Washington: Seated near a model of Martin-Baker’s latest ejection seat design, company executive Andrew Martin looked incredulous.
An official at rival ejection seat-maker, Collins Aerospace, had suggested that some Martin-Baker seats weren’t as safe as they should be — an unfair claim, Martin said, because it was based on outdated data.
“Why would somebody want to fearmonger?” Martin said. “Why would somebody want to put out data and tell pilots, you know, things that are incorrect and give pilots pause for thought, when what they absolutely should be doing is pulling their handle? That’s the part that we find slightly irresponsible.”
Safety is, of course, the top priority for both ejection seat-makers, as their product is one that’s only intended to be used when a pilot’s life is in grave danger already.
But the comments also come as hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line amid a ticking clock: By the end of the year, the US Air Force plans to complete a review of the Next Generation Ejection Seat (NGES) program, whose contract is currently held by Collins. Sometime after that, the service could decide to change its acquisition strategy, potentially shifting the rights to produce ejection seats for hundreds, if not thousands, of US aircraft.
To be clear, once the review concludes, the Air Force could still stick with its incumbent acquisition strategy, where Collins is already underway with work on the F-15E. And if the service does change its mind, that might not mean a complete switch from US-based Collins, a subsidiary of defence giant RTX, to UK-based Martin-Baker. A full competition could still lead to Collins emerging victorious, or theoretically result in some split of work between the two companies.
But any time there is even the chance to grab market share, the two members of the ejection seat duopoly know they have to go all-in, given the narrow nature of the business.
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