The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence and Lockheed Martin have signed an offset agreement relating to the procurement of C-130 transport aircraft. The agreement covers offset purchases equivalent to the purchase price of four transport aircraft, of the order of NOK 3 billion, which was a precondition for the Storting’s (Norwegian Parliament) decision in the spring to proceed with the fast track purchase of transport aircraft. In addition the contractor is committed to offset purchases for all items procured from Lockheed Martin in connection with the C-130 aircraft over the next 20 years, a so-called life-cycle agreement.
Offsetting the price of large defence spending agianst an equivalent guaranteed increase in a countries exports (in this case Norway) is the preferred method of financing defence spending for small countries, no reason why Wales and our economy could not benefit in the same way.