Douglas Barrie/LONDON
WESTLAND HAS secured a £500 million ($780 million) UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) order for a support variant of the Westland/Agusta EH101, with the Government ignoring its avowed preference for open competition in the process.
The UK helicopter maker will deliver the first of 22 EH101s to the Royal Air Force in 1999. Its competitor for the business, Boeing, also won an order for an additional 14 CH-47D Chinooks.
While the RAF and Malcolm McIntosh, the Chief of Defence procurement, wanted to ignore the EH101 in favour of the larger and considerably cheaper CH-47D, they were overruled at ministerial level, even though the US company offered a 200% offset package if it won the entire RAF order.
Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind and Roger Freeman, the defence procurement minister, believe that a EH101 purchase is essential. Freeman describes the decision as "strategic" in protecting the UK's defence industrial base. He does not view the attack-helicopter competition, for which Westland is pushing the McDonnell Douglas AH-64D, in the same light.
The 9 March announcement brought to an end a decade-long procurement struggle which has seen operational requirements change and several helicopters, such as the Sikorsky Black Hawk and Eurocopter-led NH90, come into and out of consideration. Government preference for the Westland product has been clear as far back as 1987, when the then defence minister George Younger declared, somewhat prematurely, that 25 EH101s were to be ordered for the RAF.
The RAF has argued that the EH101 will complicate its logistics and training requirements, by introducing another helicopter type into its inventory. It already operates 30 Chinooks - many of which are being upgraded in a multi-million dollar deal with Boeing.
McIntosh is understood to have stressed that in purely competitive terms the EH101 was not an attractive option, and did not provide "value for money".
The unit cost of a CH-47D is understood to have been about two-thirds of that of the EH101. While in a straight performance comparison it provides twice the lift capability.
Arguing in favour of a mixed purchase, weighted toward the EH101, Rifkind and Freeman point out the additional flexibility provided by their decision. Rifkind says: "The Government has also taken full account of the wider implications for the aircraft industry.
The Royal Navy has already ordered 44 of the anti-submarine versions of the EH101.
Source: Flight International
