AUSTRALIA'S AEROSPACE industry has been angered by its Government's endorsement of a joint venture set up to maintain Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) Agusta S.211 trainers at their base near Perth, Western Australia. The six-year contract is worth about A$18 million ($13.3 million) annually.
Following negotiations with around six qualified Australian aerospace groups, the contract will go to a 50:50 joint venture between Singapore Technologies Aerospace (STAe) and Aviation International Engineering Services, a consortium of four small Australian trustee and investment companies, which had already formed a business relationship with STAe.
The new joint venture, Aerospace Engineering Services, will take over equipment and staff from Singapore Technologies Perth Aerospace Engineering in January.
The RSAF's pilot-training school at Pearce, Western Australia, was established by a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Australian Government and the Singapore defence ministry, providing for intermediate and depot-level maintenance and logistics support to be contracted to Australian entities.
"If Australian companies are unable to provide the required commercial support to the RSAF on a competitive basis, the parties will mutually determine the optimum means of satisfying each RSAF requirement," says the MoU.
Australian defence contractors had been disconcerted over what they saw as a breach of that requirement when Singapore Technologies Aerospace rejected about 25 Australian companies and set up its own Australian-registered subsidiary to perform the work.
Source: Flight International
