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