STEWART PENNEY / LONDON
Pressure to improve programme's performance leads to change in organisation as search for chief executive starts
The consortia companies created to manage, produce and export the Eurofighter are to be merged into a single organisation to act as a true prime contractor. The move is in response to pressure to improve the programme's performance.
Sources say the intention is to announce the move at next week's Farnborough air show, but this could be delayed as the selection of a chief executive and other details have not been finalised. The move has been briefed internally and to the customer nations - Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Until now the company responsible for developing, producing and supporting the multirole fighter, Eurofighter GmbH, has had to seek approval for its actions from the four Eurofighter partner companies (EPC) - Alenia, BAE Systems, EADS Casa and EADS Germany. This has caused delays and made programme management difficult, say the sources.
Under the proposal, already agreed by the EPCs, the chief executive will have responsibility for all aspects of the programme, and will manage the organisation as a separate entity. "This gets away from referring decisions to the EPCs," says a source. The chief executive will create a new organisation in Munich combining the GmbH with the Eurofighter International (EFI)sales support organisation: "This is just common sense," adds a source.
Industry sources say each EPC has put forward potential chief executive names, but political in-fighting, principally between BAE and EADS Germany, is delaying a selection. This could lead to an Italian chief executive being picked, which is seen by some as a compromise solution. It would also be the first time Eurofighter development and production has been led by a non-BAE secondee.
One source says, however, that the intention is to move away from assigning key jobs to specific nationalities, as has been the practice in the past. In addition, says the source, instead of allocating work on the basis of strict workshare it will be placed with "centres of excellence" within the EPCs.
Although there have been previous attempts to change Eurofighter into a true prime contractor, sources says this time the deal is likely to succeed because of pressure from customers to improve the programme's performance.
One source says this is the customers' best chance to force a change as they are able to apply sustained pressure on the EPCs just ahead of service entry, due later this year. Once the fighter is delivered, "there will be less pressure", he says.
Source: Flight International
