Douglas Barrie/LONDON Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
THE UK AND USA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 20 December committing the UK to take part in the four-year concept demonstration phase of the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) programme to develop a future strike fighter.
Under the MoU, the UK will contribute £130 million ($200 million), some 10% of the concept demonstration phase costs, to the project. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is hoping that the advanced short take-off and vertical landing (ASTOVL) JAST will meet the Royal Navy's British Aerospace Sea Harrier FA/2 replacement needs.
The MoD was forced to renegotiate the MoU covering the F/A2 replacement when the US Department of Defense (DoD) merged the JAST and ASTOVL programmes.
The MoD says: "Our involvement is limited to the concept demonstrator phase. Following this we will then decide whether to go ahead with the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the JAST programme."
While the MoD would not discuss the MoU in detail, it confirms that it "...allows for UK companies to compete for work within the JAST programme". This covers both the ASTOVL and conventional variants. Both British Aerospace, teamed with McDonnell Douglas and Rolls Royce stand to benefit, from the JAST programme.
The DoD has also awarded Pratt & Whitney a $30 million contract to support the JAST concept-demonstration phase, scheduled to begin in October.
All three contractors working on JAST designs have based their proposed concept-demonstrator aircraft around P&W's F119 engine, under development for the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22.
Under its 11-month contract, P&W will provide preliminary-design support and procure long-lead items for engines required by the JAST teams.
The plans call for two concept-demonstration contracts, under which competing teams will build conventional take-off and landing and short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variants of their designs.
The three JAST contractors are pursuing different STOVL propulsion concepts (Flight International, 13-19 December, 1995, P26). Boeing is working on a direct-lift design, using a refanned F119 with two-dimensional thrust-vectoring propulsion nozzle and swiveling, retractable, lift nozzles. Lockheed Martin's design uses a lift fan, shaft driven by a modified F119 fitted with a vectoring lift/cruise nozzle. MDC's lift-plus-lift/cruise concept combines an unmodified F119, with separate lift and cruise nozzles, with a General Electric/Allison lift engine.
The GE/Allison team has a received a $7 million contract to study derivatives of GE's F110 and F120 engines as alternatives to the F119 for use in the production Joint Strike Fighter aircraft expected to emerge from the JAST concept-demonstration programme.
Source: Flight International
