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发帖数: 10330 | 1 Eurofighter to bid in new South Korea fighter contest: EADS
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/26/us-eurofighter-to-bid
PARIS | Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:45am EDT
(Reuters) - Europe's Eurofighter will bid again to sell fighter jets to
South Korea after the country's government cancelled a contest that U.S.
rival Boeing (BA.N) was poised to win, the head of European aerospace group
EADS (EAD.PA) said on Thursday.
Seoul rejected Boeing's (BA.N) bid to supply 60 warplanes on Tuesday, saying
it would restart the multi-billion-dollar process to get a more advanced,
radar-evading fighter.
Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle, the only bid within budget, had been poised to
win the $7.7 billion tender after competing with Lockheed Martin's (LMT.N) F
-35A and the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Lockheed's F-35 is now widely seen as the front-runner, but Enders said
Eurofighter would fight to stay in the race.
"We know it is very difficult to score in Korea against our strong U.S.
competitors, but (we) never ever give up," EADS Chief Executive Tom Enders
told Reuters.
"It is worth a try because we have a very good product now, much more mature
than about 10 years ago, and when you compare us with the competitors the F
-15 is much older and the F-35 is not - to put it mildly - really
operational," he said.
EADS has been leading the bidding in South Korea on behalf of fellow
Eurofighter consortium members BAE Systems (BAES.L) of the UK and Italy's
Finmeccanica.
Enders denied reports that Eurofighter's earlier bid had not complied with
the rules of the South Korean tender.
"We do think it was compliant and I think we have successfully corrected the
picture that some people may have had," Enders said.
Eurofighter's Typhoon was ruled out for going over the South Korean finance
ministry's budget. Under South Korean law, only bids under budget are
eligible to win defence contracts.
Asked after giving a speech on transatlantic security whether Eurofighter
would re-compete in a new tender, Enders said, "Yes absolutely. The fact
that Boeing was rejected is not bad news for us."
The South Korean government and air force are expected to draw up a fresh
tender process and consider a new budget, possibly reducing the number of
planes sought to 40 or 50.
The defence ministry said on Tuesday it could take around one year to
complete the new tender round.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by David Evans) |
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