme officials said at the show they are confident there will be no funding shortfalls despite the Pentagon’s move to cut long-term allocations in its draft 2006 defence budget.
Maj Gen Lars Fynbo, team leader for the NATO AGS support staff, says that the USA remains fully committed to the programme. “[The USA has] stated several times that they are fully committed to the programme. I don’t see a problem at this point,” he says.
Fynbo said negotiations for individual national contributions are at an advanced stage, but participating nations “have not fully decided the figure”.
The negotiations are intended to result in the finalisation of individual national memoranda of understanding guiding contributions and workshare arrangements by October. However requirements for political ratification in some nations will delay completion until early 2006.
The AGS programme office plans to issue a request for tender for the 30-month design and development stage in August to the Transatlantic Industry Partnership for Surveillance (TIPS) consortium. The design and development phase award is expected early next year. An initial operational capability from 2010 would comprise three Global Hawks and two Airbus A321s.
Source: Flight International
