cyrilranch
23rd Apr 2012, 19:37
LONDON — A scheme to award a contractor a 20-year deal to provide and support a fleet of new helicopters to train British military crews has become the latest victim of the ongoing round of budget cuts being pushed through by the Ministry of Defence.
Industry sources here said two consortiums vying for what could be a contract worth more than 400 million pounds ($641.6 million) as part of the Military Flying Training System (MFTS) program had been informed that the rotary-wing portion of the project is on ice for the foreseeable future and may be canceled.
A similar competition for fixed-wing aircraft was approved by the MoD’s Investment Appraisal Committee when it met last week to consider the future of the two key elements of the MFTS program.
Together, the two service provision deals were reckoned to be worth about 1 billion pounds over the life of the program.
The moves must still be approved by senior officials in the MoD and the Treasury, which has to approve virtually all defense spending plans these days.
MFTS is a 25-year, multibillion-pound public-private partnership deal awarded in 2008 to the Lockheed Martin UK and Babcock joint venture Ascent Flight Training to design and run a comprehensive flying training scheme for all pilots and other crew members across the three armed services.
Ascent’s contract covers aircraft, the ground-based training environment, infrastructure and financing.
Some aircraft, like the Hawk T2, are government-provided. The majority of the fixed- and rotary-wing machines supplied under the two competitions would have been new.
Once valued over its lifetime at nearly 6 billion pounds, concerns about the scope of the MFTS deal have resulted from massive cuts, particularly to fast jet fleet numbers, in response to reductions in defense spending ordered by the government’s 2010 strategic defense and security review.
Helicopter crew training numbers are also expected to decline as part of the Future Force 2020 restructuring of the military.
In the rotor-wing program, local helicopter builder AgustaWestland had been pitted against a consortium of Eurocopter, CAE and FB Heliservices in a competition running for more than a year.
Neither side had revealed the type or number of helicopters it intended to offer to Ascent ahead of a request for detailed proposals.
The winner would have funded purchase of the machines and provided support for a fleet of helicopters to replace the AS350BB Squirrel and Griffon Bell 412EP used by the FB Heliservices-run Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS) at Shawbury.
A spokesman for Ascent confirmed the plan to award a service provision deal in the helicopter sector is off the agenda for now.
“We understand that the U.K. MFTS program has been carefully considered by the Investment Appraisal Committee who, in light of pressures on public spending, has concluded that capital investment into the rotary-wing element of the program can be safely deferred for some years,” he said.
The spokesman said the move would “de-conflict the investment of fixed-wing and rotary-wing training and give additional time to understand the benefits that might accrue from an end-to-end approach for the rotary-wing training component. Studies will commence shortly to analyze the best implementation of rotary-wing training to begin under U.K. MFTS post-2016. In the meantime, training will continue at the Defence Helicopter Flying School.”
The decision to shelve the rotary training helicopter is expected to figure among the cuts soon to be announced by Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond as part of an MoD effort to balance its books in the 2012-13 financial year and beyond — a process known here as Planning Round 12.
An MoD spokeswoman declined to respond directly to questions about the MFTS but said: “We are currently finalizing the 2012-13 budget and balancing the Equipment Plan. As part of this process we are reviewing all programs. The defense secretary will announce the outcome of this process to Parliament in due course.”
Rumors have been around for some time that the rotary-wing service provision deal may be delayed.
But one industry executive said, “It is a surprise the whole thing has been kicked into touch. I would have put money on a delay while they did more studies for 12-18 months.”
Speculation that something was afoot was heightened when Ascent announced earlier this year that the deal to extend FB Heliservices’ running of the DHFS had been extended by four years starting April 1. The 193 million-pound deal, which also has two one-year extensions taking it out to 2018, includes upgrades to the two helicopter types used by the flying school.
DHFS was to have become part of the triservice MFTS program but will now remain outside the scheme.
FB Heliservices, which has run DHFS for 15 years, is jointly owned by Cobham and Bristow Helicopters.
Meanwhile, the fixed-wing service provision competition is expected to move forward this summer with the issue of a detailed request for proposals from Ascent to three contenders.
Ascent is looking for a service provider for basic, intermediate and advanced and multi-engine aircraft types. A preferred bidder could be named by the end of the year.
BAE is leading a team including Babcock, Pilatus and Gama Aviation. A joint Elbit Systems/KBR team and a consortium of CAE, Cobham and EADS Cassidian are expected to provide the opposition.
A spokeswoman for Cassidian declined to say whether CAE and Cobham remain part of the consortium known as Team C3.
BAE is the only one of the three contenders to declare all the aircraft types it will bid. The company last year said it would upgrade the Grob trainers used by the British for basic training, offer Cessna’s Citation Mustang for multiengine training and the Pilatus PC-21 for intermediate and advanced training.
MFTS already provides the military with several elements of pilot and crew training, including rear crew training on four new B350ER King Air special mission aircraft provided by Hawker Beechcraft.
