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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 0019.PDF
TECHNICAL: DEFENCE Cheney continues to back B-2 programme Cheney backs building five B-2s in FY 1991, but will Congress approve? US defence secretary Dick Cheney's "commitment to the B-2 is unequivocal," says the Pentagon, following the announcement that Cheney will continue with plans to build five of the Northrop stealth bombers in Fiscal Year 1991. The Pentagon adds: "Our entire arms control strategy re volves around [the B-2]". Cheney, previously believed to be considering stretching out or scaling down the programme, is thought to have overruled re ported United States Air Force proposals to stretch B-2 produc tion as a means of cutting the budget. The question of long- term funding has been left open, the Pentagon says. Escalating costs mean that it is almost certain that the planned fleet of 132 B-2s will be cut back. Cheney's FY 1991 B-2 decision will now be put before Congress, where considerable opposition is expected. • Military EH101 makes maiden flight The prototype military utility version of the EH. 101 heli copter, PP7, has flown from Agusta's Cascina Costa factory. The maiden flight lasted 30 min utes and will pave the way for the first flight of the civil heliliner prototype PP9 later this year. Both pre-production heli copters feature a rear ramp and are fitted with the standard EH. 101 glass cockpit. The PP8 being produced at the Westland factory, however, will be a stan dard civil variant without the tail ramp. EH Industries is expecting to deliver its project definition of the military utility variant to the United Kingdom Ministry of De fence by early this year. The Italian Army and Air Force are continuing to examine the utility variant. Agreement over the produc tion standard for the Royal Navy's EH. 101 Merlin is still awaited. It had been scheduled to be completed by the end of 1989. The Merlin prototype PP5 has now flown over seven hours and was recently fitted with the GEC Avionics AQS-903 acoustic processor. Over 350 flying hours have now been amassed from 450 separate missions in the EH. 101 test programme. • Investigation follows ALARM failure The third firing of the Bayern Chemie-powered British Aerospace ALARM is being in vestigated following the missile's failure to separate from the launch aircraft. Two earlier firings of the missiles at the Aberporth, UK, range were successful. The third firing at the US Navy's China Lake test range was the first in the United States. At Aberporth the missile was tested with a dispersal round and then in the second test with a seeker head fitted. In both cases the missile separated perfectly from the Panavia Tornado IDS launch aircraft. The trials moved to the USA to allow the missile's full flight and electronic en velope to be explored. The test programme will not resume until the cause of the separation problem has been identified. BAe is still confident of being able to start deliveries to the UK Ministry of Defence for evaluation later this year. The missile's entry into service is still scheduled for the mid-1990s. • Matra launches two Mistral systems Matra has announced Albi and Atlas, two new air- defence systems using the Mis tral anti-aircraft missile. Albi is a lightweight two- round launcher mounted on a retractable turret aimed at the light armoured vehicle market for support defence missions. The system has two Mistrals ready to fire and uses the same firing control system as the Manpads portable single-round two-crew tripod launcher. Albi can be equipped with an identi fication friend or foe (IFF) interrogator. An Albi derivative, Atlas, com prises a portable two-round launcher operated by a seated firer. It can be used autono mously and can be deployed on the ground, on oil rigs or on light vehicles. • Matra's Mistral missile is launched from the Atlas system. Bendix orders Cossor ISLS amplifier C ossor is to develop an interrogator side-lobe sup pression (ISLS) amplifier,.; for Mark XV airborne interrogators, under a $700,000 contract with Allied-Signal's Bendix Commu nications division. This is the second order that Cossor has received from Bendix on the Mark XV programme, the first being for an engineering support contract under which Cossor systems engineers are providing support to the Bendix team in the USA. The ISLS amplifier will be an all-solid-state unit and will be produced at the company's new RF and Microwave Centre. Cossor is also involved in orders with parent company Raytheon. D FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3-9 January 1990 17
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