By Andrea Shalal-Esa
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland, April 3
(Reuters) – A ustralia is expected to decide on the purchase of
up to 24 additional Boeing Co F/A-18 fighter jets by late
spring or early summer, according to the U.S. Navy captain who
runs the foreign fighter jet sales program on behalf of the
Pentagon.
A number of buyers in Asia and the Middle East remain
interested in the warplane, and the Navy is also staying in
“pretty close touch” with Brazil, said Captain Frank Morley,
program manager for the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet and Growler
electronic attack versions of the plane.
Boeing is trying to boost its fighter jet sales to the U.S.
military and eight foreign partners, including Australia, as
rival Lockheed Martin Corp struggles with repeated
schedule delays and cost increases on its F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter (JSF).
“Any foreign military sales customer at this point aids in
keeping the (Boeing F/A-18) line open. It allows the entire
machine to keep working (and) for long lead material to be
procured,” Morley told Reuters in an interview at his office at
Naval Air Station Paxutent River in southern Maryland.
While U.S. purchases themselves will keep Boeing’s F/A-18
production line running through late 2015 and possibly into
2016, any foreign military sales would extend the line and keep
more options open for the U.S. military and its allies, he said.
Any additional Australian purchases of Boeing F/A-18s may
eat into its initial plan to buy 100 Lockheed F-35s. Other
countries are also rethinking their F-35 purchases.
Lockheed beat out Boeing to win the JSF contract in 2001,
but the program is seven years behind schedule and 70 percent
over initial cost estimates.
The Pentagon notified Congress in February about the
possible sale of up to 24 more F/A-18 jets to Australia in a
deal valued at up to $3.7 billion, but Australia is still
deciding whether to buy 12 or 24 planes, Morley said.
Even a purchase of 12 planes would extend the production
line well into 2016, he said.
BRAZIL
Brazil, meanwhile, is weighing bids for a $4 billion fighter
competition from Boeing, France’s Dassault Aviation
and Sweden’s Saab, a process that has dragged on for
more than a decade through three Brazilian governments.
Brazil’s Air Force last month asked bidders to renew their
offers for another six months, delaying a contract award once
again.
Boeing has invested heavily in Brazil over the past year and
also agreed a series of partnerships with Brazilian planemaker
Embraer SA, which may boost the F/A-18’s odds in the tender,
according to two senior Brazilian officials.
Morley said the Pentagon and U.S. officials were also in
touch with a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia,
where weapons spending is growing even as it tapers off in
Europe and the United States.
He declined to name the countries or say how many foreign
orders were possible in coming years. Analysts say Malaysia and
Kuwait may be the most likely new F/A-18 E/F buyers.
Morley said most of the prospective additional buyers were
looking at orders ranging from 18 to 48 jets. He said some
countries had already sought demonstrations of the F/A-18 jets.
Keen to engage with possible buyers, Boeing and the Navy’s
F/A-18 program sent jets to the Langkawi International Maritime
& Aerospace Exhbition in Malaysia last month, and may
participate in the Dubai air show in November, Morley said.
Morley said the F/A-18 program office would send initial
information about the jet to Canada this month, but it was
unclear if they planned to launch a formal competition.
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Ryan Woo)
