20-03-2004, 21:26
Press Release cleared for all news agencies.
Iron Rock, Tilsitsin
LGR Defense Industries vice president for special projects Karl Urqhardt announced today in a special press conference that the long-in-development FFB-124, or "Future Fighter" 124 project, was being cancelled.
This comes after the company was facing increasing scritiny from both members of the National Congress' Committee for Military Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, as cost overruns were approaching "onscene" levels, as noted by one anonymous congressman. But Mr. Urqhardt defended LGR's decision to scrap the project as a purely internal one, dissmissing claims that government officials were threatening to pull the plug themselves in the face of rising development costs.
LGR Defense's own public relations department released the following information after the closed press meeting with Mr. Urqhardt: "LGR Defense fealt it necessary to discontinue further development on the FFB-124 project, after reviewing available data and evaluating information from LGR's FFB-124 design and development team in conjunction with recommendations from defense ministry officials."
Total cost of the program at the point of termination is estimated to be at $7 billion, up $2.8 billion from the initial LGR estimate of $4.2 billion, which was originally estimated to include the cost of 3 pre-production test aircraft. Not one test aircraft had begun construction before the project was cancelled.
Iron Rock, Tilsitsin
LGR Defense Industries vice president for special projects Karl Urqhardt announced today in a special press conference that the long-in-development FFB-124, or "Future Fighter" 124 project, was being cancelled.
This comes after the company was facing increasing scritiny from both members of the National Congress' Committee for Military Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, as cost overruns were approaching "onscene" levels, as noted by one anonymous congressman. But Mr. Urqhardt defended LGR's decision to scrap the project as a purely internal one, dissmissing claims that government officials were threatening to pull the plug themselves in the face of rising development costs.
LGR Defense's own public relations department released the following information after the closed press meeting with Mr. Urqhardt: "LGR Defense fealt it necessary to discontinue further development on the FFB-124 project, after reviewing available data and evaluating information from LGR's FFB-124 design and development team in conjunction with recommendations from defense ministry officials."
Total cost of the program at the point of termination is estimated to be at $7 billion, up $2.8 billion from the initial LGR estimate of $4.2 billion, which was originally estimated to include the cost of 3 pre-production test aircraft. Not one test aircraft had begun construction before the project was cancelled.