13-SEP-2007 08:17
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The UK government is trying to reduce, delay or entirely cancel a 5 bln stg order for 88 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from a consortium including European aerospace group EADS and BAE Systems PLC, according to a report.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is in talks with the consortium about how much it would cost to cut the so-called Tranche 3 contract for the aircraft, the Times quoted the chief executive of EADS Defence Systems, Stefan Zoller, as saying.
Britain has already bought 144 of the jets for the Royal Air Force (RAF), but the UK Treasury will not allow the MoD to buy both Tranche 3 of Eurofighter and the Joint Strike Fighter, which will fly from the two new aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy, the newspaper quoted unidentified defence sources as saying.
http://www.lse.co.uk/PoliticsNews.asp?Arti..._order_-_report