Kuwait has postponed the signing of the contract for the purchase of 28 fighter Eurofighter destined for its own Air Force. The reason for the postponement was given to "procedural" reasons.
Last September, Italy and Kuwait had signed a first memorandum of understanding for the supply of aircraft that was just waiting to be formalized with the signing of the final contract of November's 29. The formalization of the contract slipped in mid-December to then be fixed at a date to be defined. Continuous delays were mainly caused by disagreements regarding the place of training of Kuwaiti pilots (who will probably be trained in Italy) and the question of the missiles that should arm the purchased devices. Following this latest postponement, due essentially to "internal procedural problems" on the part of Kuwait, no date has been set for the formalization of the contract.
The contract with Kuwait, which would pay the Eurofighter 7,5 consortium billions of euros of which 50% would go to Finmeccanica, has been nicknamed "The contract of life" for the Italian industrial group and analysts consider it one of the major stock exchange events for the recent FNC title. The Italian participation within the European consortium today covers the 36% of the shares. This thanks to the acquisition of the shares of Alenia Aermacchi and Selex ES after the launch of the One Company: the only company in the field of Aerospace, Defense and Security wanted by Finmeccanica.
To date the Kuwait Air Force has deployed 32 multi-role fighters F / A-18C and D produced by Boeing, handed over and entered service in the 2008. The two planned tranches could supplement or gradually replace the air defense of the small Arab state.
(Photo: web)
