From the Sunday Times
Airbus bid to snatch copter deal
A ROW over a £3 billion military helicopter contract is set to deepen with the intervention of Airbus, the European commercial aircraft maker.
Airbus is offering to take on British engineers currently employed by Agusta Westland, the Italian helicopter company, at the famous Westland helicopter plant at Yeovil.
EADS, Airbus’s parent company, hopes the jobs offer might stop the Ministry of Defence awarding the contract to Agusta without considering a competing bid from Eurocopter, EADS’s own helicopter maker.
Defence industry sources believe the MoD is planning to announce before the general election an “industrial partnership” with Agusta that will give it the lion’s share of a £3 billion order for several types of helicopter over the next decade.
Without the UK order, Agusta could be forced to make up to 1,000 staff at the Yeovil factory redundant. The redundancies could prove damaging to the government if announced before the election.
Eurocopter submitted a set of proposals for the helicopter order to the Defence Procurement Agency late last week. It is understood to be offering savings of up to £1 billion for the supply and support of helicopters over a 20-year period, and has promised to invest in new facilities at Yeovil should it be chosen.