HUGHES AND GEC are to unveil an agreement covering the latter's participation on the Hughes AirHawk bid for the UK Ministry of Defence's conventional stand-off-missile requirement before the end of May.
While GEC is trying to play down the significance of the tie-up, Hughes is understood to view the linkage as providing its team with the "big UK missile name", which it has lacked.
GEC-Marconi is offering the Pegasus to the MoD, a variant of the Centaur stand-off missile being offered to the United Arab Emirates. The company has unofficially been informed by the MoD that its own bid is unlikely to be selected. This prompted speculation that it wants GEC to reposition itself within one or more other bids.
Although the initial agreement covers only the AirHawk, Hughes may also look to offer GEC involvement in the seeker element of its bid to meet the UK's requirement for a next-generation air-to-air missile for the Eurofighter EF2000.
Source: Flight International