BBC: Boeing wins disputed Korean deal [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Friday, 19 April, 2002, 08:09 GMT 09:09 UK Boeing wins disputed Korean deal http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1938000/1938795.stm There were protests at US pressure to buy from Boeing By Caroline Gluck BBC Seoul correspondent Boeing, the US aerospace giant, has won a contract to provide South Korea with 40 new fighter jets, beating off rival bids from three European makers. We considered security, foreign policy and economic factors South Korean Defence Ministry statement After a two-year evaluation, Boeing was chosen over Eurofighter, Dassault and Russia's Soi, to fulfil a contract worth more than $4bn. The battle to win the contract, codenamed FX, had become hotly disputed. A few weeks ago the French company Dassault applied to the South Korean courts in an effort to block the deal, which it said was biased in favour of Boeing. Lucrative deal But, as had been widely expected, South Korean defence officials announced that Boeing had been awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to provide the air force with a fleet of new jet fighters. Boeing's latest version of its F15 fighter was chosen over the Rafale, produced by France's Dassault Aviation in a second round evaluation. A statement by the Ministry of Defence said that it had considered security, foreign policy and economic factors in making the final decision. For the past half-century South Korea has bought most of its defence equipment from the United States, a close military ally with more than 37,000 US troops stationed on its territory. The battle to win the FX contract has proved increasingly controversial. Lawsuit Earlier this month Dassault filed a court injunction against the South Korean Government to try to stop the competition. The company said it believed the process lacked transparency and was biased in favour of Boeing. The court has not yet made its ruling. Meanwhile, defence officials have also announced that the American company, General Electric, has been chosen to build engines for the Boeing jet, beating Pratt and Whitney which had supplied engines for every F15 sold for nearly 30 years. The news came after a Defence Ministry investigation which concluded this week that the crash of a fighter jet in February was due to a problem with a Pratt and Whitney engine. It was the third crash due to engine failure since 1997. --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================

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