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UK Leads Growing Backlash Against JSF |
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(Source: defense-aerospace.com; published March 16, 2006)
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(** Corrected; missing text restored)
By Giovanni de Briganti
PARIS --- International partners in the Joint Strike Fighter program are turning up the pressure on the United States, and becoming increasingly vocal in their demands that Washington honor the promises it made at the program’s inception in terms of technology transfer and workload.
Although the ultimatum delivered on March 14 to the Senate Armed Services Committee by British Defence Procurement Minister Lord Drayson is perhaps the most brutally frank to date, other JSF partners are growing dissatisfied with the way the program is progressing. Concerns focus on industrial work-share, access to technology and software codes, and the ability to maintain the aircraft once they have entered service.
“We have not yet decided whether we will stay in the program. We are aware that there are concerns in the US about technology releasibility, but we also see that there are European alternatives [to JSF] where we would have no such problems about access to technology and workshare,” Norwegian State Secretary for Defense Espen Barth Eide told defense-aerospace.com on March 15. “And, even if we do not continue with the JSF’s development, we can always buy the aircraft later,” he said, adding that he had already had talks with Eurofighter GmbH and with Saab AB, to discuss its JAS-39 Gripen.
In uncommonly blunt language, Britain’s Lord Drayson warned the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 14 that “without the technology transfer to give us the confidence to deliver an aircraft fit to fight on our terms, we will not be able to buy these aircraft. I am spelling this out because it is so important to make our intentions clear,” Drayson said.
Australia, which in the past had already expressed concerns about slippage in the JSF’s in-service dates, has now made it clear that it also will demand full access to JSF technology before committing to the next development phase. Australia, a tier II partner in the program, plans to buy about 100 JSF to replace its US-made F-111 strike bombers and F/A-18 fighters.
"Guaranteed access to necessary JSF data and technology to allow Australia to operate and support the JSF will be required before we join the next phase of the project," Australia's defence attaché in Washington, Rear Admiral Raydon Gates, told the US Senate armed services committee on March 14.
Britain’s Drayson also voiced dissatisfaction with the Pentagon’s unilateral decision to cancel the JSF’s F136 alternate engine program, for which Rolls-Royce and partner General Electric were awarded a $2.4 billion contract on Aug.23, 2005, without consulting its partners.
“We expect, as a level 1 partner, to be properly consulted on decisions of this magnitude. As the Minister responsible for the UK defence industrial base, I still wish to see funding for F136 included in the Department of Defense programme.”
Signature of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Production, Sustainment and Follow-On Development phase, which will financially commit partners to buying the JSF, is expected by November.
On the other hand the Netherlands, whose industry to date has received about 400 million euros in JSF orders, have no grievances about work-share, but do have some concerns about the decision to cancel the alternate engine and other issues. “We are quite happy for the moment,” a Dutch MoD spokesman told defense-aerospace.com March 16, and for now we have no concerns about access to technology, although we continue to monitor the situation.”
The Netherlands have other concerns, which are spelled out in a letter to the Senate committee by Dutch State Secretary for Defence Cees van der Knaap. The letter is due to be released on March 17.
Britain and other partners are concerned that, without a waiver from the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), they will not be able to access the software codes and other data that they will need to maintain and upgrade their JSFs. Congress continues to oppose the waiver, and “US Administration officials have concluded that political opposition on Capitol Hill to granting the UK a waiver from ITAR is insurmountable,” the Financial Times reported back in November. Nothing appears to have changed since.
JSF’s other European partners want to organize the “JSF’s European footprint” well in advance of service introduction so as to define how support and maintenance work will be apportioned in Europe. After meeting on March 7 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, JSF program managers from Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey issued a joint statement warning that they will require “a shared European vision of the assembly and sustainment processes, and the support of the initiative by the US authorities and aircraft and engine producers” before committing to the program’s next phase.
While the statement’s wording can appear bland, “you certainly should read much more into it,” Norway’s Eide said. “None of us has yet made a decision on JSF, we are all negotiating the MoU [for the next phase], and Lockheed-Martin and the US Administration would be well-advised to heed us,” he added.
Italy is not opposing cancellation of the JSF's alternate engine. Lt. Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis, Chief of the defense ministry's Department for Armament Programs, told the hearing, "This should be a U.S. decision only, and Italy will adhere to it," the Washington Post reported March 15.
-ends-
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