In Shift Away from US, Europeans Award 24 Billion dollars Contract for Military Jets to Airbus

摘要

For decades, European governments have discussed development of a military transport plane to reduce their reliance on US companies, mainly Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Now, in an atmosphere of bitterness in Washington over the refusal of France and Germany to support the war in Iraq, the effort has crystallized. On May 27, seven European countries agreed to acquire 180 military transport planes from French-based Airbus in a deal valued at 25 billion dollars. Washington opposes a European transport plane project on grounds of duplication of capabilities. That Europeans reject that view became clear earlier in May when a 3.6 billion dollars contract to build the aircraft engines was awarded to a European consortium of manufacturers led by Snecma of France and Rolls-Royce of Britain. A losing bid by rival Pratt & Whitney of the US was 20 per cent lower.