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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0004.PDF
WORLD NEWS West Germany seeks EFA cost cuts BONN Britain, Italy, and Spain are becoming increasingly impatient with West German political procrastination over a commitment to funding its share of the European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) project. West Germany's Defence Minister, Manfred Woerner, is believed to be asking the EFA partners' defence minis ters to pressure industry for more cost reductions in EFA so that he can get the programme approved by West Germany's coalition govern ment. Italy and Spain have already stated that their governments will approve EFA when the UK and West Germany give the go-ahead. The UK Ministry of Defence's Equipment Policy Committee (EPC) gave its go- ahead last November, and the equivalent group in the West German MoD gave EFA a green light in late December. The risk to EFA is that industry (Eurofighter and Eurojet) has already been financially squeezed on EFA, and any further cuts at the behest of Woerner could lead to a reduction in the aircraft's capability. The chiefs of air staffs have already signed the EFA operational requirement which effectively freezes the definition. The European Fighter Requirement (Devel opment) document was signed in September. This far down the line it is difficult for Woerner to backtrack on the programme, and any attempt must be embarassing for him as one of the signatories to EFA's original Tunis Agree ment. Marathon space mission ends ARKALYK The record 326-day space flight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko ended with a safe landing in Soyuz TM3 on December 29, reports Tim Furniss. Although he was carried away from the space craft on a stretcher, Romanenko, who in Mir exceeded the previous space endurance record by 90 days, later amazed observers by walking unaided. Romanenko landed with flight engineer Alexander Alexandrov, who had been launched on July 22 last year in Soyuz TM3, and research cosmonaut Anatoli Levchenko, launched in TM4 on December 21. Levchenko, the second test pilot in training for Soviet Shuttle flights to fly a Soyuz mission, flew an aircraft shortly after his arrival, to simulate a Shuttle landing. Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, also launched in TM4, remained on board Mir, and the Soviets intend their mission to last 400 days, though Manarov may be replaced after six months. During the Titov-Manarov mission, there will be two international visits by Bulgarian and French cosmonauts and a possible all-Soviet visiting flight. The Bulgarian mission will start on June 21, and will be crewed by commander Anat oli Solovyov and flight engineer Viktor Savinykh, who were backups on TM3. The Bulgarian cosmonaut will be Alexander Alexandrov. The reserve crew is Vladimir Lyakhov, Andrei Zaitsev, and Bulgarian Krasnir Stoyonov. Yuri Romanenko smiles on landing after ten months in space Dollar drop hits Airbus TOULOUSE Airbus Industrie is watching with concern the movement of the US Dollar as its part ners face the brunt of falling exchange rates. French Foreign Trade Minister Michel Noir says the 25 per cent fall in the Dollar is wiping out Airbus Industrie's profit. Partner British Aerospace has bought ahead a large amount of Dollars, but made a £49 million half-year loss on its civil aircraft side in 1987, including an anticipated £25 million loss from an exchange rate of $1-61/£1. The opinion in the City of London does not indicate a short-term change in the value of the Dollar, and major US political moves will be required to tackle the domes tic budget deficit and reverse the Dollar trend. Japan increases defence spending TOKYO ~ The Japanese ' Government has proposed a 5-2 per cent increase in defence spending for the financial year 1989. However, the expanded defence budget of Yen 3-7 trillion ($29-37 billion) would represent only 1-013 per cent of Japan's gross national product, a defence outlay which would still be much less than that of most most Nato countries. The Japanese Defence Agency (JDA) had hoped to finance the purchase of 15 McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighters, but had to settle for 12 when its original bid for a 6-2 per cent increase in spending was trimmed. However, the proposed budget does allow for the initial expenditure on the SX-3 (FSX) fighter project, two Aegis destroyers, and research into over-the-horizon radar. The JDA says that 57 per cent of the Yen 18-4 trillion in its five-year defence budget has been appropriated. This leaves approximately Yen 7-91 trillion to be spent in financial years 1990 and 1991. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 2/9 January 1988
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