The Ascent consortium comprising Lockheed Martin UK and VT was last week named preferred bidder to deliver the UK's tri-service Military Flying Training System (MFTS).
The Ministry of Defence appears to have severely reduced its earlier cost estimates for the 25-year private finance initiative deal. Previously described as an up to £10 billion ($19.3 billion) prize, MFTS now appears to be worth just £6 billion, plus the more than £600 million already awarded to BAE Systems for the development and production of 28 Hawk 128 advanced jet trainers (AJT).
Consortium officials decline to comment on whether they expect contract negotiations for the project to be concluded in time to meet an expected initial service provision date of April 2007.
However, Ascent bid director Jim Keeler says: "Our commitment is that we will do whatever is possible to get to a contract closure as soon as possible."
While the AJT element of the MFTS infrastructure has already been decided, Keeler says all the remaining parts of the framework will be made open to competition, with separate contracts expected for each capability.
To deliver full service provision by April 2012, MFTS will provide crew training across up to 20 disciplines for the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
Source: Flight International
