The UAE should have completed its purchase of five Hawkeye 2000 airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft by the end of the year, the aircraft's manufacturer Northrop Grumman believes.
The aircraft are ex-US Navy E-2Cs previously stored at Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona but have been moved to undergo extensive refurbishment to Hawkeye 2000 standard.
"In fact," said David Stafford, Northrop Grumman sector vice-president, business and strategy development at the show yesterday, "they're taking it a little beyond Hawkeye 2000 in terms of the way they'll be equipped, in terms of the connectivity issue."
This includes Link 16 to enable the Hawkeyes to talk to the UAE's new Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 60 fleet, and LU-2, to do the same job with the Gulf nation's Dassault Mirage 2000s.
Solid
The deal, worth around $350 million for the aircraft plus a support package and training, has come together with remarkable speed. "We started with a request from the UAE in May 2002. We moved the Foreign Military Sales case through and delivered and negotiated the proposal. There are just a few government-to-government issues being worked through right now and none of them are very major. We believe it will be solid by the end of the year."
Delivery of the first aircraft is scheduled for first quarter 2006, the last by first quarter 2008.
Adel Al-Redha, Emirates executive vice-president of engineering and operations, said: "This will allow Emirates to increase its maintenance capability and to offer services to other airlines worldwide."
Source: Flight Daily News
