Britain to Buy Six AWACS Planes in U.S. : Government Gives Up Own Nimrod System for Boeing Product

The government announced today that it will buy six AWACS airplanes from Boeing Co., abandoning an unfinished British airborne warning system that has cost British taxpayers nearly $1 billion.

“This is a sad decision to have to take, but I have no doubt it is the right one,” Defense Secretary George Younger told the House of Commons in announcing the choice of the airborne warning and control system--known as AWACS--made by the American company.

The decision in favor of Boeing, which is based in Seattle, means the immediate cancellation of the Nimrod system, which Britain’s General Electric Co. has been developing since 1977. Britain’s General Electric has no connection with the American company.

Younger said that, including the cost of ending the contract with General Electric, the price of six Boeing AWACS planes will be $1.23 billion, about $286 million more than it would have cost to complete 11 Nimrod aircraft.

Laborites Jeer

Opposition Labor Party legislators jeered, and many governing Conservative Party lawmakers sat in grim disapproval of the announcement.

The issue has sparked a furious debate, which grew after General Electric said during the weekend that it believed that it had lost the contract to arm the Royal Air Force with the radar system to give early warning of bomb and missile attacks.

Labor defense spokesman Denzil Davies denounced the decision to buy the American-developed system as “not only sad but bad,” saying it has dealt a blow to British industry, jobs and technological expertise.

Opponents contend that rejecting Nimrod will cost at least 2,500 British jobs, accelerate the brain drain in Britain’s high-tech industry and increase the country’s dependence on U.S. military hardware.

Lack of Confidence

In a bleak assessment of the British electronics giant, Younger said the government could not rely on General Electric to produce a perfectly working system on time.

“I am sorry to say that the conclusion I have reached after the most careful consideration is that I cannot have that confidence,” said Younger.

The Nimrod has been dogged by embarrassing technical problems, including one incident in which it identified trucks on a highway as fighter aircraft.

GEC officials said they had corrected earlier bugs in the aircraft, but those arguments were muted somewhat Wednesday night when--even as the Cabinet defense committee was meeting--a Nimrod overheated and had to make an emergency landing.

Use Elsewhere in NATO

Younger said Britain will be “well served” by six Boeing E-3A early warning aircraft, the same type already used by several other NATO countries.

The AWACS order is Boeing’s first for the specialty plane since 1981. Industry experts said there is speculation that other foreign nations are interested in buying AWACS-type planes, and Boeing needed the British contract to keep its AWACS assembly line going until new contracts can be landed.

Boeing has promised to plow the money from the defense contract back into Britain and to create jobs.