U.S., U.K. Joint Strike Fighter Stall

Posted on: Jun. 16th, 2006 || Source: military.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Negotiations this week between U.S. and British officials over the transfer of sensitive technologies key to the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter reached an impasse on the eve of a high-level, bilateral meeting Thursday intended to resolve the issue, threatening to prolong a festering disagreement between the two allies.

Tomorrow's scheduled meeting at the Pentagon between U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England and Bill Jeffrey, the U.K. Defence Ministry's permanent secretary, was intended to produce a “statement of principles” to facilitate sharing technologies and secrets with Britain to give it means to maintain and upgrade its notional JSF fleet independent of the United States.

That agreement, however, is not likely to be reached this week. Sources involved in the negotiations -- who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing deliberations -- said the discussions on the statement of principles broke down earlier this week.

One Pentagon official, apparently seeking to dampen hopes for the outcome of the England-Jeffrey appointment, said, “We have no expectations one way or another about tomorrow's meeting.”

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