DefenceNews: U.K. Drops JSF Weapons Upgrade, Reduces Programs
Britain has dropped a key weapon upgrade package from the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and reduced the numbers or capabilities of equipment purchased on several major programs, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) published Nov. 25 has revealed.... the biggest cost-saving measure the report reveals is a 659 million pound reduction in planned JSF spending. Some 368 million pounds of that resulted from an MoD decision to ax, for the time being, the Block IV weapon upgrade planned for the aircraft around 2022.
The ministry declined to state which weapons that will affect. However, analysts said plans to integrate the Storm Shadow cruise missile, Brimstone anti-armor weapon and Selective Precision Effects At Range weapon on the joint Royal Air Force/Navy aircraft may have been put on the back burner. Raytheon’s AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), Paveway IV precision-guided bomb and the MBDA Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile have been earmarked by the MoD for the aircraft when it enters service around 2014. Now it looks as though those weapons will arm JSF until at least 2025.....
Hopes that Britain’s JSF force will eventually be equipped with the MBDA-developed Meteor also have been muddied following news of the Block IV decision. The MoD never committed to Meteor on JSF, but has considered it as a longer-term option, perhaps even as part of Block IV. However, an MoD spokesman said Nov. 21, “There are no plans, no funds and no intentions to consider the [Meteor] missile” for the Joint Combat Aircraft.
That took MBDA by surprise. A spokesman said the company “is not in a position to comment, as we are not aware of any decision from the U.K. MoD.”
Meteor already is slated for service on British Eurofighter Typhoons, and the goal was to have a single BVRAAM type in the British inventory. The government agreed to an interim deal last year with Raytheon to continue supplying AMRAAMs for the Tornado F3 and Typhoon until Meteor enters service in 2012.
Sidelining Meteor on JSF for the foreseeable future would be a blow to MBDA. British integration of the weapon on what could become the modern era’s most successful fighter program is a key step in the European missile maker’s battle for supremacy with Raytheon in the air-to-air market. Britain is the lead nation in the pan-European program to design and build Meteor. The weapon has been selected by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain for the Typhoon, by France for the Rafale and by Sweden for the Gripen. All those nations are partners in Meteor. The MBDA design beat out an advanced version of AMRAAM in a bruising battle for the British contract to arm Typhoon and later possibly the JSF.
In September, MBDA reported it had redesigned the Meteor’s fin configuration to make it easier to integrate on British JSFs.
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