Third time lucky? That would appear to be the case when it comes to the latest US attempt to enter the Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS) in the UK's Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) competition. Having been kicked out on two previous occasions, some transatlantic political finessing has seen the J-STARS re-introduced into the contest.
Perhaps bullying might be a more appropriate description of US efforts to force the J-STARS not only into service with the armed forces of the UK, but also those of Europe, in the shape of NATO's Air-to- Ground Surveillance requirement.
The UK Government's decision to allow the J-STARS back into the ASTOR competition is unfortunate in that not only does it appear to short-cut the competitive procurement process, it also sets a poor precedent with its European allies.
The UK's previous decision to rule out the J-STARS from its own battlefield-surveillance competition on technical grounds had bolstered French and German arguments that a Boeing 707-based solution to NATO's similar requirement was not appropriate.
At an industrial level, Europe may be in danger of running scared of emerging US defence aerospace giants such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The new UK Government's apparent desire to acquiesce to US wishes by allowing the J-STARS back into the ASTOR competition will hardly inspire confidence in the UK as a bastion of European solidarity.
The reward for tearing up the competitive rule-book remains uncertain, but the assumption must be that there is a quid quo pro. One possibility is that a project to co-develop a variant of the J-STARS, which could be based around the Bombardier Global Express airframe - to the benefit of the UK's Shorts - will be bought by the US Department of Defense to supplement its trimmed-back E-8 fleet.
With the UK Government in the midst of a defence review, the option of a joint programme with the Pentagon is likely to appear to UK industry as little more than a barely concealed attempt to make savings.
The US refusal to accept that France, Germany or the UK may not wish to acquire the J-STARS is firmly rooted in domestic politics, and in particular the politics of employment. The E-8 J-STARS programme was hit in the latest round of Pentagon force reductions, and in trying to protect jobs, the Clinton Administration is hoping to fill out Northrop Grumman's modification line with J-STARS derivatives destined for the UK and NATO.
At a political level, the UK Ministry of Defence appears to have found it expedient to once again open the door to a J-STARS-based solution, while at the operational requirement level, the large, 707-based J-STARS clearly does not meet the UK requirement.
At an industrial level, it also raises the question as to whether the two contenders which were selected for the final competition - Lockheed Martin and Raytheon - are now competing on a level playing field. Can the UK MoD distance itself from the J-STARS bid sufficiently to produce a properly balanced decision?
Similar concerns were voiced over the Royal Air Force's Conventional Stand-off Missile (CASOM) programme. On this occasion, it was the spectre of French, rather than US, political muscle, which haunted the other competitors. Matra BAe Dynamics won - doing little to quell concerns that companies can spend millions of dollars on bids which may be destined from the outset only for the procurement executive's dustbin. The J-STARS affair will only re-inforce this perception.
The dubious benefits of a politically motivated approach to procurement are at best short-sighted and at the worst critically damaging to the competitive process if the UK MoD and the Government want to continue to pay even lip-service to the concept. After all, companies will only commit to funding competitive bids if they see fair play.
Source: Flight International
