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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 2515.PDF
DEFENCE • Funding shortfall looms for UK MoD Samsung has dropped the twin fins from its KTX-II design Samsung courts CASA for KTX-II PAUL LEWIS/SEOUL SOUTH KOREA is expected to decide in 1995 on whether to proceed with full development of its KTX-II advanced jet trainer/light combat aircraft, say local industry sources - and CASA of Spain is emerging as a potential partner. Preliminary design work by the country's Agency for Defense Development and the KTX-II integrator Samsung will be com pleted by late 1995. Most of this work is being conducted at Lockheed Fort Worth's plant as part its F-16 offset package. Full-scale development of the KTX-II will almost certainly hinge on finding a cost-sharing partner, according to a Korean defence official. Lockheed's involvement in the project is lim ited to design and technical assis tance and South Korea is understood to have discussed col laboration with CASA. Spain has been considering development of the projected AX light attack aircraft, which is in a similar class to the KTX-II and would enter service after 2000. The Spanish company, however, is already financially stretched, supporting the Eurofighter and CASA 3000 turboprop airliner, without the addition of second combat-aircraft development project. According to Samsung, the KTX-II is planned to have its first flight in 2000 and enter service with the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF) in 2003. This is provisional on the project being given the go ahead in 1995. At the recent Aerospace Seoul '94 exhibition, Samsung unveiled a conceptual model, featuring a single-engine, F-16-type delta wing and single vertical stabiliser. The design was selected in July over an alternative twin-fin con figuration, says the company. The tandem-seat aircraft will have a 13.7m-long fuselage and a 7.8m-wingspan, and be powered by an as-yet unselected 71kN (16,0001b)-thrust class turbofan engine capable of giving super sonic performance. South Korea is considering alternatives should development of the KTX-II be delayed or can celled, including buying more for eign-built advanced jet trainers or upgrading existing aircraft. The RoKAF has already taken delivery of 20 British Aerospace Hawk Mk.67s and is understood to want more. Approval for the purchase of a second batch of "around 20 Hawks" has been delayed until 1995 and a decision on KTX-II, says a BAe source. After a review of its future requirements, the air force has postponed a decision on the life extension of 27 Northrop F-5Bs and a larger number of F-5Fs, for use as lead-in fighter trainers. The structural upgrade would add a further 4,000h to the two-seat F- 5B/F's fatigue life. Daewoo Heavy Industries has also proposed a hybrid solution in the form of a two-seat Northrop T-38 cockpit mated with a single- seat F-5A fuselage and fitted with new wings. • THE UK MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) is trying to play down a potential £500 mil lion ($760 million) funding short fall amid industry fears that Royal Air Force procurement pro grammes expected to start in 1995 may be targeted for cuts. The MoD is struggling to push through a plan to "privatise" service housing, with its initial plan having to have been scrapped because of legal issues concerning the status of its proposed housing trust Establishing the housing trust, proposed under the Defence Cost Studies, was aimed at providing what the MoD describes as " a substantial capital figure" from fiscal year 1995-6. Although the MoD will not give an exact figure, this is generally accepted to be in the region of £500 million. This cash windfall was viewed by some in industry as a way of offsetting the MoD's need to make an additional saving of £750 million in FY 1996/7. The MoD has now drafted in the markets division of the National Westminster Bank to advise on how to progress its housing-trust scheme. Problems with the scheme are fuelling industry concerns that a shortfall would have to be recouped from the procurement budget. Two key RAF missile projects; Staff Requirement (Air) (SRA) 1236 for a conventional stand-off missile (CASOM) and SR(A) 1238 for an anti-armour weapon for the British Aerospace Harrier GR.7, have to be approved by the Treasury Public Expenditure Survey (PES) later this year. Invitations to tender for both programmes were delayed earlier this year as further costs reviews were undertaken, and will now be issued in January 1995. While industry sources seem relatively confident that SR(A)1236 will be approved by the PES there is considerable con cern that the anti-armour project may be yet again delayed. Another possibility would be to delay the decision on a replace ment for the RAF's Lockheed Hercules C-130 transport aircraft by six months. A decision was due by the end of this year, but British Aerospace has been lobbying strenuously to be given more time to present the details of a study on the collaborative Future Large Aircraft programme. To this end it has invited Malcolm Macintosh, chief of the MoD Procurement Executive to visit Airbus Industrie in Toulouse on 18 October to discuss the man agerial structure of the FLA. The programme is being placed under the aegis of Airbus . • Rafael holds Strop discussions RAFAEL OF Israel is holding preliminary talks with Slovakia's Konstrukta Trencin over collaborating on further development of the Strop self- propelled gun/missile air- defence system. Development of the Strop had foundered in the wake of the break-up of Czechoslovakia. Rafael is proposing to replace the PRUS passive sensor system with a centrally mounted elec tro-optical mast/turret. The Strop's armament of a 30mm gun and two IGLA surface-to- air missiles would be retained, all mounted on board a Tatra 815 all-wheel drive chassis. In the second phase of the pro gramme, the Israelis are propos ing to completely replace the turret on the Strop with a new sys tem which would deploy eight vertically launched Barak point- defence missiles. The Israelis have been trying unsuccessfully for years to market their own land- based air-defence system using the Barak. • 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 - 25 October 1994
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