STEWART PENNEY / LONDON
£800 million BAE Systems deal includes 20 firm orders with options on further 24 aircraft
The UK government has selected the BAE Systems Hawk 128 to meet the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy's advanced training needs.
The £800 million ($1.3 billion) deal includes 20 firm orders, for delivery from 2008, and options on another 24, plus initial support. The Ministry of Defence says the through-life cost of the 44 Hawks will be £3.5 billion over 35 years.
Although no formal competition was run, the MoD did seek comparative data for the Aermacchi M346 and Korea Aerospace Industries/ Lockheed Martin T-50. BAE stimulated the procurement with an unsolicited Hawk proposal in 2001.
The deal has been politically sensitive as BAE had placed 470 personnel at its Brough, UK, facility on redundancy notice because of a lack of Hawk orders. The notices were due to become active the day after the decision was announced, but have now been rescinded.
The MoD says it has split the deal as it is still assessing future training needs. The options give it "flexibility" to modify aircraft numbers.
The Hawk 128 is a significant upgrade of the RAF's T1. The new aircraft has a glass cockpit, open architecture avionics based around a BAE Avionics mission computer, as well as the 6,500lb-thrust (29kN) Rolls-Royce Adour 951 engine, in place of the 5,200lb-thrust Adour 151.
Source: Flight International
