HELSINKI — Denmark's Office of Attorney General is expected to unveil a formal legal defense position in April or May in response to a lawsuit filed by Boeing that essentially questions the fairness and transparency of Denmark's fighter selection process.

Boeing wants access to selection process documents pertaining to Denmark's next-generation fighter competition.

In its lawsuit, Boeing claims that its F/A-18F Super Hornet, which lost out to Lockheed Martin's F-35A Joint Strike Fighter in the Danish Fighter Replacement Program, may have been subjected to a flawed evaluation process culminating in unsound conclusions made by Denmark about the aircraft.   

On the Danish side, the government's defense strategy and legal input is being prepared in consultation with the ministries of Defence, Justice and Finance. Denmark plans to also present reasons for nondisclosure of selection process documents sought by Boeing.

It is anticipated that the Danish government's core arguments against the lawsuit will be to explain the criteria under which the fighter selection process was run and defend the overall transparency aspect of the competition.

Moreover, the Danish MoD will argue that it could not comply with certain individual petitions by Boeing for information because the requests made were either nonspecific or "too wide-ranging" in nature.

Part of Denmark's defense strategy will be to block access by Boeing to technical reports and records dealing with the evaluations conducted on the various competing candidate aircraft on the grounds that such documents fall under Denmark's classified data laws.

Furthermore, Denmark is expected to argue that Boeing's Super Hornet fell short of Lockheed Martin's F-35 offering under the Fighter Replacement Program's so-called four primary assessment pillars: strategic, military, economic and industrial. 

Boeing's lawsuit will endeavor to persuade a Danish court to compel the Danish government to grant the company access to certain classified and other documents pertaining to technical and qualitative reviews carried out on the competing aircraft and which were instrumental to overall decision-making and selection of the F-35A.

Denmark's MoD has already denied Boeing's requests for access to all materials relevant to the decision-making process. The MoD has only released a small number of documents to Boeing despite regular formal requests for greater access that were lodged by the company in the past six months.

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