Douglas Barrie/LONDON
THE UK MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) has asked all seven contenders for the Royal Air Force's conventional stand-off missile (CASOM) requirement what advantages would accrue from commonality if a second nation procured a similar system.
A letter to all bidders for Staff Requirement (Air) 1236, some of which are also contesting similar programmes in several countries, was recently despatched.
The US competitors (Texas Instruments, with a long-range variant of the Joint Stand-Off Weapon; Hughes, offering its Air Hawk; and McDonnell Douglas, proposing the Grand SLAM) are all likely competitors for the US Department of Defense's Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-Off Missile (JASSM) programme.
Daimler-Benz, offering the KEPD 350 for the CASOM, may also propose a smaller variant for a Swedish air force requirement, while GEC-Marconi, with its Pegasus, could also win business in the United Arab Emirates. Matra, meanwhile, has a contract with the French defence ministry for a long-range Apache derivative and is selling the weapon to Germany, while Rafael is likely to sell its Popeye Turbo to the Israeli air force.
Claims that the UK and the USA are seeking to merge the JASSM and CASOM requirements into a joint programme are denied by the UK MoD and industry sources.
The MoD says that talks with "a number of countries" are intended to explore possible "mutual benefits". It adds: "There is no intention to go for a joint venture."
UK officials have already met their US counterparts twice for discussions, with a further meeting due this month. The UK MoD says that this is "a normal feature of the tender-assessment phase" where there is perceived project commonality.
The UK MoD intends to make a decision, on which of the seven contenders will be awarded the SR (A) 1236 contract, by July 1996. Only in the wake of this, would any action on programme commonality be taken say sources.
Source: Flight International
