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Singapore Delays $1 Billion Combat Jet Contract
By JAN DAHINTEN, REUTERS, SINGAPORE
Singapore is delaying a $1 billion contract for 20 combat jets by as long as three months as Eurofighter, Boeing and Dassault tussle for the well-armed island’s biggest fighter order, sources close to the talks said.
Despite industry speculation that Singapore was leaning toward one of the two European suppliers rather than Boeing, aerospace analysts and sources said the outcome was too tough to call.
The Southeast Asian nation had been expected to decide on a replacement for its aging A-4SU Super Skyhawk jets in the first quarter of this year, but people at two of the three shortlisted groups told Reuters a decision was now expected between April and June.
"The Singaporeans have been asking a lot of questions regarding the planes. There’s a lot of activity," one source said.
A defense ministry spokeswoman said the deal was still being evaluated. She did not give a time frame for an announcement.
The Eurofighter consortium, U.S. company Boeing and French aircraft and defense group Dassault Aviation are vying for the contract.
Singapore, which spends more on defense than any Southeast Asian nation relative to the size of its economy, is known as a sophisticated arms buyer and its choice of jet could influence others countries considering new fighters.
One source at a supplier said Singapore was a tough client and that "it’s one of the hardest campaigns we have worked on".
The Eurofighter consortium includes BAE Systems, Airbus parent EADS and Italy’s Finmeccanica Britain lent support for the bid last year by sending two of its Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Singapore for evaluation.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie urged Singapore’s leaders to pick Dassault’s Rafale fighter plane during a visit to Singapore this week, echoing comments made by President Jacques Chirac during an October visit.
The Rafale has yet to win its first export order after Dassault lost out on orders from Norway, the Netherlands and South Korea.
Singapore has also tested the F-15 fighter jets built by Boeing, which is under pressure to win a deal that would help it extend F-15 production beyond 2008.
All three of those multi-mission aircraft are much larger and more effective than the old Skyhawks, which are considered good, light bombers but are not fighters at all.
Singapore is armed to the teeth relative to its size of just 697 square km (436 square miles) and sees its modern weaponry, which includes submarines, stealth frigates and combat jets, as a necessary protection against all sorts of perceived threats.
At nearly a third of its $18.3 billion budget, or 5 percent of its $110 billion economy, Singapore’s defense spending is also higher in relative terms than that of military superpowers such as the United States, Britain and France when compared to total government spending.
By JAN DAHINTEN, REUTERS, SINGAPORE
Singapore is delaying a $1 billion contract for 20 combat jets by as long as three months as Eurofighter, Boeing and Dassault tussle for the well-armed island’s biggest fighter order, sources close to the talks said.
Despite industry speculation that Singapore was leaning toward one of the two European suppliers rather than Boeing, aerospace analysts and sources said the outcome was too tough to call.
The Southeast Asian nation had been expected to decide on a replacement for its aging A-4SU Super Skyhawk jets in the first quarter of this year, but people at two of the three shortlisted groups told Reuters a decision was now expected between April and June.
"The Singaporeans have been asking a lot of questions regarding the planes. There’s a lot of activity," one source said.
A defense ministry spokeswoman said the deal was still being evaluated. She did not give a time frame for an announcement.
The Eurofighter consortium, U.S. company Boeing and French aircraft and defense group Dassault Aviation are vying for the contract.
Singapore, which spends more on defense than any Southeast Asian nation relative to the size of its economy, is known as a sophisticated arms buyer and its choice of jet could influence others countries considering new fighters.
One source at a supplier said Singapore was a tough client and that "it’s one of the hardest campaigns we have worked on".
The Eurofighter consortium includes BAE Systems, Airbus parent EADS and Italy’s Finmeccanica Britain lent support for the bid last year by sending two of its Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Singapore for evaluation.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie urged Singapore’s leaders to pick Dassault’s Rafale fighter plane during a visit to Singapore this week, echoing comments made by President Jacques Chirac during an October visit.
The Rafale has yet to win its first export order after Dassault lost out on orders from Norway, the Netherlands and South Korea.
Singapore has also tested the F-15 fighter jets built by Boeing, which is under pressure to win a deal that would help it extend F-15 production beyond 2008.
All three of those multi-mission aircraft are much larger and more effective than the old Skyhawks, which are considered good, light bombers but are not fighters at all.
Singapore is armed to the teeth relative to its size of just 697 square km (436 square miles) and sees its modern weaponry, which includes submarines, stealth frigates and combat jets, as a necessary protection against all sorts of perceived threats.
At nearly a third of its $18.3 billion budget, or 5 percent of its $110 billion economy, Singapore’s defense spending is also higher in relative terms than that of military superpowers such as the United States, Britain and France when compared to total government spending.
The tightly-controlled, predominantly ethnic Chinese city-state of 4.2 million people, is on the doorstep of mostly Muslim neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia and believes it is a prime target for regional group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a network linked to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida.
(An acquisition consist of either Rafale or Eurofighter provides the RSAF with a wide array of air firepower from stealthy cruise missile to advanced Beyond visual range air - air missile (bvraam), thats considerably a major milestone in the RSAF airpower inventory. )