U.K. May Ditch Plan for New Helo Trainers | Defense News | defensenews.com (http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120423/DEFREG01/304230003/U-K-May-Ditch-Plan-New-Helo-Trainers?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE)
Industry sources here said two consortiums vying for what could be a contract worth more than 400 million pounds ($641.6 million) as part of the Military Flying Training System (MFTS) program had been informed that the rotary-wing portion of the project is on ice for the foreseeable future and may be canceled.
A similar competition for fixed-wing aircraft was approved by the MoD’s Investment Appraisal Committee when it met last week to consider the future of the two key elements of the MFTS program.
Together, the two service provision deals were reckoned to be worth about 1 billion pounds over the life of the program.
The moves must still be approved by senior officials in the MoD and the Treasury, which has to approve virtually all defense spending plans these days.
MFTS is a 25-year, multibillion-pound public-private partnership deal awarded in 2008 to the Lockheed Martin UK and Babcock joint venture Ascent Flight Training to design and run a comprehensive flying training scheme for all pilots and other crew members across the three armed services.
Ascent’s contract covers aircraft, the ground-based training environment, infrastructure and financing.
Some aircraft, like the Hawk T2, are government-provided. The majority of the fixed- and rotary-wing machines supplied under the two competitions would have been new.
Once valued over its lifetime at nearly 6 billion pounds, concerns about the scope of the MFTS deal have resulted from massive cuts, particularly to fast jet fleet numbers, in response to reductions in defense spending ordered by the government’s 2010 strategic defense and security review.
Helicopter crew training numbers are also expected to decline as part of the Future Force 2020 restructuring of the military.
In the rotor-wing program, local helicopter builder AgustaWestland had been pitted against a consortium of Eurocopter, CAE and FB Heliservices in a competition running for more than a year.
Neither side had revealed the type or number of helicopters it intended to offer to Ascent ahead of a request for detailed proposals.
The winner would have funded purchase of the machines and provided support for a fleet of helicopters to replace the AS350BB Squirrel and Griffon Bell 412EP used by the FB Heliservices-run Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS) at Shawbury.
A spokesman for Ascent confirmed the plan to award a service provision deal in the helicopter sector is off the agenda for now.
“We understand that the U.K. MFTS program has been carefully considered by the Investment Appraisal Committee who, in light of pressures on public spending, has concluded that capital investment into the rotary-wing element of the program can be safely deferred for some years,” he said.
The spokesman said the move would “de-conflict the investment of fixed-wing and rotary-wing training and give additional time to understand the benefits that might accrue from an end-to-end approach for the rotary-wing training component. Studies will commence shortly to analyze the best implementation of rotary-wing training to begin under U.K. MFTS post-2016. In the meantime, training will continue at the Defence Helicopter Flying School.”
The decision to shelve the rotary training helicopter is expected to figure among the cuts soon to be announced by Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond as part of an MoD effort to balance its books in the 2012-13 financial year and beyond — a process known here as Planning Round 12.
An MoD spokeswoman declined to respond directly to questions about the MFTS but said: “We are currently finalizing the 2012-13 budget and balancing the Equipment Plan. As part of this process we are reviewing all programs. The defense secretary will announce the outcome of this process to Parliament in due course.”
Rumors have been around for some time that the rotary-wing service provision deal may be delayed.
But one industry executive said, “It is a surprise the whole thing has been kicked into touch. I would have put money on a delay while they did more studies for 12-18 months.”
Speculation that something was afoot was heightened when Ascent announced earlier this year that the deal to extend FB Heliservices’ running of the DHFS had been extended by four years starting April 1. The 193 million-pound deal, which also has two one-year extensions taking it out to 2018, includes upgrades to the two helicopter types used by the flying school.
DHFS was to have become part of the triservice MFTS program but will now remain outside the scheme.
FB Heliservices, which has run DHFS for 15 years, is jointly owned by Cobham and Bristow Helicopters.
Meanwhile, the fixed-wing service provision competition is expected to move forward this summer with the issue of a detailed request for proposals from Ascent to three contenders.
Ascent is looking for a service provider for basic, intermediate and advanced and multi-engine aircraft types. A preferred bidder could be named by the end of the year.
BAE is leading a team including Babcock, Pilatus and Gama Aviation. A joint Elbit Systems/KBR team and a consortium of CAE, Cobham and EADS Cassidian are expected to provide the opposition.
A spokeswoman for Cassidian declined to say whether CAE and Cobham remain part of the consortium known as Team C3.
BAE is the only one of the three contenders to declare all the aircraft types it will bid. The company last year said it would upgrade the Grob trainers used by the British for basic training, offer Cessna’s Citation Mustang for multiengine training and the Pilatus PC-21 for intermediate and advanced training.
MFTS already provides the military with several elements of pilot and crew training, including rear crew training on four new B350ER King Air special mission aircraft provided by Hawker Beechcraft.
U.K. May Ditch Plan for New Helo Trainers | Defense News | defensenews.com (http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120423/DEFREG01/304230003/U-K-May-Ditch-Plan-New-Helo-Trainers?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE)