The head of Airbus called on Britain on Thursday to stop stalling over its order for Eurofighter warplanes amid speculation that the country's dire financial position is prompting a rethink.
"We are hoping strongly that the British finally take their foot off the brake in the coming days and the coming weeks," Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders told reporters in Berlin. "I don't know why the British are braking."
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain were meant to buy 620 Eurofighters — made by Airbus's Franco-German parent company EADS, Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica — but a third tranche of 236 aircraft has been held up.
The head of the defence and security division of EADS, Stefan Zoller, said on April 15 that the last batch could be cut roughly in two, leading to a delay for 124 of the 236 aircraft.
Zoller had said that an order of 112 aircraft was due to be made "in the coming days" but Enders said on Thursday that the first part of this third tranche "has still not been secured."
The financial crisis has made other countries less keen on ordering billions of euros (dollars) worth of military hardware, not least Germany, which is due to buy 68 aircraft in the third tranche.
Each jet is reported to cost 100 million euros (130 million dollars).
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