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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 0012.PDF
DEFENCE USA cancels defunct Chinese contracts The USA is to terminate four foreign military-sales (FMS) contracts with China, which were suspended when sanctions were imposed in retaliation for the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The four contracts include the Peace Pearl programme to up date Chinese Shenyang F-8 II interceptors with US avionics. Equipment held by the USA will be returned to China "...as is, with no follow-on support, re pairs, maintenance or training", says the US State Department. Two F-8 II prototypes and a mock-up delivered to Peace Pearl prime contractor Grum man will be shipped back to China, along with four shipsets of avionics-upgrade kits. The modification kits comprise fire- control, environmental-control and electrical-power systems. The State Department says that equipment to be returned to China is "ageing" and of "lim ited utility". Also to be returned are two Hughes TPQ-37 artil lery-locating radars, four Mk46 torpedoes and equipment for a munitions production line. The USA will reimburse funds remaining in China's FMS ac count and the State Department emphasises that there are no plans for further arms sales to China. The Chinese cancelled plans to upgrade the F-8 in 1990 and purchased Sukhoi Su-27 in terceptors from the former So viet Union instead. • China has ordered France to close its consulate in Guangzhou in retaliation for the "absolutely unacceptable" sale of 60 Dassault Mirage 2000-5s to Taiwan. • NEWS IN BRIEF HELLSTAR STOPPED The Israeli navy is to terminate the Israel Aircraft Industries Hellstar unmanned helicopter programme. Instead, the navy will purchase another two heli copters to be deployed on its missile boats. The Aerospatiale AS. 565 Panther is the most likely candidate. Development problems and budget restric tions led to the termination. Hellstar was to have an Elta target-detection radar and a stabilised day/night obser vation system integrated with a laser rangefinder/designator. JASDF HANDOVER The first British Aerospace U- 125 variant of the 125-800 corporate jet was handed over to the Japan Air Self-Defence Force on 18 December. The corporate jet is the first of three which were ordered in 1989 for flight inspection and calibration of ground-based ra dios and navigation aids. Mis sion avionics are supplied by LTV/Sierra Research. RADAR TENDER The UK Ministry of Defence has issued an invitation to tender for two tactical long- range air-defence radars for the Royal Air Force. The tenders are due by 31' March 1993. Companies invited to bid for Staff Requirement Air (SRA)918 are Marconi Radar Systems and Siemens Plessey Systems in the UK, Alenia in Italy, Telefunken in Germany (through AEG UK), France's Thomson-CSF and General Electric and Westinghouse in the USA. UAV RESUMPTION Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical has resumed testing of the BQM-145A medium-range un manned air vehicle (MR-UAV) with the successful first flight of the second prototype on 21 December. The first YBQM-145 prototype was destroyed when it crashed during its first ground launch in September 1992. The accident followed two successful air launches. COLOMBIA TAKES DELIVERY OF TUCANOS Fourteen Embraer EMB.312 Tucanos for the Colombian air force were delivered in two batches during the second half of December 1992. Two VIP-configured EMB.110P Bandierantes were also delivered in late December. Iraqi MiG provides first AMRAAM kill The USA has reinforced its fighter force in Saudi Arabia following the shooting down of an Iraqi air force fighter, be lieved to be a Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum, on 27 December by a US Air Force General Dynamics F-16 in the southern air- exclusion zone (AEZ). The zone is enforced by US, UK and French aircraft. The carrier USS Kitty Hawk, which was on patrol in the Persian Gulf but had temporarily been moved to support US Ma rines in Somalia, was returned to the Gulf, but a squadron each of Grumman F-14 Tomcats and McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hor nets was flown from it to Dhah- ran AB in north-east Saudi Arabia on 28 December. Addi tional USAF McDonnell Douglas KC-10 tankers and Lockheed RC-135 communications-intelli gence-gathering aircraft have also been sent to Saudi Arabia. The MiG kill was taken after two aircraft penetrated south of the 32nd parallel at 07.20 GMT but retreated as the F-16s ap proached. At 07.40 GMT the MiGs again penetrated the AEZ and when the F-16s again ap proached them, turned head on to the F-16s. After ignoring radio calls to leave the area, the lead F-16 shot down the lead MiG, 37km (20nm) inside the AEZ, using the AIM-120 ad vanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), the first time the weapon has been used in combat. The missile shot was taken beyond visual range. The remaining MiG was flown away undamaged and an Iraqi search-and-rescue helicopter was allowed to comb the area for the downed MiG pilot. The following day another pair of aircraft, again thought to be MiG-29s, penetrated the AEZ but left when approached by US aircraft. • The Turkish parliament has voted in favour of allowing 48 combat aircraft belonging to the Coalition Task Force to con tinue to operate from bases in Turkey for a further six months. The US, UK and French aircraft are being used to impose an AEZ in northern Iraq to protect Kurds and other minorities from Iraqi persecution. • Loral Vought lands A1ACMS contract The US Army has awarded a $139 million contract to Loral Vought Systems for 351 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles in the an nual purchase for 1993. The ATACMS, which became the first US Army tactical sur face-to-surface missile to be fired in combat during Operation De sert Storm, was developed by LTV Missiles division before Loral acquired it. LTV won the contract to produce ATACMS in 1986. Each missile, which is fired from a Loral Vought-built M270 launcher, contains about 950 submunitions. • W FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 6 - 12 January. 1993
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