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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 1949.PDF
LIGHT International, 28 September 1967 545 Vest Germany Prepares for Cut-back THE WEST GERMAN Parliamentary )efence Committee met recently to liscuss the three alternative proposals mt forward by the Defence Ministry for natching expenditure to the DM96,130 nillion (approx. £8,740 million) ear- narked for defence purposes over the lext four years in the Government's lurrent medium-term finance plans. The first of these proposals calls for a eduction in the strength of the iundeswehr from 458,000 to 400,000, vith particular emphasis on administra- ive and rear-area services; the second avours cuts in arms procurement but 10 reduction in manpower; while the hird represents a compromise, namely manpower cut of between 15,000 and 9,000 combined with more moderate :uts in weapons purchases. No decision ippears to have been reached by the :ommittee. Although proceedings in the Defence Committee are secret, it is known that ierr Eduard Adorno, Defence Ministry 'arliamentary Secretary, informed the :ommittee that no radical changes were o be expected in the general defence wlicies or in the overall organisation )f the Bundeswehr. Turning to the iubject of aircraft procurement, Adorno ilso denied reports that the Bundeswehr ivas planning to purchase 150 McDon- wll F-4 Phantoms for the Luftwaffe md Kriegsmarine; his Ministry had been jiving considerable thought to the ques- tion of replacement types for the lircraft at present in service with the wo Services, but no decision had yet >een reached, nor in fact was any to » expected in the near future. The Defence Committee discussed the luestion of Transall C.I60 deliveries to he Luftwaffe and is disposed to stick o the original order for 110 of these urcraft, so as to keep down the unit :ost to a reasonable level and to protect urcraft industry employment. It is expected that a number of the Luft- waffe's order will be re-sold abroad, as urplus to requirements. . While the Defence Committee delibera- tions were continuing, Chancellor Kiesinger was addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee on the same subject Latest impressions of the US-German AVS project, being handled by Fairchild-Hiller and EWR Sud, clearly show the swing-out vectoring lift engines, swing wings, and swivelling main-engine jetpipes of this highly complex VG VTOL project. Now in the systems definition phase, to be completed in November, the AVS will then be recon- sidered by both Governments, with a decision on whether to embark on prototypes due to be taken next February. Washington sources report a slight warming in the US Government's still cool attitude of the Bundeswehr's future, reportedly stating that he had reached agreement with Defence Minister Gerhard Schroder before his visit to the United States that plan 3—a cut of 15,000 to 19,000 in manpower coupled with some procure- ment reductions—should be adopted. Similar views were also being expressed in Washington by the German Army C-in-C, General Moll, in the course of talks with US Army Chief of Staff, General Harold Johnson. In these talks, particular attention was given to the Bundeswehr's future transport needs, which, it is agreed, can only be met by relying to a greater extent on medium and utility transport helicopters. AWACS Delay Hits F-12 Programme DEVELOPMENT of the projected USAF airborne early warning and control sys- tem (AWACS) aircraft, for which vari- ants of the Douglas DC-8 and Boeing 707 airliners have been proposed, may extend over the next five years, accord- ing to Aviation Daily. Contract definition of the aircraft is expected within the next month or so but development will At an author's dinner to launch "The Fighter Pilots" by Edward Sims, Sqn Ldr "Ginger" Lacey, top-scoring RAF pilot (then a sergeant) during the Battle of Britain, right, meets Hr Erich Hartmann, top-scoring Luftwaffe fighter pilot in the Second World War be a lengthy business. Until the system (which involves high resolution radars able to track distant low-flying targets against ground and sea clutter) is fully proved, the USAF is unlikely to be per- mitted to order Lockheed F-12s, or any other long-range Mach 3 intercepters, as long as Mr McNamara is Defence Secretary. Mr McNamara considers the AWACS and YF-12 programmes as complementary—the long-range inter- cepter, as argument runs, being of little use without the airborne electronics to acquire and track its targets. Aviation Daily also reports that the USAF's operational requirement for a "light intra-theatre transport" to follow the C-130 Hercules is still in a state of flux and design studies are not complete. Contract definition of the LIT, as the project is termed, is unlikely before 1969. One of the questions not yet resolved is whether the aircraft will be a V/STOL design. More about Phantom Procurement IN THE ARTICLE "Preparing for the Phantom" on pages 483-487 of last week's issue were references which should be modified in the light of infor- mation received from the Ministry of Technology. First, the roles of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Technology in procurement (third-from-last para- graph on page 484 of the article) may be more accurately explained as follows: Naval Air Systems Command of the US Navy acts as agent for the MoD in the development and procurement of the aircraft. In short, Mintech fulfils its normal role except that instead of deal- ing directly with the aircraft construc- tor (as it would with a British firm) it works through NASC. This arrangement gives the benefit of bulk buying, as whenever possible the British orders are combined with much larger American orders, with the result that the advan- tages of long production runs accrue.
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