Saudi weighs Eurofighter, F-15 for new jet deal

Saudi Arabia is stepping up efforts to acquire advanced fighter jets to renew its combat fleet amid growing security concerns in the Gulf region over Iran, two sources following the matter said on Thursday. Riyadh is in talks with Britain over possibly doubling a recent purchase of 72 Eurofighter Typhoons with an add-on purchase buttressed by a support deal and has held exploratory talks with Boeing on adding more F-15s, the sources said.
"Saudi Arabia has not finalised its requirements or decided if it will hold a competition or go with one player," said a source closely following the discussions. Saudi Arabia is expected to split the purchase into two batches of 36 and there is potential for a total of more than 100 planes as it continues to renew its fleet of 276 combat jets, said one of the sources.
They both agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. Britain's BAE Systems, which co-ordinates production of the Eurofighter Typhoons recently sold to Saudi Arabia, and F-15 manufacturer Boeing both declined to comment.
The Eurofighter consortium, which contains BAE Systems, European aerospace group EADS and Finmeccanica of Italy, also declined to comment. Britain sold Saudi Arabia 72 Typhoons in 2006, the first of which are just starting to be delivered.
The 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 US-built F-5s. 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.
Major negotiations with Saudi Arabia are held at government level but the world's largest air show offers an opportunity to sound out prices, availability and performance. The Pentagon's top arms sales official was in Paris for the show at the same time as Saudi military representatives, and held a total of more than 40 meetings with foreign delegations.
The show generated fewer commercial orders than in years past, with the focus on large weapons competitions underway in India, Brazil, Japan and across the Middle East. BAE Systems also declined comment on a report in the Daily Mail that Saudi Arabia was considering buying more Typhoons. At 1326 GMT, BAE Systems shares were trading up 2.4 percent to 344 pence.
"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. "The UK government would love to sell more Eurofighters as they want to take a smaller consignment themselves. For Saudi Arabia, with oil at $70 a barrel their cash flow is good, while it has quite a few squadrons of Tornados that are around 25 years old and need to be replaced."
Boeing is meanwhile shopping for partners to co-fund development of a proposed new F-15 "Silent Eagle", a version aimed at Asian and Middle East markets that would feature special coatings to reduce its radar signature and other survivability improvements to go up against the F-35.
The United Arab Emirates is negotiating to buy French Rafales, a Dassault-built plane seeking its first export order amid competition from the Lockheed F-16, according to defence industry sources. Oman and Kuwait are among nations also interested in fighter purchases, military sources said.