Non-Subscriber Extract
Eurofighter offers Tranche 3 split to ease funding issues
By Tim Ripley
06 October 2008
Eurofighter partner companies have announced that they will look favourably on proposals to split the purchase of 236 Tranche 3 Typhoon fighter aircraft into a series of sub-tranches or supplements.
The proposal was made in early July when the German government wrote to its Italian, Spanish and UK counterparts suggesting that splitting up the Tranche 3 procurement was an option to help London and Rome find ways to secure funding for the final phase of the four-nation programme.
A GBP2 billion (USD3.5 billion) shortfall in the UK defence budget has forced Prime Minister Gordon Brown to order a 'capability review' of major defence programmes, while the newly elected Italian government is trying to reconcile funding for Tranche 3 with its ambitions to buy the US-designed Joint Strike Fighter.