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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0006.PDF
HEADLINES NEWS IN BRIEF DoD CUTS COST Computer Sciences (CSC) has been selected to develop the US Department of Defense's (DoD) joint computer-aided acquisition and logistic sup port (JCALS) system. The project will put all paperwork required to build, maintain and support weapon systems, from contracts to engineering drawings and technical manu als, onto a single computer system linking military instal lations and defence contrac tors via fibre-optic networks. The DoD estimates that JCALS will reduce the cost of new weapons systems by 20% and reduce the cost of spares by 50%. US Navy awards five A-X studies The US Navy has awarded study contracts to the five industry teams bidding to de velop the A-X carrierborne at tack aircraft. The $20 million concept exploration/definition study contracts cover trade-off studies and risk-reduction activi ties to be completed by October. The A-X supersedes the cancelled General Dynamics/ McDonnell Douglas A-12 as the replacement for the Navy's Grumman A-6 Intruder me dium-attack aircraft. One prime contractor is to be selected in mid-1993 to proceed to the demonstration/validation phase. Three of the five prime con tractors are proposing "clean- sheet" designs: McDonnell Douglas, with LTV Aerospace as its principal subcontractor; Grumman, with Boeing and Lockheed Advanced Develop ment as subcontractors; and Rockwell, again working with Lockheed's "Skunk Works". Two primes are pursuing de rivative designs: General Dy namics, with principal subcon tractor McDonnell Douglas and major subcontractor Northrop, will use the A-12 as a baseline; while Lockheed Aeronautical Systems, with Boeing and Gen eral Dynamics as subcontractors, will study an F-22 derivative. • Raytheon in last-ditch bid for ASRAAM deal BY MIKE GAINES US aerospace manufacturer Raytheon is making a last- minute attempt to enter the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) competition for an advanced short-range air-to-air missile (ASRAAM), after failing to meet the August 1991 deadline for the submission of initial tenders. The company is offering the Improved Sidewinder missile, developed under a US Depart ment of Defense classified pro gramme codenamed Box Office, which uses tail-fin control only. The reasons for the company's changing its decision not to bid are unclear. Raytheon's short-range air-to- air missiles programme manager, Jim Wilson, says: "We are hav ing dialogue with the MoD right now, but we're not sure if we will be able to get in as the three other companies are already pro ducing their best and final of fers. We are working to see if the British will accept our bid before the 31 January deadline for the offer." The MoD says: "If they want to talk to us, we are happy to talk to them." Five companies and consortia expressed an initial interest in the ASRAAM requirement in Raytheon seeks new target for Improved Sidewinder sales 1991: Raytheon, Loral, BGT in Germany; British Aerospace (BAe) with Hughes; and GEC Marconi with Matra. Only BAe, GEC and BGT sub mitted bids in 1991, however. An MoD equipment policy com mittee (EPC) met to discuss the initial bids on 4 December, 1991. A decision on the winning tender is to be made by the middle of 1991. It is not clear whether the selection process will be delayed if the Ministry of Defence decides to allow Ray theon to bid. The MoD surprised industry last year by opening the ASRAAM requirement to compe tition after it had been under development for nearly a decade. Under the now collapsed joint family of weapons memorandum of understanding between sev eral European nations and the USA. The missile now forms the basis of BAe's bid. GEC Marconi/Matra are offer ing MICASRAAM, a develop ment of the latter's Mica, while BGT said in 1991 that "...a Sidewinder upgrade would be an option" to meet the ASRAAM requirement. Loral was also ex pected to bid a Sidewinder vari ant, but did not respond to the August deadline, and confirms that it will not be bidding. The ASRAAM staff require ment, SR(A)1234, is for a short- range missile to replace the current AIM-9L/M Sidewinder on Royal Air Force European Fighter Aircraft and Harrier French navy shelves trainer need The French navy has put on ice plans to buy up to 50 jet trainers to train pilots for the Rafale ACM naval fighter. A senior naval officer says: "The Marine Nationale has de cided to put off the purchase of a new trainer, at least for several years...no funds have been allo cated in the 1992 defence budget for a naval trainer, and Naval Rafale awaits training partner as funds for the project dry up we cannot even hope that it will be in 1993 or later." The two aircraft competing for the requirement were the McDonnell Douglas/British Aerospace T-45 Goshawk and the Dassault Alpha Jet Marine, utilising converted existing airframes used by the air force. The selected aircraft was to replace the navy's current ageinj. fleet of 23 CM175 Zephir (Fouga Magister) trainers, oi which 11 are in storage. 4 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8 - 14 January, 199;
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