Boeing Demands Denmark Part with Fighter Evaluation Information

Boeing has submitted to the Danish Ministry of Defence a Request for Insight, which requires the former to provide all materials related to the fighter procurement evaluation and decision announced in June this year.

This is the first step toward bringing a formal legal challenge of the Danish MoD’s evaluation regarding the country’s next fighter jet in which it selected Lockheed Martin’s F-35 over the Boeing F/A-18.

“As we said when the decision was announced, we believe the Ministry’s evaluation of the competitors was fundamentally flawed and inaccurately assessed the cost and capability of the F/A-18 Super Hornet,” said Debbie Rub, vice president and general manager, Boeing Global Strike Thursday. “We’re taking this step because there’s too much at stake for Denmark and, potentially, other countries considering the Super Hornet.”

The Danish government rated F-35A as superior to Eurofighter Typhoon and F/A-18F Super Hornet in every category from combat performance to cost.

Boeing presented its concerns with the evaluation process to the Danish Parliament Defence Committee prior to the award decision earlier this year, taking issue, in particular, with the Ministry’s estimate that the Super Hornet would cost up to twice as much as detailed in US Department of Defense budget documents. 

“Denmark deserves to know beyond a shadow of doubt that a fair and transparent process was used to select the country’s future fighter fleet,” Rub said. “Our action today underscores our belief that the Ministry’s evaluation of each of the four selection criteria fell short of these objectives and must be reviewed to the fullest extent allowed under Danish law.”

Soon after Boeing questioned the selection process, Denmark argued in May that they would buy lesser number of F-35 than Eurofighters and Super Hornets as F-35 is designed to last for more than 8,000 flight hours whereas the other aircraft can only last 6,000. The life-cycle cost evaluation considered this 33 percent increase in service life as Denmark chose a 30-year timeframe for assessment. A shorter timeframe would have given them a different winner.