LOCKHEED MARTIN is lobbying the US Navy to commit to the Orion 2000 as its replacement for its Orion P-3Cs before the UK Ministry of Defence chooses its next-generation maritime patrol aircraft in July.
The US manufacturer has teamed with GEC-Marconi and Hunting to compete with British Aerospace/Boeing and Loral for the Royal Air Force's £1 billion ($1.5 million) Staff Requirement (Air) 420 for a replacement maritime-patrol aircraft.
A Department of Defense commitment to the Orion 2000 as a replacement for the USN's 250 P-3s would strengthen considerably the industrial attractiveness of a UK selection of the Orion 2000. Lockheed Martin says that UK companies would have a minimum of a 20% stake in future Orion 2000 sales.
The USN's chief of naval operations has written to the RAF's Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, expressing the USN's continuing interest in the Orion 2000.
The USN is understood to want to see the Orion 2000 enter production before the last of the RAF aircraft would leave the final- assembly line. This would mean USN aircraft being produced by 2005. If the RAF went ahead with the deal, it would receive its first Orion 2000 in 2002, with up to 25 aircraft being procured.
GEC-Marconi will provide the Mission System Avionics (MSA) for the Orion 2000. It is this area, argues Brian Tucker, managing director of GEC-Marconi Aerospace Systems, rather than the maritime-patrol airframe which is strategically important to the UK. The MSA for the Bae bid, based on a upgraded Nimrod MR2, uses a suite from Boeing.
The Lockheed Martin bid guarantees 88% of the aircraft structure would be built in the UK. It would then be shipped to Lockheed Martin for final assembly.
Source: Flight International
