Disagreements fly over Lockheed's F-16 offset deal

"During the first year [which ends in mid-April]... LM expects to have completed one sixth of the offset projects, worth about $1 billion," said Philip N. Georgariou, head of LM's F-16 industrial team. However, the Polish offset committee refutes such a claim, stating that contracts worth only $520 million have been started, while only another $270 million-worth of investments are likely to be completed relatively soon. The Americans estimate they have started 27 projects, although Deputy Economy Minister Jacek Piechota argues they have only started three, namely the assembly line for the Astra T-3000 in Gliwice, the construction of an accelerator in Łódź and the production of explosives at the Bydgoszcz-based Nitro-Chem. The question whether the report will be approved by the Economy Ministry remains open. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) D.W.