Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme will be open to wider international involvement once full-scale engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) is launched in April 2001. Meanwhile, efforts are being made to sign the nine nations participating in the concept demonstration phase up to EMD.
"We're looking at everyone that is flying [Lockheed Martin] F-16s, [Boeing] F/A-18s and [British Aerospace/Boeing] Harriers as potential purchasers of this aircraft and then further peeling that list of countries to those that would be good partners in EMD," says John Schreiber, JSF director, international programme. He declines to identify specific nations, however.
Countries not committed to the concept phase have expressed interest in the JSF. They include F/A-18 operators Australia and Spain, while F-16 user Belgium is to decide shortly. France, Germany and Sweden have also been briefed.
Since last March, potential participants have been prevented from joining the programme during the remainder of the concept period, with the exception of Israel, Singapore and Turkey, which have been admitted on a "pay for service" basis. "We've talked to other countries and told them to hold tight until we can get this cemented with the Department of Defense and US Government," says Schreiber.
The programme office is waiting for final approval of its proposed structure for international EMD participation. It will be broadly similar to the multi-tier framework now in place: the UK is a full partner; Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway are associate partners; and Canada and Italy are observers.
Negotiations with the UK, which will be the only full EMD partner, opened in November and are planned to be concluded by September. It has paid $200 million, or 10% of the concept cost, and is likely to have to underwrite a similar proportion of the projected $18-20 billion EMD bill.
"Most of the existing partners have conveyed to us they would like to start the day after the JSF downselect is made. They want to start discussions that will lead to a memorandum of understanding being signed, sealed and delivered the day before or after the start of EMD," says Schreiber.
Source: Flight International
