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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 0052.PDF
Strategic metals supply concerns Pentagon PENTAGON strategists are concerned over the USA's growing dependence on foreign sources for strategic metals and other critical materials, electronics hardware, and machine tools. Fred Ikle, Undersecretary for Policy, tells Congress that although the Pentagon has not yet come up with a solution to the problem, studies will continue. Despite "buy Ameri can" laws and the recognised danger of an eroded US industrial base, the "real world" is forcing the Pentagon to buy overseas. Ikle says that the Pentagon will try various pressure-bearing legal ploys, financial incentives, and training pro grammes to reverse the trend. But no matter what the success rate, Ikle concedes that the Department of De fence must depend, in some instances, on foreign sources. This is a result of the lack of leverage that the DoD can exert on the market. In machine tools, the average lead times have been reduced from 14 to eight weeks, but 23 per cent of US industry machine tool orders are still placed overseas. Ikle quotes a West Coast munitions company which re ceived delivery estimates of up to 18 months from US tool suppliers. The same tool was delivered from Japan in a week. US cobalt mining stopped in 1979. The current market price is $9/lb, but the only two potential US suppliers would require between $20/lb and $25/lb, selling over a sustained period, to justify re-opening their mines. Productivity methods are also a factor. US industry buys 16 per cent of its annual titanium sponge require ment from Japan, despite Japan's 20 per cent higher price. This is because Japan uses a superior vacuum distill ing process not adopted in the USA. The DoD accounts for only 6 per cent of the US electronic components market. As a result the industry re sponds principally to the demands of the commercial sector. The DoD therefore has to look to overseas sup pliers, mainly in the Far East, to satisfy its requirements. Finally, Ikle complains that Euro pean Nato countries refuse to recog nise the cost of basing US forces in Europe; "The Europeans view the arms trade in equipment as a separate measure of US co-operation in Alliance matters. And this is weighed as ten-to-one in favour of the USA. What this means is that our European Allies expect us to demon strate our co-operation by buying more European defence items." Marconi beats Gould to Royal Navy heavy torpedo contract MARCONI Space and Defence Sys tems has been awarded a £500 million contract from the UK Ministry of Defence for development and initial production of the company's heavy weight submarine/ship-launched tor pedo. Some of the total sum, the largest fixed-price contract issued by the MoD, will go for "continuation of development" work on the MSDS Stingray lightweight torpedo, for RAF and RN use. The US Gould Corporation has offered its updated Mk48 torpedo for the heavyweight role, and although the US bid is thought to have been considerably lower than the MSDS tender, the Mk48 update did not meet MoD specifications. One of five Ecuador Army de Havilland Canada DHC-SD buffaloes posses through Florida during delivery wBMsmm •illiliB Reagan plugs USA/USSR technology leak PRESIDENT REAGAN has taken the first steps toward stemming the flow of US technical intelligence and hard ware to the USSR. In its first meet ing since the 1950s, the Pentagon's voluntary co-ordinating committee, known as Co-com, is reviewing the ease of information access for the USSR in such areas as microprocessor technology, computer software, and the acquisition of precision tooling. Richard Perle, assistant secretary for international security policy, says that the USSR is "gaining access to Western technology on an unprece dented scale by exploiting weaknesses in our control system. Today we see the results of this laissez-faire atti tude over the last decade in the size and technological capability of the Soviet armed forces." "Since 1970, the Soviet Union has benefited from Western technology in several areas, including high speed computers used in weapons sys tem designing, signal processing, command and control systems, elec tronic intelligence gathering, guid ance and navigation technology for aircraft, ships, submarines and mis siles, and the USSR has also im proved its military-industrial base with precision tools and process 'know-how'." Much of this happened because of the failure of the Co-com to legislate against it, but Reagan is now attempt ing to tighten up on technology trans fer "at the highest diplomatic level" with more active enforcement by Nato member nations. 50 FLIGHT International, 9 January 1982
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