On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 16:08:32 +1000, John Cook
wrote:

Some more news from an American source.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/8557661.htm?1c

"Norway could quit JSF venture

By Dave Montgomery

Star-Telegram Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON - Tensions are surfacing in the 2-year-old international
partnership to develop Lockheed Martin's F-35 joint strike fighter,
with Norway threatening to abandon the $244 billion program unless it
gets a bigger share of developmental work.

Marit Nybakk, chairwoman of the Norwegian Parliament's defense
committee, said in a telephone interview Thursday that lawmakers will
decide whether to stay in the F-35 program when they debate the
country's long-term defense plans next month.

The Scandinavian country joined the nine-nation partnership in June
2002 by investing $125 million.

"This decision was made on the basis that Norwegian industry should be
involved with the development program, and so far very little has come
of that," Nybakk said.

John Kent, a spokesman at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics headquarters in
Fort Worth, said the U.S. aerospace company is "eager" to keep Norway
as a partner and is working with Norwegian officials to resolve the
disagreement. Norway has given Lockheed Martin until June 9 to propose
potential development work.

The partnership has been touted as a model of international
cooperation, joining the United States and eight Western allies in an
unprecedented arrangement to develop the world's costliest fighter.
The Lockheed-led team plans to build more than 3,500 F-35s after
production begins early in the next decade.

In recent months, however, partner nations including Denmark and the
Netherlands have complained that the United States has given them only
skimpy development work, in part because of the U.S. government's
ultrarigid restrictions on transferring sensitive technology abroad.

The potential effect of a withdrawal by Norway is difficult to gauge
because the country is one of the two smallest investors in the
partnership. Nevertheless, a defection by any of the countries would
draw unfavorable attention to the international project, give a boost
to foreign competitors and possibly fan discontent among the other
partners.

Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax,
Va., said Norway's assertiveness has a "mouse-that-roared quality" and
may be aimed at pressuring Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon into
giving the country of 4.5 million a more lucrative chunk of
developmental business.

"You have to wonder how much of this is posturing," Aboulafia said.

Johs Norheim, chairman of Norway's Industrial Defense Industry
Association, said Norway expected to get a hefty share of business
during the decade-long development program, which began in 2002.

"Now we're two years later, and, in principle, I would say that
Norwegian industry has not received anything of substance," he said by
telephone from Norway.

Norway's discontent intensified this month when Nybakk led a
delegation to Washington to meet with officials from the government
and Lockheed Martin.

Nybakk said the Norwegian government may turn its attention to the
Eurofighter or Sweden's JAS Gripen. Norway wants to replace 74 F-16s
that it began buying in 1980."


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John Cook

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