Andrew Doyle and Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
THE UK'S SHARE of the Eurofighter EF2000 combat-aircraft programme is now £1.25 billion ($1.94 billion) over budget and three years behind schedule, according to figures from the UK Government's spending watchdog.
The mounting costs of the programme are detailed in a report by the National Audit Office, which compares the current spending approved by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), against its original estimates. So far, the UK has earmarked £4.1 billion for the EF2000 development phase, now nearly 44% above the original MoD estimate which was made in 1984. The total cost of the programme to the UK is now being put at £15.4 billion, with the unit production cost for 250 aircraft being put at £38 million.
The report reveals that, during 1995, the costs grew by £124 million, because of updates on the armaments systems, and the EF2000 programme consequently slipped by a further year, pushing the in-service date back to 2001.
The bulk of the over-spending and delays, however, has come from the £407 million cost of the re-orientation measures which are needed to keep Germany in the four-nation programme.
Another £119 million was also added to the UK overspending on the EH Industries EH101 Merlin anti-submarine helicopter, bringing the total overrun to £351 million since its original development-approval in 1982. The loss of two pre-production aircraft has contributed to the escalating costs and delayed the in-service date by five years.
The most severe overspending among the major projects has come from the Royal Air Force's Tornado GR1 mid-life-update programme, which is running at nearly 60% above initial cost estimates and is five years late.
Taking into account projected under-spending, on the UK's major missiles and Skynet military satellite projects, the total overrun on the MoD's main aerospace programmes is now at £1.8 billion.
Source: Flight International