BAE Systems has secured a potentially 15-year contract to provide in-service support and maintenance services for the UK Royal Air Force's fleet of Eurofighter Typhoons.
Under an initial five-year partnering deal with the UK Ministry of Defence worth £450 million ($637 million), BAE will support the Typhoon (two 11 Sqn examples pictured below with a 17 Sqn aircraft) and its systems at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, with additional work to be performed at the company's Samlesbury and Warton plants in Lancashire.
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© Dragon Lady gallery on flightglobal.com/AirSpace |
The company will also increase its related employee numbers under the Typhoon Availability Service (TAS) from a current 200 people to more than 500 by year-end, it says.
The MoD says the TAS contract "will ensure the Typhoon fleet is able to meet its operational commitments", and adds that it plans to establish a separate partnering deal with Rolls-Royce to support the aircraft's Eurojet EJ200 engines.
Separately, the four-nation Eurofighter industry consortium has announced that chief executive Aloysius Rauen (pictured below at last month's Aero India 2009 show in Bangalore) will leave the company at the end of April. Rauen's departure after a tenure of more than five years comes sooner than expected, and at a time when negotiations continue over the programme's final Tranche 3 production phase.
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© Geoffrey Lee/Eurofighter |
Eurofighter late last year said a contract must be signed in the first quarter of this year to avoid a costly gap in production of the multirole type for Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Rauen has been appointed chairman of German firm Demag Cranes, and Eurofighter says: "Until a decision on a successor is made by the supervisory board, we do not have any further information to offer."
Source: Flight International
