The Royal Air Force is planning to cut its European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) military-transport requirement to only 25 aircraft - half the initial Ministry of Defence (MoD) commitment that up to 50 aircraft could be ordered.
The proposed cut, confirmed by the MoD, is the result of continuing studies into the RAF's long-term airlift capability. The reduction has still to be ratified at a political level. The move is once again focusing concerns about the Airbus FLA programme.
Senior RAF officers remain concerned over the repeated delays to the launch of the development and production phase of the FLA. The RAF needs to replace its remaining Lockheed Martin C-130Hs by 2004-5. It is increasingly doubtful whether the FLA programme can meet this date.
Major FLA partners France and Germany have yet to resolve national funding issues concerning the project. Both countries are struggling to maintain defence-procurement plans against a background of fiscal austerity as they seek to meet the financial criteria to allow them to launch a single European currency in 1999. Meanwhile, the French, in particular, are trying to patch up a deal involving private financing.
Sources close to the FLA project are raising concerns as to whether the drop in the UK requirement may lead to the total number of FLA aircraft to be produced falling below a "viable threshold". France, Germany, Italy and Spain, which are leading the programme, originally expected to have a production run of more than 300 aircraft.
The 50-aircraft procurement was based on the assumption that the FLA would also be the main replacement for the RAF's Vickers VC10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar tanker/transport fleet. This is no longer the case.
Within the MoD there is a growing view that the RAF requires a "strategic-lift" capability and that the VC10s and TriStars will eventually need to be replaced with a similarly sized, turbofan-powered aircraft. The FLA was originally planned to have turbofan engines, but these were dropped in favour of turboprops.
Airbus is also preparing a proposal offering the MoD its Multi-Role Tanker Transport concept, which can be applied to several of the larger civil Airbus designs. The defence ministry says that it is expecting to receive such a proposal in the second or third quarter of this year.
Transport requirements have been brought into sharp relief by the creation of the Joint Rapid Deployment Force. As pointed out by one military source, it is not really "rapid" when outsize loads such as armoured vehicles have to go by ship or rail.
McDonnell Douglas is also keen to provide the RAF with a heavy airlift capability and is offering the C-17 Globemaster III. A ten-year lease offer for six aircraft, costing around $32 million a month, is understood to have been proposed.
The MoD is looking at the possibility of using a private-finance initiative and sharing the C-17 aircraft with a UK cargo operator (Flight International, 5-11 February). Lockheed Martin has also being trying to persuade the partners to abandon the FLA in favour of a joint programme aimed at replacing the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter.
Source: Flight International
