The four-nation industrial partnership that builds the Eurofighter Typhoon is not "fit for purpose" in providing crucial support for the aircraft and needs to be restructured, according to the government.
The Ministry of Defence has become frustrated by slow progress in negotiating with international partners over important upgrades to Europe's next generation fighter jet, which has been beset by huge cost overruns and long delays.
The Eurofighter is built by a consortium of defence manufacturers, made up of EADS, the Franco-German group, BAE Systems of the UK and Italy's Finmeccanica. It is the highest profile example of European co-operation on weapons procurement, with Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy all buying large numbers of the aircraft, which cost about £65m each.
Lord Drayson, the minister in charge of the £16bn-a-year military equipment budget, said on Thursday: "We need a reform of the four-nation partnership. This arrangement is not working as well as it should."
He added: "The structure for support is not fit forpurpose."
The minister insisted that he was extremely happy with the performance of the Typhoon, which is well-liked by air force pilots. However, the government wants to modify the aircraft to make it capable of ground attacks, crucial in combat zones such as Afghanistan, and feels that progress towards this has been tortuous. It is also concerned about the high price of spares.
The depth of the MoD's unhappiness emerged on Thursday after a report from the National Audit Office un-veiled a year-long delay in developing the Meteor air-to-air missile, which will be used on the Typhoon.
Sir Peter Spencer, head of the MoD's procurement organisation, blamed the delay on the refusal of the Eurofighter consortium to provide aircraft to test the missiles at an affordable price.
"We were not prepared to accept the price," Sir Peter said. "We are going to turn this charity into a business."
The MoD will instead test the Meteor missiles on France's Rafale fighter jet and Sweden's Gripen.
Officials from the Eurofighter consortium were unavailable for comment.
A total of 384 fighters are being built for the four partner air forces, 144 of them for the RAF.
However, a decision on whether to build another 236 aircraft, as specified in the original agreement between the four countries, is in doubt.
The latest comments from the UK, the biggest customer for the jets, will add to doubts over the order, known as Tranche 3.
The NAO report is a yearly review of the MoD's performance on its 20biggest weapons projects, which has been abject in the past.
The cost of the 20 projects is running at £27bn, or 11 per cent higher than forecast. Tim Banfield, the report's author, said on Thursday that there had been "tentative signs of improvement", though these needed to be sustained.
In the 2005-06 financial year, the MoD reduced the deficit by £781m, though much of this was attributable to shifting costs to another part of the MoD budget.
The MoD has also improved its performance on delivering its biggest projects on time in the past financial year.
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