“
Splitting the order into three has also not been ruled out.
Those 72 aircraft will serve as a partial replacement for the Saudi fleet of Anglo-German-Italian Tornados. But military analysts have long expected the kingdom to return to the market for upgrades to the rest of its Tornados and U.S.-built F-5s.
In 2006, then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered the Serious Fraud Office to halt an inquiry into previous arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia due to worries that Riyadh would stop sharing intelligence, harming Britain’s security.
BAE Systems shares rose 2.5%.
“For BAE the sentiment would be very good — people are a little concerned that global defence expenditure has peaked, so any new orders would help allay those concerns,” said Zafar Khan, defence analyst at Societe Generale.
Growing demand from the Middle East and Asia for fighters, fuelled by security fears and firm commodity prices, has been a key theme this week at the Paris Air Show — held every two years at Le Bourget and alternating with Farnborough in the
Recession-hit commercial jet orders look thin by contrast.
“The air show is returning to where it used to be a few decades ago before commercial jet pronouncements came into vogue. It used to be more about positioning for arms contracts,” said aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group.
The global fighter market is worth some $17 billion a year, with after-market and sustainment worth even more, he added.
That market is heating up as stand-offs between the West and Iran and
A dispute over election results has provoked Iran‘s biggest and most violent demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution, rocking the oil exporting nation which is also caught up in a dispute with the West over its nuclear programme.
“Nobody knows what will happen in the next few years. Everybody wants deterrents,” said a defence industry executive.
The
Competitions are also underway in
Major negotiations with
The Pentagon’s top arms sales official was in
Boeing meanwhile seeks partners to co-fund development of a proposed new F-15 “Silent Eagle”, a stealthier version with special coatings aimed at Asian and