PETER LA FRANCHI / CANBERRA
Defence minister warns there may not be a "level playing field" for country's industry
Australia has joined the growing number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme nations expressing concerns about the openness of the multinational industrial programme, with defence minister Robert Hill warning there may not be a "level playing field".
In parallel, senior Australian JSF industry officials have revealed they underwent a "crisis in confidence" in the Lockheed Martin-led programme in May after Boeing Australia-owned Hawker de Havilland lost a major composites work package to a Lockheed Martin subsidiary.
Hill is to demand a briefing from Lockheed Martin, with JSF executive vice-president Tom Burbage flying to Australia that month.
Australian defence sources say Hill sought reassurance from Burb-age that Australian firms would be fairly treated in the competition process, and requested hard evidence of why the Hawker de Havilland bid had been unsuccessful. Burbage arranged for Hill to be given a follow-up briefing by Mike Cosentino, Lockheed Martin's international programmes director for the JSF, on 25 June.
That second meeting saw Hill given extensive details of Hawker de Havilland's pricing and staffing proposals for the work, and the Lockheed Martin subsidiary's comparative bid data. Flight International has been told the data shows the Australian bid was top-loaded with design engineers to reduce schedule risk, whereas Lockheed Martin proposed half the number of staff to perform the same task.
Hill told the Australian DoD's annual Defence and Industry Conference in Canberra on 24 June that local firms face "many challenges" in chasing JSF work.
"Not least is the challenge of securing a level playing field. For example, we have to tackle the disinclination of large US firms to go overseas for their subcontracts," Hill says. "We must also counter the ability of big overseas firms to absorb up-front costs in pursuing tenders. We need to match aggressive competition and political pressure from Europe."
According to Peter Morris, director general aerospace and electronics industry capability in the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation, May 2003 "was a very difficult time for the Australian industry because we hadn't won a contract. I think there was quite a significant crisis of confidence."
Morris says, however, that the failure to win work has been a wake-up call for local aerospace firms. An initial contract awarded by Northrop Grumman to GKN Australia for provision of design engineers for centre fuselage development has helped restore confidence in the programme, he adds.
Source: Flight International
