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Aviation History
1976
1976 - 0046.PDF
Japan likely to choose F-15 Japan's search for an FX fighter to replace F-104Js from 1980 has been narrowed to the F-14, F-15 and F-16, according to Mr Ko Maruyama, director-general of the Japanese Defence Agency's defence bureau. The original short-list also included the Mirage F.l, Viggen and MRCA. The F-14. at a unit cost of Y5.800 million (£9-4 million), will probably prove to be too expensive and it is not—because of its long range and multi-role capability—regarded as a purely defensive aircraft. The F-16 is the cheapest at Y2,725 million (£4-4 million), but it is considered to lack the necessary capability. This leaves the Y4,500 million (£7-3 million) F-15 as front-runner. A second evaluation team is due to visit the preferred manufacturers in May or June, with a final decision being made by August. Alpha Jet production plan Dassault-Breguet has been notified of the first production order for the Franco-German Alpha Jet trainer/ light-attack aircraft. The production plan encompasses 56 of the trainer version for the French Air Force and 84 of the tactical support version for the Luftwaffe, along with 420 Snecma/Turbomeca Larzac 04 en gines. Work assignment to the main con tractors is as follows: Dassault- Breguet will build the fuselage forward of frame 29, make various fittings and assemble complete fuselages; Dornier will build the fuselage aft of frame 29, the wing and tail unit; the Belgian companies Fairey and Sabca, in return for the Belgian order for 33 Alpha Jets, will build the nose section and flaps. The French assembly line will be at the Toulouse Colomiers plant and tooling facilities are at present planned for a total of 1,000 units turned out at a stabilized monthly rate of 10-12 air craft. Production planning for the Larzac encompasses some 1,200 complete engines and the equivalent of 600 more in spares. French industry will The first of two F-IIIAs being modified to EF-IIIAs by Grumman has made its maiden flight with a new weapons-bay radome, 16ft long and designed to cover high-powered jammers. The fin fairing has yet to be in stalled but will closely resemble (as will much of the internal equipment) that of Crumman's own EA-6B Prowler. The EF-IIIA is designed to replace USAF EB-66s in providing electronic countermeasures support for Tactical Air Command aircraft account for 56-5 per cent of the work and the German firms of Motoren- und Turbinen-Union and Klockner-Hum- boldt Deutz for the remaining 43-5 per cent. Two assembly and testing lines have been set up, one at Snecma and the other at KHD. Engines will eventually be produced at a rate of at least 30 a month, with delivery of the first production model due at the end of 1977. • German sources have told Interavia AirLetter that Belgium is due to receive its first trainer Alpha Jets (designated IB) in November 1978. Deliveries will be completed in April 1980. German Roland deliveries next year The first five of the Bundeswehr's planned 143 fire units of the Euro- missile Roland II battlefield air- defence system mounted on Marder SPz (Schiitzenpanzer) tank chassis will be delivered next year. Eighty missiles will also be supplied in 1977 for operational testing, a further five fire units will be handed over during the following year and the remaining 133 will be delivered between 1979 and 1982. The total order for the fire units and 5,000 missiles (see Flight for December 18, 1975, page 882) is worth DM2,260 million (£425 million). Viggens flying again Test flights with the Saab Viggen have resumed following the grounding of nearly 100 aircraft after a series of accidents (see Flight for December 18, 1975, page.879). Saab test pilot Ulf Frieburg flew one of the JA37 fighter prototypes, which has the modified and strengthened wing spar for better overall stress distribution, on Decem ber 15 and trials with an AJ37 are due to start this month for the benefit of the accident committee. Australian Rapier order signed The contract under which the British Aircraft Corporation's Guided Weapons Division will supply Rapier low-level air-defence systems to the Australian Army (see Flight for Sep tember 4, 1975, page 328) was signed in London on December 31. Deliveries will begin in mid-1978. The order, worth $A50 million (£23 million), is for 20 optical fire units and test equipment, including a base repair facility which will make Australia self- FLIGHT International, w/e 10 January 1976 sufficient in maintenance and support. An option provides for the eventual supply of Blindfire tracking radars. More than 23 per cent by value of the equipment will be built in Australia. The order is the first major one confirmed by the newly elected Australian Government and was an nounced by the new Defence Minister, Mr James Killen. USN asks for industry proposals The United States Naval Sea Sys tems Command (NavSea) has asked US industry to propose new-tech nology projects by mid-January. The USN has previously issued this blanket request in 1971 and 1973 under its advanced prototyping pro gramme, five projects having been financed out of the 110 suggested. Those from the 1971 proposals were General Dynamics' Pomona Division's Vertical-Launch Standard Missile, which is now entering engineering development for possible use on the DD963 Spraance-class destroyer; the Raytheon/Hercules Vertical - Ejection - Launch Aero Reaction Control pneumatically launched missile for point defence; and the Hughes Aircraft Versatile Electro-Optical System integrated fire- control equipment. The 1973 invitation led to the Advanced Surface-Air Rocket/Ramjet, being developed by the Applied Physics laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Hercules and Bendix: and Motorola's Active Radar Missile Seeker. Past projects have concentrated on surface warfare, but this year NavSea has budgeted $600,000 for undersea studies in Fiscal 77, which begins on October 1. Surface studies are budgeted at $3-5 million in the cur rent fiscal year and $4-7 million in the next. Dick Metrey, programme manager for the advanced prototyping effort, says that the ground rules stress the development of experimen tal hardware, including adaptations of existing equipment, but discourage paper studies and "brochuremanship." The programme evolved out of former Deputy Defence Secretary David Packard's idea of "fly before buy" in stead of paper studies, and Metrey describes it as being somewhere between exploratory development and advanced development.
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