Boeing fine won't impact on Wedgetail

The US$3.8 million fine imposed last week by the US State Department on Boeing for violating export licensing laws will not impact on Australia's airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) program, Project Wedgetail, for which Boeing is prime contractor, officials believe.

Boeing voluntarily disclosed to the State Department that in 1997 and 1998 it had offered AEW&C technology to Australia that was outside the scope of licenses granted to the company while preparing its bid for Project Wedgetail. Boeing was named prime contractor for this project in 1999 and signed the prime contract last December.

But the fine imposed on Boeing will not affect the RAAF's AEW&C capabilities, according to a senior RAAF official. The RAAF has been assured by the US government that it will get the level of technical capability specified in the prime contract, the source said.

Boeing originally sought a license from the State Department to brief the RAAF and other potential export customers, including Turkey, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia, on its proposed new AEW&C system. A subsequent interim license was granted for Boeing to carry out RAAF-funded Initial Design Activity (IDA) phase of Project Wedgetail in 1998 and 1999. Following Boeing's selection as prime contractor in 1999 work on the full system design has been conducted under this IDA license.

After imposing the fine on Boeing, the State Department lodged the full export license application for the AEW&C aircraft, radar equipment, software and other technology sought by Australia with the US Congress last week for approval under the normal US export licensing approval process.

Granting the export license will allow Boeing to share detailed design information with Australia that was previously off-limits to foreign nationals, Australian-based company sources told ADN. This will allow Boeing and the RAAF to conduct a detailed systems-level design review later this year to approve the detailed design of the Wedgetail AEW&C system.