Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
THE GEC/BELL Helicopter team has put the final pieces of its Cobra Venom offset in place in the closing stages of the British Army attack-helicopter contest, with an offer by General Electric to place up to £380 million of turbo-shaft engine work in the UK, if the bid succeeds.
GE is offering to make UK-based European Gas Turbines (EGT) the prime supplier of all T700 engines for the Cobra Venom, including exports and any engine upgrades supplied to the US Marine Corps
EGT stands to gain up to £380 million and 850 jobs from the work estimates GEC, which owns the power plant company through its GEC Alsthom joint venture. The estimate is that, on top of the 91 UK helicopters, EGT would also win work on at least another 76 Cobra Venoms for other export markets, with unfunded long-term prospect of re-engineing 105 Cobra UH-1Ns for the USMC.
The offer marks another part of the strategy to link the British Army and USMC attack-helicopter programmes.
Source: Flight International