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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0184.PDF
-, 292 FUGHT International, 4 February 1978 Awacs: Nato tries again Belenko, the Russian pilot who de- \ fected to Japan last year in a MiG-25. , Eastern-bloc armed forces are highly * structured and very centralised, leav- J ing very little flexibility in the hands of fighter pilots or even the lower > levels of command. This trend would change in future, warned Gen Evans, 1 citing the calls for a looser form of ^ command structure which are now appearing in Russian military publica tions. The maintenance and logistical set- | up behind the Pact's numerically J superior forces is less sophisticated than its Nato equivalent and might limit the wartime sortie rate. This problem might be aggravated when the front lines have to cope with ' more complex equipment, such as "smart" bombs and advanced weapon- aiming systems. Egypt shops for F-5s FINANCIAL experts from the Nato member states are trying once again to work out a cost-sharing formula to cover an 18-aircraft Awacs force. The resulting solution is meant to be adopted at the next ministerial meet ing of the defence planning committee (see Flight for December 31, 1977, page 1899). The shape of Europe's planned air borne early-warning and control force has already been decided. Britain's 11 AEW Nimrods will be joined by 18 E-3As, both types being completely interoperable. Total cost of the Nato Awacs force is now estimated at $2,000 million. The two major partners—West Ger many and the USA—want this to be shared as widely as possible, although they do accept that their own contri butions will remain the largest (see Flight for November 26, 1977, page 1573). Most of the other nations are still trying to cut down their own share of the bill while looking for the maxi mum return in economic offsets and location of bases. The US would meet about a third of the costs and produce the airframes and some of the electronics. Lion's share of the European contribution must come from Germany, which in turn would carry out most of the co- production work and house one of the operating bases. A location near Aachen has been suggested. A possible face-saving way out of the financial impasse would be to draw operating and maintenance costs from Nato funds, while the actual aircraft and their avionics would be paid for by contributions from Nato member countries. In the long run the project would still have to be funded by the same group of members through their A full-scale model of the F-18 Hornet has been built by McDonnell Douglas to help production engineers in checking the layout of internal equipment and electrical wiring contributions to Nato costs. But split ting the deal into smaller packages might make it easier for the smaller nations to extract the required money from their parliaments. Gen William Evans, commander of the Allied Air Forces Central Europe (AAFGEi) and commander-in-chief of the US Air Forces in Europe, ex plained some of the advantages which an Awacs force would give the Euro pean members of Nato during a visit last week to Nato headquarters in Brussels. Warning time of a low-level Warsaw Pact air attack would be almost doubled, he said, and without this in crease Nato would be hard pressed to maintain an effective air defence. The present warning time was classified, but was measured in terms of minutes, said Gen Evans, who although satis fied with the proposed 18 E-3As and 11 Nimrod AEWs would have liked Nato to fund and deploy 27 of the Boeing aircraft, as originally planned. A Nato airborne early warning force is urgently required, in the General's view, to cope with recent improvements in the Warsaw Pact air arms. At present Nato is outnumbered by about 2-5 to 1 in normal peacetime deployment. Even if reinforcements on both sides are taken into account, the Pact retains at 3-to-2 numerical superiority. In the past, air forces positioned opposite the Nato nations had a primarily defensive role, the ground- attack potential of most first-genera tion Russian fighters being relatively modest and in some cases utterly minimal by Western standards. Third- generation types such as the MiG-27 and Su-19 have however since given the Pact seven times the range and five times the carrying capacity of these earlier designs. All is not sweetness and light on the other side of the fence, however, Gen Evans has observed Russian mili tary manoeuvres and talked with Lt EGYPT may buy 50 or more F-5Es later this year, provided the deal sur- ' mounts the twin hurdles of opposition from the pro-Israel faction in Con gress and President Carter's desire to cut down the level of US arms ex ports. The only military equipment which the US has sold to Egypt to far are six C-130H and two EC-130H Hercules, plus a number of recon naissance drones. Israel's supporters in Congress will doubtless apply pressure in the hope of stalling the supply of combat equip ment. On the other hand, any move to encourage Egypt's recent shift away from Soviet aircraft and weaponry could appeal to the US Government. The actual number of aircraft in volved has yet to be decided. When President Sadat visited the USA last year he asked for 250 F-5Es, but Con gressional opposition would almost certainly rule out such a major boost to Egypt's front-line strength. A figure of 120 has recently been suggested, but the deal due to be sub mitted for President Carter's approval is more likely to cover between 50 and 60 aircraft. Congress must approve all v arms sales of this magnitude, a pro viso which could be a real stumbling block unless substantial progress is made in Egyptian-Israeli peace nego tiations. Egypt's main fighter-bomber is the Su-7. On paper the F-5E has more than twice the tactical radius and at least 25 per cent more payload. The US air craft is also significantly smaller and lighter than the Russian type, a dis tinct advantage in a part of the world where clear skies allow a fighter pilot to pick out his victim with the naked eye at relatively long range.
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