De él sólo destaco:
Sobre el concurso belga que está llevando BAE, se espera contrato a mediados de 2018 y empezar a entregar en 2023. Bélgica ha insistido en que lo más importante no es la capacidad de los aviones en sí, si no las relaciones militares, políticas e industriales que se consigan con el contrato:
[Bélgica] issued a Request for Information in 2014 and Eurofighter replied to that. Since then the UK has been running the campaign. We’re working very closely with the UK government to create a solution for the Belgian customer. The next step is for the Belgian MOD to issue the RFGP. We are assured that it’s going to be coming shortly. They want to place a contract by the middle of 2018 — if they don’t, then they head off into another election cycle. But this is a very important programme and they want to make sure they get on contract which would enable them to start to receive aircraft in 2023, when their F-16 fleet starts to run out of life.
What would you describe as the key issues?
Relationships — military, political and industrial. They have stressed this all the way through our engagements to date that the relationship is fundamental to them. The challenge for us is how we ensure the right relationship at all those three levels.
Sobre el concurso finlandés que también lleva BAE, confirma las fechas citadas hace nada y nos dicen que en este caso los factores operativos son más importantes. Su RFI fue la más exhaustiva tras la de Japón hace años:
[Finlandia] don’t intend to place a contract until 2021, with delivery running from 2025 through to 2030.
Through 2016 we replied to a Request for Information (RFI) which, in my experience, was the most comprehensive RFI that we’ve ever received. The last time we had such a sizeable and complex document to respond to was the Request for Proposal from Japan.
We replied to the RFI and followed it up with a joint presentation led by the British Ambassador and involving ourselves and the RAF on 30th November in Helsinki.
This year they will carry out an initial flight evaluation and we are anticipating a Request for Quotation (RFQ) in 2018. The difference here is that they’re going to ask us to quote for what they want, rather than ask us to propose them a solution. Following the RFQ they will continue to make their assessment and are expected to announce a Down Select decision around 2019/2020, with a contract award in 2021.
...
Will the RAF lead the flight evaluation activity?
Yes. We are anticipating two weeks of evaluation, one at RAF Coningsby and one at Warton in the simulator [además de en Finlandia]
What’s important to them?
The Finns place an awful lot of weight on the operational capability and the air force will have a significant say in the selection of the weapon system. In contrast, a lot of countries make a political decision but in Finland the operational aspects have a very high weighting and it would be unusual for the air force not to get the aircraft they want. That’s not to ignore the politics though!
...The other thing that’s important to the Finns is their ability to be able to operate independently. In a time of conflict, the Finns see themselves as an island and it’s very important to them to be able to operate independently
Y sobre presentarlo a concursos en general, han decidido que lidere el gobierno en lugar de la industria, como hizo Francia en sus últimos contratos de Rafale:
GOVERNMENT OUT IN FRONT
The Belgium and Finland campaigns represent a sea change in the way campaigns are executed. The government — which previously played an important supporting role — is now at the forefront. Both campaigns are being led by the UK government, with industry in the shape of BAE Systems (and on behalf of our Eurofighter partners) playing the support role. Lessons were learnt from the French a few years ago when they achieved multiple successes with Rafale. “Their campaigns were being led by the French government, rather than French industry,” says Mark Parkinson. “We quickly realised that we needed to redefine the roles in our campaigns and reinforced the importance of the government role. “We all agreed that both government and industry needed to work much more closely together but with the government in the lead.”
Y hablando de campañas de ensayos, en este caso la inglesa del Meteor y España:
For example, the Meteor firing campaign [la campaña inglesa] was due to end with a paired firing, which means two missiles fired at two targets, each of which is tracked independently but at the same time... The lessons learned are now being shared afresh with teams from Airbus Spain following in Leonardo’s footsteps by travelling to the UK to carry out their own trials. It’s clearly in the spirit of cooperation that is a hallmark of the Eurofighter programme.