Gripen Withdrawn From Belgian Fighter Contest
Belgium’s short list for its future fighter has shrunk to three after the Swedish government withdrew Saab’s new-generation Gripen from the tender.
Swedish defense materiel organization FMV, which would facilitate any Gripen sale, said in a July 10 statement that while the aircraft meets all the operational requirements in Belgium’s request for proposals, Sweden itself could not meet Brussel’s need for “extensive operational support.”
“This would require a Swedish foreign policy and political mandate that does not exist today,” the FMV said.
The agency added that it would not submit answers to the Belgian request for proposals.
The Gripen becomes the second aircraft to exit the Belgian tender. In mid-April, Boeing said it was withdrawing the F/A-18 Super Hornet because the competition was not a “truly level playing field”—a hint that Belgium’s requirement is skewed in favor of the Lockheed Martin F-35, a type already purchased by neighbors the Netherlands and the other European Participating Air Forces, which, like Belgium, flew the F-16.
With the Gripen and Super Hornet out, just the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 are left.
Belgium wants to purchase 34 new fighters to replace the existing 54-strong F-16 fleet, and is budgeting €3.59 billion ($3.858 billion) for the procurement, the government announced March 17. A fleet of 34 will meet Belgium’s requirement to have six fighters available for expeditionary operations [emphasis added].
It has long been suggested that Belgium likely will favor the F-35 to maintain commonality with the Netherlands, with which it works closely on international operations and a joint quick-reaction alert air policing mission [emphasis added--NORAD?]. The Benelux sky initiative, launched this year, allows a Belgian F-16 to be scrambled to deal with an issue in Dutch airspace, and vice versa.
Brussels also wants to continue its involvement in NATO’s nuclear-sharing agreements, which likely would demand the use of a U.S.-produced aircraft to carry the weapon [emphasis added].
Under a dual-key arrangement, an unknown number of U.S.-owned B61 nuclear bombs are housed at Kleine Brogel air base and would be flown in the event of a conflict by Belgian F-16s.
http://aviationweek.com/defense/gripen-withdrawn-belgian-fighter-contest
