Britain may boost defense budget by $5.1 billion

BRUSSELS, May 1 (UPI) -- Britain may boost defense budget by $5.1 billion

The British government may approve a defense budget boost of $5.1 billion to maintain its procurement programs, Defense News reported last week.

The British government is playing down the possibility of funneling these large extra funds into its high tech defense industrial sector. The cash boost was not officially announced, but was revealed indirectly by a brief reference in a Treasury report that used modified figures.

Previous government publications had announced that 2009-10 defense expenditure would be $51.4 billion. But in the latest reference published by the Treasury, it had risen to $56.5, an increase of $5.1 billion.

The British economy has been suffering particularly badly from the global economic crisis. Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to jump-start the economy with a lot of additional government spending, and the increased money for the defense budget fits into that strategy. But it is also unpopular as it may be contrasted with cuts in popular social spending.

The British Ministry of Defense has also been embarrassed by a number of well-publicized delays, outright cancellations and cost overruns of much-touted defense procurement programs. The increased funding may also serve to keep several of these programs alive and maintain strategic manufacturing capacity in companies working on them.

Turkey, Norway and Poland plan new early warning radar network

Turkey, Norway and Poland are working together to develop a new joint early warning radar system.

The purpose of the network is to facilitate the sharing of data between Russia and NATO on airborne threats, according to the Polish Defense Ministry. The network would be based in the Polish capital of Warsaw.

Turkey, Poland and Norway are all member nations of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization that share borders with Russia. The new joint radar network will use its shared technical resources to alert the Kremlin to any airborne threats to Russia, including its Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic coast. In exchange, Russia will provide the same sort of information on airborne potential threats heading towards NATO member states.

Agreement on developing the network has been taken as a sign of a thaw, or improvement in relations between NATO, the United States and Russia that has been pursued by the new Obama administration in Washington. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have both said they wanted to press the "reset" button to rebuild good relations with Moscow.

Britain drags its feet on Eurofighter orders

Britain has angered its European partners on the Eurofighter Typhoon program by delaying its plans to buy more of the expensive combat aircraft.

According to an agreement drawn up at the beginning of the Eurofighter program, Britain would take part in the third round of purchases of the combat aircraft when the last 236 of the air superiority fighters were to be bought by European nations participating in the program.

British reluctance to buy more Eurofighters has been attributed to the economic woes and budgetary spending cuts that currently preoccupy the New Labor government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Senior European defense industry executives have urged the British government to end their delaying tactics, claiming that these are holding back the entire program.

Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany had committed to buying the 236 combat aircraft between them. But some European defense analysts are now predicting that all four countries may agree to only purchase 112 -- less than half the number originally envisaged. Germany had committed to buying 68 Eurofighters for its air force, but the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is also said to be seeking to drastically cut back on that order.

The Eurofighter consortium consists of Airbus, through its parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., which is dominated by France and Germany, BAE in Britain and Finmeccanica in Italy. The Eurofighters are estimated to cost $131 million each so that the projected total cost of 236 fighters would be around $30.9 billion and the entire program as it was originally envisaged would cost $81.2 billion.

China purchases nuclear heat exchangers from DCNS

The Chinese Nuclear Power Engineering Corp. has bought 14 heat exchangers for two civil European Pressurized Reactors from Direction des Constructions Navales Services, the large French shipbuilder and defense contractor, Defense News reported last week.

DCNS has extensive experience in building nuclear-powered submarines in its French shipyards. The company refused to reveal publicly what the deal is worth but did acknowledge that it would require 100,000 work-hours in design, production engineering, fabrication, machining, assembly, inspection and quality control. The heat exchangers are scheduled to be delivered starting in fall 2010 to be completed by spring 2011.