STEWART PENNEY / MANCHING
With Tranche 2 talks under way, partner nations call for speedy agreement to make "whole enterprise leaner"
European defence ministers are calling for Eurofighter Typhoon cost cuts of up to 20% in negotiations for Tranche 2 aircraft development.
The partner nations - Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - signed an agreement earlier this year outlining the specification of the next batch of fully multirole fighters.
Eurofighter chief executive Dr Filippo Bagnato says the framework agreement is based on the four nations' common requirements "so we have better confidence of harmonising the resources of government and industry".
UK defence procurement minister Lord Willie Bach says the Eurofighter nations "expect industry to continue to improve". He foresees a 15-20% cost improvement, while UK chief of defence procurement Sir Peter Spencer says: "We've yet to agree. My gut feeling is [the saving] will be rather bigger than 10%… but the key is getting into place an agreement quickly so industry can get on with it. Current agreements reflect the situation a decade ago."
Government management agency NETMA and Eurofighter are heavily manned and complex processes are in place, "so there is a drive to make the whole enterprise leaner… we need more modern contracts with fewer milestones and more incentivisation," Spencer adds.
Air Vice Marshal Dil Williams, until recently head of the UK Ministry of Defence's Eurofighter integrated project team, says the specification of the 236 Tranche 2 aircraft has been defined and that "there will be lessons learned from Tranche 1 [production] that we will work to capitalise on".
The Typhoon is the largest single element of the UK's defence equipment programme, and is believed to account for 20% of the budget.
Industry has begun to streamline the programme, transforming Eurofighter GmbH from a consortium company to a true prime contractor over the last year, says Bagnato.
Source: Flight International
