NORWAY: NEGATIVE IMPACT OF U.S. WEAPONS SYSTEM PROBLEMS

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000729



SIPDIS



SIPDIS



E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/9/17

TAGS: MARR, PREL, NO

SUBJECT: NORWAY: NEGATIVE IMPACT OF U.S. WEAPONS SYSTEM

PROBLEMS



REF: A. MADRID 296

B. MADRID 1113



Classified By: DCM Kevin M. Johnson for reasons 1.5 b and d



1. (C) Summary. A series of pending military sales issues may

bring in to question the US' reputation as a reliable

supplier and, in the current Norwegian political climate, may

become a significant media focus. In turn, this may affect

Norway's hoped for $2.2 billion purchase of the Joint Strike

Fighter (JSF) as well as our longer term defense cooperation.

Resolving these pending sales issues is key to avoiding

irritants to US-Norwegian relations, and reduced prospects

for the JSF sale. End Summary.



The Political Climate in Norway and the Expected JSF Sale

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2. (C) Norway's coalition government faces some of its

biggest difficulties over defense issues. With the left-wing

SV Party opposed to most military actions and purchase of

equipment, the other two coalition partners must constantly

compromise to enable the government to send troops to

Afghanistan or to purchase new weapons or planes. SV has

regularly questioned the $2.2 billion purchase of JSF planes

and promoted the continued competition of the Gripen and

Eurofighter. The largest opposition party, Progress Party

also appears to prefer the Gripen out of Scandinavian

solidarity. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Defense has pressed

the benefits of the JSF and it remains the leading contender.





3. (C) Very recently, the USG agreed to provide 4 C-130Js to

Norway at their request (deliveries are scheduled to begin in

2008). Even this was highly controversial in Norway with

several parties saying the purchase was unduly rushed and ill

considered.



4. (C) Media interest in the debates surrounding these

defense purchases has been extremely high. In the media and

in private, we have often made the point that the US is a

reliable supplier of the best weapons systems on offer. This

point has been picked up in Parliamentary debates and

elsewhere by our supporters who largely tend to also be the

strongest supporters of Norway's participation in NATO and in

Afghanistan.



The Problem

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5. (C) Two unrelated military purchases could cause

significant harm to our efforts. Norway previously signed a

Letter of Offer and Acceptance for a $65 million Javelin

anti-tank missile purchase, originally scheduled for delivery

in August 2006. Delivery has since been delayed and now

Norway is unwilling to accept the Javelins due to potential

manufacturing corrosion in the missile guidance section. The

Javelin Joint Venture has recommended, and the US Army is

preparing to accept, a waiver to complete the delivery of the

original missiles with potential corrosion in the guidance

sections, in exchange for an extended manufacturer's warranty

that the missiles will function properly or be replaced. US

Army acceptance of the waiver will require foreign customers

to accept the suspect missiles, under the terms of the

respective Foreign Military Sales cases, and this affects 270

of Norway's 450 missiles. Norway has strenuously objected to

this situation, most recently in a letter from the Acting

Director of the Norwegian Defense Logistics Organization to

the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Norway insists upon replacement of the potentially corroded

components, at no cost to Norway, before they will accept the

missiles. Norway has explained that the warranty offered is

predicated on conclusive proof that any failure of the

missile is directly attributable to the identified corrosion

problem. Norway points out that this would require a

mis-fired missile to be transported to the US for inspection

and analysis, and this is impossible due to the safety

prohibitions on transporting a mis-fired missile. Further,

Javelin was selected by a narrow margin over several

competitors and had Norway been aware of the problems they

would encounter in this purchase, they most likely would have

chosen a different system.



6. (C) The other purchase encountering difficulties is

Norway's $1.2 billion purchase of Nansen-class frigates from

Spain, which is being delayed by an inability to reconcile US

and Spanish technical legal requirements regarding signature

of end-user nontransfer documents. Spanish shipbuilder

Navantia and Lockheed Martin are building the frigates, based

on Spain's advanced F-100 design and incorporating US AEGIS

weapons system technology. An existing Technical Assistance

Agreement between Navantia and Lockheed Martin must be

amended because of a corporate name change. A Spanish

official had erroneously signed an earlier version of that

document, but MOD says that person had no authority to sign

on behalf of the GOS. Furthermore, MOD says that it is

unable to sign USG form DSP-83 because a 2004 Spanish law

limits the Spanish National Armaments Director from signing

any form other than Spain's own end-use certificate. See

reftels.



What do they all have in Common?

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7. (C) The purchase of the Javelins, Nansen-class frigates,

and fighter airplanes are separate matters. However, all of

these programs have two things in common: they involve US

systems and they are all produced by Lockheed-Martin. Those

correlations have not gone unnoticed here, where there is an

active and vocal anti-American lobby. If they successfully

string together Norway's dissatisfaction with Javelin, along

with delayed deliveries of frigates due to what may be

perceived as US intransigence on technology transfer, the

prospects for JSF could certainly be jeopardized. Beyond

that, our allies who have been supportive of sending

Norwegian troops to Afghanistan and purchasing US weapon

systems will be undermined with potentially significant

consequences.



Action Request

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8. (C) Post requests that Washington agencies considering the

Javelin and the frigate issues seek a resolution that takes

into account these broad strategic issues.

Whitney