German Defense Ministry Confirms A400M Agreement
Oct 26, 2010
By Jens Flottau [email protected]
FRANKFURT
Germany will take only 53 of the 60 Airbus Military A400Ms originally on order, German government sources indicated on Monday.
A400M customers continue to chip away at the commitment of 180 units that was negotiated as part of a general settlement reached in March. With the U.K. planning to cut its commitment by three aircraft, the total program now totals 170 aircraft.
French avionics specialist Thales will have to cover possible additional expenses for flight management system (FMS) changes, according to the sources. But a German defense ministry letter to leading Bundestag defense committee members says that industry has to come to a final agreement on the FMS matter.
Defense State Secretary Thomas Kossendey writes in the statement obtained by AVIATION WEEK that implementation of the Mar. 31 heads-of-terms deal with the A400M nations turned out to be more challenging than expected. In his view, that’s mainly due to the lengthy search for a compromise on the industry side and a reworked planning for the FMS.
But the letter concludes that “significant progress has been made” since then, and negotiations on Oct. 1 “should finally have led to a breakthrough. After tough negotiations so far, an agreement with regards to critical aspects, particularly the financial ones, could be found according to the view of the nations.” Kossendey refers to talks involving the nations, the Occar arms procurement agency and Airbus Military.
An EADS official did not confirm the letter or any of the details, but said he was confident a deal could be reached before the end of the year.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... 264951.xml
A primera vista parecería que la pérdida de 7 aparatos del total para la Luftwaffe es negativo. En realidad que se concrete una compra de 53 ha salvado al programa por el momento. Miembros de la coalición de Merkel insistían en que Alemania ni necesitaba ni podía permitirse más de 45, con alguna propuesta de hasta 40 y con fuertes rumores luego avalados por dirigentes sindicales de IG Metall que se estaba considerando una compra de no más de 25.
Inclusive los 45 - y ni se diga menos - hubieran obligado a EADS a renegociar el contrato porque los números simplemente no iban a cuadrar. Y eso en la práctica hubiera puesto al programa en coma semipermanente.
De la que se ha salvado...
