Austrian fighter contract begins to hot up with DASA support of Russian bid

Published: 11/16/1999

According to a report in Kommersant, the competition for Austria"s military fighter tender is hotting up. Austria intends to buy 30 new fighters for its Air Force and a budget allocation of some $1 billion will be set aside for this purpose. An official tender will be announced in 2000, but key contenders are already emerging in the form of the US F-16, French Mirage-2000, Swedish SAAB J39 Gripen, and Russian MiG-29. Russia had long declared its interest in the tender, with talks having begun on possible MiG sales as early as 1994, backed up with a high level of government activity since then (www.concise.org 25th August 1999). However, the other contenders have only recently revealed their hands. Rosvooruzhenie, together with MAPO, has proposed 24 MiG-29SMT fighters and six training MiG29-UBT planes. The Russian campaign is supported DASA which upgrades and maintains MiG-29 fighters in Eastern Europe. Gregor von Kursel of DASA, said that: "It is very important for us because the maintenance of these planes will be carried out by MiG Aircraft Product Support GmbH (MAPS), the enterprise established by MAPO, Rosvooruzhenie, and DASA." For MAPO, which has seen a dramatic decline in orders since a substantial contract from Malaysia for 18 MiG-29 fighters, is now in difficulty and the tender improves it"s chances of producing its main product - MiG-29 - for a further three years. The success of MAPO in Austria however, will not depend solely on the Russian manufacturer but also on DASA's marketing of the Russian option, to overcome both Austria"s loyalty to Swedish fighters since 1956 and the more general concerns about ongoing support of Russian fighters.

Article ID: 1082