US Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is redoubling its efforts to forge a transatlantic military-transport partnership in the wake of Germany's shock move in proposing the Antonov An-70 as the basis of the Future Large Aircraft (FLA) (Flight International, 15-21 October).
Senior Lockheed Martin officials believe that Germany's advocacy of the An-70 as the basis for an FLA airframe has opened the door for alternative solutions to the European requirement. They say that exploratory talks have been held with FLA partner states.
The An-70 is being championed by German defence minister Volker Rühe. His support for an An-70-based FLA has exasperated management at Airbus, which is overseeing the FLA project, and is met with little enthusiasm by other FLA member states.
The UK Ministry of Defence has been particularly unimpressed by Rühe's scheme. Whitehall sources believe that the An-70 is completely unacceptable to the MoD to meet its future airlift requirement. The An-70 has previously been considered as an FLA option, but discarded.
Besides issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to Airbus for the FLA, the UK MoD also intends to release the RFP to Lockheed Martin and Boeing for alternative solutions to its airlift requirement.
Lockheed Martin and Airbus Industrie have previously held negotiations on a wide-ranging industrial collaboration, but these have so far come to nothing. Lockheed Martin, however, has not given up in its attempts to what company officials describe as the potential for a "joint partnership".
The US company is working on a future military transport aircraft under the auspices of its New Strategic Airlifter (NSA) project. This study examines a variety of designs, including joined-wing platforms, which could address European, Japanese and US transport and tanker aircraft requirements in the first two decades of the next century.
The company believes that a joint FLA project could run in parallel with its NSA programme, with the two designs perhaps sharing common components.
There is much speculation in political circles that Germany's support for the An-70 may in part be driven by concerns that Russia and Ukraine will be unable to make debt repayments on loans.
Source: Flight International
