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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 0016.PDF
Indonesia earmarks more cash for military build-up i earmarks militar BAe Hawk 200s are popular with the Indonesian military PAUL LEWIS/SINGAPORE INDONESIA is planning the procurement of over $2 billion worth of military equipment over the next five years, including more fighter and trainer aircraft, heli copters, missiles and radars. The future purchases are con tained in the country's 1994-9 strategic plan, which is subject to annual budget allocations and presi dential approval. The Indonesian air force is the single largest pur chaser of the three services, with eight programmes collectively val ued at over $1.74 billion. Topping the list is a planned fol low-on purchase of 20 more British Aerospace Hawk 100/2 00s, for which $676 million has been pencilled in for fiscal year 1996/7. BAe in 1993 sold Indonesia 16 Hawk 200 single-seat light strike aircraft and eight -100 tandem- seat trainers. Indonesia also requires a further five Lockheed F-16A/Bs to supple ment its 11 Block 15 F- 16s which have been in service since 1989. The military have provisionally set aside $116.5 million in fiscal year 1998/9 for the aircraft. To support its new fighter and strike aircraft, the air force hopes to fund the $60 million acquisi tion of two new in-flight-refu elling tankers in the 1998/9 budget. The aircraft are needed to replace the air force's two elderly Lockheed KC-13 0B tankers. The five-year plan includes a NORTHROP HAS been sel ected by Israel's Rafael as its US partner for marketing the Liten- ing navigation and targeting pod. The US company will market the pod to the US Air Force and other air forces operating US- built fighters. Martin Marietta had also offered to market the Litening, $425 million provision in the 1995/6 budget to buy 16 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility heli copters and 16 smaller training machines in 1998/9. The Black Hawk purchase, however, is likely to slip, as formal negotiations have yet to begin with the manu facturer, say defence sources. Indonesia plans to improve and extend the coverage of its air- defence system ft) the eastern end of the archipelago, with the pur chase of a new $25 million ground- control-intercept radar. Existing radar suppliers to Indonesia, Thomson-CSF and Siemens Ples- but Israel's armament-develop ment authority was concerned that the US company's association with the rival LANTIRN pod sys tem would create problems. Meanwhile, Israel's Elbit has opted to add the Litening to the upgrade of the Romanian air force's Mikoyan MiG-21s. The defence-electronics company is sey, are among the companies com peting for the contract. Two new surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems are also included in the plan. The military hopes to secure a total of $104 million to buy four batteries of medium- to high- altitude air-defence missiles in 1996/7 and 1997/8. Indonesian interest is thought to centre on the Raytheon Improved Hawk SAM. A short-range shoulder-launched SAM is also required to go with Indonesia's BAe Rapier system. An $84 million ouday on four batteries of missiles is included in the 1997/8 and 1998/9 estimates. 3 the prime contractor for the upgrade programme. The Litening enables pilots to perform low-level night flights and to detect and identify ground targets. The system has so far logged 30 test flights on Israeli air force Lockheed F-16s. Deliveries to the air force are scheduled to begin in mid-1996. • FLIGHT Japan chooses Guffstream IV for support role THE JAPANESE Gover nment has named the Gulfstream rV business jet as the air force's future U-X multi-pur pose support aircraft, during its review of the country's fiscal year 1995 defence budget. The Japan Defence Agency (JDA) had originally selected the Gulfstream IV over the Dassault Falcon 900B and Canadair Challenger 601-3R in mid-1994. The Government then subse quently stalled on making a final decision in the face of intense polit ical pressure from France on behalf of the Dassault Falcon and Canada, in support of the Canadair Challenger (Flight International, 14- 20 December, 1994). Funding, however, for the first two U-X aircraft was included in the JDA's provisional ¥4.72 tril lion ($47.13 billion) budget for fiscal year 1995. Without a final decision on the type of aircraft to be purchased, the U-X pro gramme was in danger of being delayed a year. The Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) hopes to purchase nine Gulfstream IV, or U-4s, with the first entering service in mid- 1996. Planning calls for the fund ing a further three in fiscal year 1996, and the final four in 1997. Overall spending in the next budget on new aircraft has been trimmed by ¥31.6 billion to ¥219 billion. The total number of air craft sought as a result has been reduced from 74 to 68 (Flight International, 28 September - 4 October, 1994). Q NEWS IN BRIEF I • BAT MOBILE The US Army has carried out a successful flight test of the BAT anti-armoured veh icle sub-munition against a moving armoured vehicle. In the engagement, infra-red and acoustic sensors guided the BAT, which was de ployed from an aircraft above a moving armoured column. INTERNATIONAL 4 - 10 January 1995 Rafael picks Northrop for Litening
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