The Ministry of Defence has revealed plans to award a major contract to Rolls-Royce plc for supporting the EJ200 engine, which is an integral part of the Typhoon aircraft.
The contract is set to span six years, from 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2029, and holds an estimated value of £500 million.
In a contract award notice released on 9th June 2023, the Typhoon Delivery Team, which operates under the Ministry of Defence, stated its intention to “award a 6-year contract to Rolls-Royce plc… for the provision of in-service support services in respect of the EJ200 engine”.
The notice addresses the legality of awarding the contract without prior publication, which is normally mandated by relevant legislation. It clarifies that the decision to directly award the contract to Rolls-Royce is justifiable and compliant with Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 for technical reasons.
As the notice explains, “the EJ200 engine was developed under NETMA contracts placed under the Eurojet consortium agreement, as part of the Eurofighter programme, under which Rolls-Royce plc is the UK lead manufacturer for the EJ200 engine and the supplier designated to perform support services in respect of the EJ200 engine in the UK.”
Moreover, Rolls-Royce plc is described as the sole entity possessing the essential expertise, equipment, infrastructure, and airworthiness certification necessary to service the EJ200 engine within the UK.
Now that we are out of the EU tender rules, notwithstanding the defence procurement opt outs, the other partners in the Eurojet consortium can’t winge about not being allowed to bid.
Makes a lot of sense moving these highly skilled but very specialist roles out to the manufacturer. But is this a big change for RAF Engineering with RR operatives moving onto Tornado bases to replace RAF staff? Perhaps a move of some said RAF into RR. Or is it just 3rd line support?
“But is this a big change for RAF Engineering with RR operatives moving onto Tornado bases to replace RAF staff?”
I never had anything to do with RAF but even I know that Tornado was retired a long time ago.
Also Tornado doesn’t have the EJ2000 engine in it…..as it was powered by the RB199….but never mind.
BTW would all be delighted on here is you would condemn Mad Vlad Putrid Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of a sovereign country.
OK slip of the names. I obviously meant Typhoon. This thread has nothing to do with Ukraine, why try to derail it?
He isn’t derailing anything, he has asked you a civil question and we all love to hear the answer! But alas, you cannot can you! Too afraid of the consequences!
Picture the scene SB, a damp basement with a bare swinging lightbulb, a Makarov pressed against John in Minsks head, an MSB operative talks quietly across the room, “say more about their Western decadent ways John, or you loose your Lada privalges for 6 months”….
Russia was never in the EU…
They wouldnt have been able to bid, Rolls was already UK’s designated supplier in the consortium, just like Rolls wouldnt have been able to bid against Avio the designated Italian supplier for an Italian contract.
Thanks, I didn’t understand the significance of ‘designated’ in this context.
RR has had employees at RAF bases for engine support since at least Tornado days. Many of them are ex-RAF SNCOs (propulsion).
Quite simply, defence is too important to be left to the vagaries of foreign supply. Sometimes it is necessary; where a British firm can do the job it should be encouraged and chosen AS LONG AS IT IS AT A COMPETITIVE PRICE. Capitals because allowing a ompany a monopoly can lead to unwarranted price inflation; we need to encourage British firms, not corruption. And we also need to start making work regular for these companies, not a glut then famine system!
The UK is an expensive country to operate in. It would be interesting to have a formula that worked on a net of tax price, with the revenue due in terms of NI and Corporation Tax built in, revenue potentially collected in other countries, as we have seen on other projects.
Agreed. Quite a bit of the money spent in the UK on defence budgets (etc!) is paid back in taxes and social services savings.
“for supporting the EJ200 engine”
Hate to be pedantic but isn’t it the EJ2000?
“Rolls-Royce plc is described as the sole entity possessing the essential expertise, equipment, infrastructure, and airworthiness certification necessary to service the EJ200 engine within the UK”
Which is fundamental to the whole thing – there is highly sensitive tech there that is not for sharing.
It’s EJ200, the engine is at its core ( excuse the pun) British, it was based on a RR experimental fighter engine that was bench run in the early 1980’s. RR XJ80 was it called ???? The sad fact is the EJ200 has tremendous development capability that was never tapped, with the possibility of upgrading all the way up to 26,000 lb of thrust. Sadly technology has now moved on and like so many British projects, it never reached its full potential. Still an excellent fighter engine non the less, that ticks the boxes, compact, powerful, extremely responsive without surge… Read more »
EJ2000 is a very very reliable engine that is incredibly well understood.
As you say it could have been pushed further.
One important question: why?
Unless we are getting into the competition with the Russians as to ‘how fast we can fly’ it feels a little pointless TBH.
The era of dogfighting is over and missiles are now so good that trying to make the plane perform to missile parameters is a dead end.
Why?
Perhaps to compete for a future single engine fast jet that once may have been thought about, rather than for Typhoon.
RAF want a larger platform so twin engine.
The number of countries that would be interested in developing an indigenous fighter is limited. Most of those countries you wouldn’t trust with an EJ2000 anyway.
Possibly, but F35 is single engine as is Gripen. Only saying.
Oh, how many times people before have said the era of dogfighting is over only to be proved wrong.
That said, I do agree that modern aircraft and missile technologies in the BVR arena have reduced the chance of WVR combat occurring but to say that dogfighting is dead is very premature and dangerous.
Ok but the Russian doctrine was to produce very fast aircraft that could theoretically evade missiles and missiles couldn’t catch.
They were allegedly as manoeuvrable as a missile…..ignoring the G forces on the pilot.
I agree you often end up fighting a war between different generations of tech.
Situational awareness is the king of modern day air combat. Any fighter pilot will tell you if the fight gets to within visual range, something has gone very wrong. High offbore sight missiles and helmet mounted displays have reduced the need for ultimate agility. Pilots would rather carry more fuel than have the ability to pull insane G’s.
The main reason the EJ200 hasn’t been upgraded to improve thrust is simply because in its current guise it is more than powerful enough. Typhoon has a tremendous thrust to weight ratio. Thrust and electrical power generation improvements might well be required for ECRS MK2 and all the other planned upgrades. They all require considerable more electrical power. Bit like the F35’s P&W F135 needs a core upgrade to power blk4 electrical power requirements.
Sure m
Which was why I posited ‘why?’….
Also there are two EJ2000 and one F135
EJ200. For the millionth time.
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