Douglas Barrie/LONDON
BRITISH AEROSPACE has abandoned its bid for a £300 million ($460 million) UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract to establish and support a tri-service helicopter training school.
BAe had intended to link with McAlpine in offering the MoD a mix of up to 50 Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil and AS365 Dauphins to meet the Defence Helicopter Flying Training School (DHFTS) requirement.
The MoD is pulling together army, navy and air force helicopter flying training at the same time as it puts the package out to "contractorisation". The Aerospatiale Gazelle and Westland Wessex helicopters are also to be replaced.
BAe's bid, based around Eurocopter helicopters, was in part intended to support its failed tender to meet the army's attack-helicopter programme with the Eurocopter Tiger.
The MoD has received bids from Hunting, teamed with Bond, and Shorts to set up and support the DHFTS. Sources suggest that bidders are offering both compliant and non-compliant bids, with the latter up to 40% cheaper than the former.
The compliant bids are likely to be based on a mix of the single-engine Bell 206s and Ecureuils, and twin-engine Bell 412s and Eurocopter EC135s. The MoD requires up to 40 single- and 12 twin-engine helicopters.
Non-compliant bids which are considerably less expensive are likely to have also been submitted, say sources. These are thought to based on either the Schweizer 330 or Enstrom TH-28 single-engine turbo-shaft helicopters.
Source: Flight International
