Raytheon and the US Government's offer to give the UK a 50% share in future missile development if the US company's Extended Range Air-to-Air Missile plus is selected to arm the Royal Air Force's Eurofighters could make the selection of a winner of the Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM) competition a defining moment for transatlantic defence trade.
On the other hand, it could set Euro-US industrial rifts ablaze. For the offer to share future air-to-air missile development with the UK exposes both Raytheon and the US Government to accusations from the European camp that they are trying to destroy independent European weapons capabilities and establish a global monopoly.
Even more emotive is the issue of Eurofighter Typhoon exports as the USA is likely to restrict sales of Europe's four-nation multirole fighter by stopping the export of a weapons package containing US-built munitions.
Opting for the European Meteor missile instead of Raytheon's ERAAM plus - as Matra BAe Dynamics and its partners in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and possibly Sweden hope - would provide a project around which Europe's guided weapons industry could coalesce. Matra BAe Dynamics is already the largest guided weapons company in Europe, housing all of the missile interests of British Aerospace and France's Aerospatiale and Matra. Soon Europe's second largest and a Meteor partner, Anglo-Italian group Alenia Marconi Systems, will be aligning with Matra BAe through the BAe and Marconi Electronic Systems merger. The UK aerospace and defence giant already owns stakes in Meteor allies, Saab of Sweden and Germany's LFK.
Conversely, it could be argued that Europe's missile-makers are already strong bedfellows and that if joint programmes like the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) cannot spur the consolidation, then nothing will.
BAe argues that Raytheon, with US Government assistance, is simply attempting to destroy any chance Europe has of developing a missile that will challenge the US monopoly on Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) -type missiles.
But Raytheon retorts that it offers the UK and European associate nations a far bigger missile market and guaranteed development over the next 20 years to maintain the weapon's advantage over any future threats. Between them, the US Air Force and Navy have a roadmap for AMRAAM development out to 2015.
And far from impeding Eurofighter sales, the US company argues, a joint Typhoon/AMRAAM development is more likely to aid exports. Raytheon adds that it is better to have 50% of a 15,000 advanced air-to-air missile market than 100% of a 5,000 missile market.
The UK Government's decision is not an easy one, not least because the BVRAAM order will in one blow define how the RAF is armed well into the next century and how the international guided weapons industry is to develop over the next 40 years.
No matter what, the UK must ensure that it does not become a hostage to fortune. It cannot allow aircraft exports to be compromised by the politics surrounding its weapons package. It cannot risk significant delays in service introduction of its next generation air-to-air missile because of funding or development disputes which have plagued all collaborative programmes in the past. And it cannot risk sidelining itself with limited ability to continue missile development work at a time when the UK industry is at the centre of Europe's guided weapons future. The RAF, most important of all, must be assured of a missile development capability which can leapfrog potential threats as well as fulfil its own operational needs.
Confronted by a cheaper and attractive technology-sharing package on one hand and a programme which could increase risk and cost but maintain an independent missile capability and strengthen the UK's Euro-credentials on the other, UK decision-makers will be divided. Are they ready to test once and for all the potential to create real Euro-US industrial partnerships, brokering a deal which paves the way for genuine two-way technology transfer and a commitment on both sides of the Atlantic to equitable transatlantic defence trade.
Source: Flight International
