Meteor MOU signed at Le Bourget

Ministers of Defence of three nations, France, Sweden and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding yesterday at the Le Bourget Air Show, stating their joint formal commitment to the Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM) programme. Italy, Spain and Germany intend to sign once their internal approval processes are complete.

Meteor is the next generation weapon chosen last year by the UK to meet its BVRAAM requirement. Eurofighter partner nations, Germany, Italy and Spain, Sweden for Gripen and France for Rafale identified a similar requirement. Following the UK decision discussions have continued with all potential partner nations, which have led to the signature of this MOU.

Meteor is a UK led programme with industry responsible for defining workshare based on technical excellence, manageable risk and best value for money rather than any predetermined or directed formula. Partner nation contributions to development costs will be broadly based on the workshare arising from the proposal from industry. This has resulted in the costs being shared as follows:

• UK 34.6%
• Germany 21.0%
• France 12.4%
• Italy 12.0%
• Spain 10.0%
• Sweden 10.0%

Negotiations on concluding a contract with the Prime Contractor MBDA are continuing.

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