Douglas Barrie/LONDON
SOUTH AFRICA'S BID for the UK attack-helicopter programme is on the brink of collapse. Denel officials are in London for last-ditch negotiations with the UK Ministry of Defence Procurement Executive (MoD PE) in an attempt to save the bid.
The MoD has set a deadline of 21 February for best final and fixed prices on the attack-helicopter competition. A final decision is due in the middle of the year. The negotiations will determine whether Denel, offering the CSH-2 Rooivalk, will respond.
Denel's bid has been virtually scuttled by a US State Department denial order, which prohibits US companies from collaborating on South African arms programmes, including the Rooivalk. This has prevented the South Africans offering a bid-compliant anti-armour missile and acceptable cockpit avionics.
The denial order, imposed because, under apartheid, South Africa acquired US weapons technology in breach of an embargo, means that Rockwell cannot supply its Hellfire anti-tank weapon. A bid to put the GEC- Marconi Brimstone millimetre-wave seeker head on a Hellfire airframe was also blocked. Denel's attempts to recruit Loral as its cockpit-systems integrator have also failed.
Source: Flight International