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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 0008.PDF
• • • . . ••: Two F-I6s of the latest USAF unit to re-equip, the 56th TFW ot McDill AFB, Florida F-16 orders signed SOUTH KOREA and Pakistan are the latest customers for the General Dynamics F-16. Their respective Governments have signed letters of offer and acceptance with the US Government. Venezuela's proposed order for 24 F-16s, including eight two-seaters, is in the Congressional review stage. The Republic of Korea is to receive 36 aircraft. Deliveries will start in February 1986 at a rate of one air craft a month. The $930 million order includes six two-seat F-16s with re lated spares, training, and technical assistance. The US Air Force intro duced its own F-16s to South Korea last August, and now has 28 aircraft in service at Kunsan AB. Pakistan will buy 40 F-16s; the first six will be delivered by December 1982. The remaining 34 aircraft will be covered by a separate letter, with the F-16s due in Pakistan 27 months after signature. Delivery of 75 Israeli aircraft, held up by sanctions follow ing the Iraqi raid, has been com pleted. Egypt will receive the first of its 40 F-16s in March. The Netherlands, which ordered 102 F-16s in 1975, has said that another 111 aircraft will be needed as NF-5 replacements and for first-order attrition replacements. A further 22 F-16s are on order for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and the Dutch are expected to sign for another 18 aircraft as we go to press. Defence Target RPV prepared for flight FIRST mission of the Flight Refuel ling advanced subsonic aerial target (Asat) is expected later this month at the Larkhill artillery range, Wiltshire. FR is building eight development vehicles for the 12-month test pro gramme, and expects Asat to be in service with the British Army by mid- 1983. Asat is being developed as an ex pendable target for Army ground-air defence systems. Capable of around 400kt, the target, powered by an Ames Industrial (Microturbo) TBS-18 turbojet, is faster than the Canberra- towed Rushton target, and its manoeuvrability and variable speed capability are more representative of modern attack aircraft. The compact, circular - runway launch technique has been developed for two leasons: to provide a target indigenous to the firing range, to take advantage of local weather condi tions; and to avoid potentially hazardous, rocket-assisted take-offs. Asat accelerates around the "carousel" under its own power until unstick speed is achieved. The tricky transition from an angular velocity of around 60°/sec to a steady climb takes about 4sec, and is completely under the control of a Marconi Avionics autopilot. Once airborne, Asat comes under control of an operator seated at a synthetic radar plan position indicator. Control out to 20km is via a VHF command link. In the basic version, tracking is accomplished by the existing range radar, avoiding the need for an expen sive downlink in the expendable tar get. "Autonomous" Asat, with data- link, is on offer to customers where range facilities are not so extensive. In addition, FR has a "modest" Ministry of Defence contract to study the development potential of Asat for other roles. A non-flying airframe has com pleted 1,300 laps of the circular run way, simulating 10O sorties up to representative launch attitudes and speeds, in both wet and dry condi tions. Once Asat has flown, FR hopes to complete one flight a week. The company expects to receive a first- year contract for 25 vehicles, followed by 50 a year sustained production. The non-flying Asat test airframe is used to work out circular-runway launch techniques 6 FLIGHT International, 2 January 1982
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