Douglas Barrie/LONDON

US DEFENCE-electronics specialist Hughes Aircraft is pulling together its UK-based operations under the banner of Hughes (UK), to compete more effectively for Ministry of Defence (MoD) and European business.

The move is being driven in part by two key competitions for air-launched weapons for the Royal Air Force: Staff Requirement (Air) 1236 for a conventionally stand-off missile (CASOM), and Staff Requirement (Air) 1239 for a future medium-range air-to-air missile (FMRAAM).

The company is increasingly keen to emphasise that its UK operation will provide high-value work, rather than being viewed merely as a front for its US parent. Peter Quast, a Hughes vice-president who is heading the UK company says, that it does not want to be seen merely "as a store front".

With recent procurement battles pitched in terms of US versus European defence-industry collaboration, Hughes clearly hopes to be seen by Government as a genuine UK company.

In bidding for the CASOM programme, Hughes (UK) is acting as the prime contractor, and Quast recognises that there is "no substitute for the company being in country". Hughes Missiles are based in Tucson, Arizona, will be a subcontractor to Hughes (UK).

The Hughes (UK) team includes Aerostructures Hamble, Cobham, Delphi Packard Electric Systems, GKN Westland, Hughes Microelectronics Europa, Pilkington Optronics, Royal Naval Armaments Depot (Beith), Smiths Industries Aerospace and Thomson-Thorn Missile Electronics.

The FMRAAM contest, for which Hughes will offer a derivative of its AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, is also likely to involve the company in a struggle to prove its European credentials. It is already believed to have recruited France's Aerospatiale and the UK's Shorts as part of its team.

The competition could boil down to only two candidates, with the other being a powerful European teaming of British Aerospace, Matra and Daimler-Benz Aerospace.

Quast suggests, that the new UK company could also, act as an exporter. "The strategy is to exploit those markets that are best addressed from the UK. There are parts of Asia and the Middle East where these kinds of opportunity are much more readily available," he says.

Source: Flight International