THREAD: #HXhanke – for online subscribers to #Janes Defence Weekly, you an access my feature being published in next week’s issue about the #IndustrialParticipation proposals for #Finland now!
#turpo #sakpol @JanesINTEL
https://customer.janes.com/DefenceWeekly/Display/FG_3798426-JDW

I get some great insight from bidders including @SaabFi, @BAES_Finland, and @BoeingDefense on their proposals and strategies. Initial feedback included a request for an Executive Summary, so prepare for a long read!

Some key points here… @SaabFi is clearly becoming the bid to beat from a number of perspectives with #GripenE and #GlobalEye offering. But with the process being very fair, it's no guarantee of victory.

Proposals include establishing an assembly facility in Finland for #GripenE and assembling the @GEAviation F414 engine for the aircraft, adding a third line to the Gripen “ecosystem”.

A systems centre is also to be established in #Finland to allow for Finland to grow the system and work with capability improvements.

. @SaabFi also has had clearance to receive credit for some of its work that has already begun, not certain which ones, but probably LADM and some of the other R&D efforts going on in country. So they're already ahead on any obligations.

. @BAES_Finland has also been proposing FACO in the country, and a range of capabilities for #radar #test and #repair in the country.

There’s also some interesting info in there on what @TeamTempest and the Franco-German #FCAS projects mean for #Finland, and how the bidders view it. #Teaser

The online article includes some added extras on areas of #IndustrialParticipation, such as #AdditiveManufacturing and #3Dprinting, as well as the Dickensianlly titled “Ghosts of Offsets Past”.

The latter one is particularly interesting to me, particularly after the declassification of some documents about the previous Hornet acquisition: https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/201707022200238131

Previous offers included developing a fighter aircraft with the #USSR (!), but @BoeingDefense won the day with their offering, which included in-country assembly, maintenance, and support (more in my article )

However, execution of the 100% offset obligation was mixed, with a heavy weighting of indirect offsets in the project being undertaken. This led to issues of causality being raised – would this transaction have happened regardless of the Hornet?

The US @BISgov reports on offsets back I the early 2000s gave us some insight into the values of the transactions across the 1993-99 period, by which time the bulk of the offsets were required to be completed (and were).

But not all was well. There were also some other interesting tidbits that came up, including one controversy surrounding Boeing’s acquisition of #MiniSubmarines for tourists, but the company went under (pun intended). @CovertShores https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2000/04/17/hornet-vastakaupat-kuka-kahmi-dollareita-ja-miten-kasikirjoitus

The sale of Finnish equipment into the US caused problems though, as it could undermine US domestic businesses as companies tries to satisfy #offset requirements. #Valmet was a key issue here over the sale of paper mill machines to the US in the mid-90s.

The controversy surrounding this and other deals led to the passing of the 1994 Feingold Amendment to the #ArmsExportControl Act ( #AECA), outlawing incentive payments to third parties to satisfy offset requirements.

According to Section 2779a of the bill, violations of the amendment can be met with fines of USD500,000 or five times the value of an incentive payment.

But, this time the indirect offset is much less of an issue, with #SemiDirect #offset featuring as part of the #IndustrialParticipation concepts, which will help develop #Finland’s #Aerospace and #Defence industry, and position it for future challenges.

End thread! Tag: @JanesINTEL @CorporalFrisk @AGardberg @luotoja @TeroTweet (congrats on 2k followers!) @MikkoPulliainen @greensthlm