Progress in the FRP has also been complicated by rising development costs and technical problems relating to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning 11, which along with Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon, is one of three short-listed candidate aircraft in the Danish competition.
That the Ministry of Defense has seen three different ministers come and go in the past two years, with political oversight for the FRP moving from Nicolai Wammen to Carl Holst and to the present minister, Peter Christensen, has also been a contributing factor in extending the decision-making process.
Christensen has told the Parliamentary Defense Committee (PDC) there will be no announcement on aircraft selection until all funding issues have been resolved and the government finalizes a finance plan.
This Danish government is set to announce a selection in the first quarter of 2016.
The three competitors have submitted bids for 24, 30 and 36 aircraft to the MoD's Project Office. Denmark had originally sought bids for up to 48 aircraft to replace the Danish Air Force’s aging F-16s.
However, economic uncertainty and tougher public spending cuts have reduced Denmark’s appetite for higher budgets and lowered its ambitions regarding the number of aircraft to be acquired.
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