Austria to Retire Eurofighter Typhoon Combat Jet
07 July 2017 - 8:25PM
Dow Jones News
By Robert Wall
LONDON--The Austrian government Friday said it would buy a new
fleet of 18 supersonic combat planes and retire its controversial
Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets in a move it says could save more
than $2 billion.
The move is the latest twist in a prolonged saga over the
Eurofighter planes Airbus SE sold Austria over a decade ago. The
deal has been mired in controversy amid fraud allegations. The
Austrian government this year said Airbus Chief Executive Tom
Enders was among those being investigated as part of the corruption
probe.
Airbus has denied wrongdoing and said it was cooperating with
authorities. It is one of several corruption probes Europe's
largest aerospace company is battling.
Suspicions of corruption were raised as early as 2002, before
the contract was completed, but remained unsubstantiated until
2006, when a parliamentary committee in Vienna identified suspect
payments apparently related to the sale. At the time, it had little
evidence of the rationale behind the payments and investigations
continued.
Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil on Friday said in
a statement that "we need to get the escalating costs of the
Eurofighter under control and minimize the enormous cost risks
associated with it--in the interests of the taxpayer and also in
relation to the other branches of the armed forces."
Austria had been evaluating its combat aircraft plans with the
pending retirement of the more-than 40-year old Saab 105OE trainers
also used for air surveillance.
Write to Robert Wall at Robert.Wall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 07, 2017 06:10 ET (10:10 GMT)
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