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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 0059.PDF
HEADLINES Aside from the obvious Iraqi threat, Gulf states have been particularly alarmed at the rise in capabilities of the Iranian air force. Iran is thought to be in the process of acquiring 48 addi tional Mikoyan MiG-29s (14 al ready being in service), 24 MiG- 31 Foxhounds, 22 Tupolev Tu- 22M Backfire strategic bombers, 24 MiG-27 Flogger ground- attack aircraft and two Ilyushin A-50 Mainstay airborne-early- warning aircraft from Russia as part of a $2 billion deal. Meanwhile, over 100 Iraqi air craft, including 24 Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer strike aircraft and four MiG-29s, are thought to be in Iran after their pilots fled there during the 1991 Gulf War. a Alenia to lay off 5,000 A lenia has met with unions to discuss swingeing job cuts, which would see the Italian state-owned aerospace group lose 17% of its 29,500-strong workforce. The group plans to lose the 5,000 workers in response to the slump in civil work as well as a continued decline in defence or ders. Around 2,000 of the job losses will come from the de fence sector, which has borne the brunt of the 2,500 redun dancies over the past three years. Other Italian aerospace manu facturers are following Alenia's lead in cutting staff numbers. Agusta, for example, expects the loss of around 500 employees from its workforce of over 9,000, while Aermacchi and Piaggio are considering re ductions on a similar scale. The cuts come against a back ground of wholesale restructur ing within the state-owned Italian aersopace industry. • KLM/JAL agree to code share KLM and Japan Airlines (JAL) are close to signing a code-sharing agreement which will see the Dutch airline carry JAL passengers to European destinations via Amsterdam. The deal, which further strengthens the position of Am sterdam Schiphol as a European hub, will initially cover flights to Madrid and Zurich. As from 2 April JAL will cut Tokyo direct flights to these cities and instead fly passengers into Schiphol where they will change onto a KLM aircraft using a JAL flight number. KLM will replace its Boeing 737s on these routes with the larger Airbus A310. KLM does not rule out fur ther deals, making use of free doms under European liberali sation. "This arrangement is the first of its kind in Europe and it could mean the start of more [such deals]," says the airline. KLM already has a code-sharing deal in place with Northwest Airlines in the USA. In August the Netherlands and Japan concluded a bilateral agreement which gave KLM the right to provide a daily service to Tokyo and to serve Osaka. • Delta Air Lines and Swissair, members of the Global Excel lence alliance which includes Singapore Airlines, have an nounced a code-sharing agree ment on certain transatlantic routes and an expansion of services between and beyond the USA and Switzerland. Delta will inaugurate a daily non-stop service between Cin cinnati, Ohio, and Zurich, with Swissair reserving a block of seats on each flight. The US airline similarly will reserve seats on Swissair flights from Atlanta, Georgia, to Zurich, and from New York Kennedy to Geneva and Zurich. D Allied Iraqi strikes 'partially successful' BY MIKE GAINES US, UK and French forces participated in a 114- aircraft strike against Iraqi sur face-to-air missile (SAM) sites and their command-control and communications centres in southern Iraq on 13 January. The raids were only partially successful. Coalition aircraft involved in the raid included US Air Force Lockheed F-117s, McDonnell Douglas F-15s, McDonnell Douglas F-4Gs, Grumman EF- 111s and General Dynamic F- 16s; US Navy Grumman F-14s and McDonnell Douglas F-18s; six French air force Dassault Mirage-2000 RDIs and four RAF Panavia Tornado GRls. The strike was a response to Iraq's moving of SAM batteries below the 32nd parallel and frequent feints into the air-exclusion zone (AEZ) by Iraqi combat air craft operating under the umbrella of the SAMs. The move was regarded as an attempt to draw coali tion combat aircraft into a shoot-down trap, but also as an indication of closer integration of the two air- defence elements. The SAM batteries moved into the AEZ comprised three to five batteries of SA-2 Guidelines and SA-3 Goas. The SAMs were shuf fled around several pre-prepared sites in the north-eastern corner of the AEZ. Iraqi tactics have been to move each battery to a new site every few days, so of the five batteries, only three or four were actually ready to fire at any time. Each SAM site is protected by its own ring of shoulder- launched SA-7 Grail SAMs and large numbers of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). Iraq still has large numbers of mobile and modern SAMs, including the SA- 6 Gainful, the SA-9 Gaskin and the SA-11 Gadfly. The Iraqi air force has also been re-organised, and operates about 350 fixed-wing aircraft. Combat aircraft account for half to two-thirds of this number. Coalition sends Iraqis new message The majority of the combat air craft are Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbeds but there are sufficent MiG-23 Floggers, MiG-25 Foxbats and MiG-29 Fulcrums to form cohesive units. Any further coalition air at tacks are likely to strike the airbases which have been used to launch incursions into the AEZ; these include Al Kut and Ubaydah Bin Al Jarrah. A major effort has been made to bring Iraqi airbases back to pre-Gulf- War status. Most bases have been repaired extensively and rebuilt with new hardened aircraft shelters and hardened pilot briefing com mand and control bunkers. In the 13 January attack, Iraqi fighters were airborne but did not engage the coalition forces. Moderate-to-heavy AAA was reported as were several SAM launches, including those of Ro land missiles. Iraq claims that a the SAM crews were or- £ dered not to switch on their •§ radars in an effort to avoid | the attack. Targets were four fixed- air defence centres and four mobile SAM sites. Two of the centres were destroyed — one by the RAF Tornado GR.ls. One sustained mod erate damage and the other only light damage. One of the SAM batteries was de stroyed and the other three were disassembled by the Iraqis after the attack. It is not clear whether they were damaged. Iraq has now deployed SAM batteries in the northern AEZ. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 January, 1993 5
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