Bombardier is negotiating to join one of the remaining three teams bidding for the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) after its Firstwave consortium was forced to withdraw following decisions by partners BAE Systems and Serco not to participate.
BAE withdrew from the competition to select a training systems integrator for the £12.5 billion ($22.9 billion) UKMFTS programme in April, citing concern over the high level of risk to be borne by the winning team (Flight International, 20-26 April). Last month Serco followed suit, blaming uncertainty over whether the UKMFTS private finance initiative would proceed as planned.
With concept system design contracts worth a combined £6 million due to be awarded by mid-year, three consortia remain: Ascent - Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce and VT Group; Boeing and Thales Defence; and Vector - Kellogg Brown & Root and EG&G/Lear Siegler.
Ian Milani, Bombardier UKMFTS project director, believes Bombardier "has something valuable to add" after setting up and operating the NATO Flying Training in Canada programme. "We considered reforming a team, but there was limited time available and we would have had to requalify to bid," he says.
Source: Flight International
