DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) is at loggerheads with the German defence ministry over Euro-fighter funding, as the deadline looms for the presentation to parliament of the 1997 defence budget.
There is still no funding allocated to Euro-fighter production investment in the draft budget, with the cash-strapped ministry hoping to persuade DASA to cover a large chunk of the expected cost of investment itself.
With both sides refusing to budge, fears of a further costly delay to the programme are growing, particularly in the UK, where funding has been approved.
One option said to be under consideration in Bonn is to proceed with production, but at a slower build-up rate.
The ministry is offering to allocate just DM100 million ($65.6 million), short of the DM350 million it originally had planned to set aside for 1997 before the most recent spate of cuts. Programme sources say that the DM350 million figure is the minimum amount needed to go ahead with production investment on time.
The latest offer has been deemed unacceptable by DASA, but there are fears that the ministry is not in a position to offer much more without cutting other programmes. It suffered a DM1.8 billion budget cut in July, and faces further cuts totalling DM7 billion up to 2000. The parliamentary defence and budget committees will consider the draft budget on 9 October, although there are indications that the defence minister may not meet this date.
Source: Flight International