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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 3130.PDF
E-8JSTARS price tag soars by $350million THE COSTOF the Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Sur veillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) project has risen by S3 50 million because of higher- than-expected modification and refurbishment costs. This is the single largest contributor to a $600 million rise in the cost of US Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition programmes. The DoD's quarterly Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) filing, which monitors overall US defence spending, reports tliat the cost of the Pentagon's 71 major weapons projects climbed by $600 million in the quarter, to $705.2 billion. As well as covering the rise in E- 8 costs, the report is the first to include the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile programme's pre-engineering and manufactur ing development costs, expected to amount to some $784 million. Overall, the Pentagon expects to spend more than $3 billion on 2,400 missiles for the US Air Force and a still undetermined number of weapons for the US Navy. The cost of the Sikorsky Aircraft UH-60L Black Hawk project rose by $5 3 million, when six additional aircraft were purchased. The SAR registers a ten-month slip in the Bell Boeing CV-2 2 special operations tilt-rotor aircraft's criti cal-design review timetable. • Aspide translates to Chinese LY-60 family on show at Zhouhai Chinese AAM aspirations may build on Alenia Aspide DOUGLAS BARRIE/LONDON ANDREA SPINELLI/GENOA CHINA APPEARS to be con tinuing to use the Alenia As pide medium-range air-to-air missile (AAM) airframe as the basis for a family of weapons, despite the collapse of a "highly sensitive"deal to supply it to the Chinese air force. The LY-60(N) missile, which China displayed during the Zhou hai show earlier this month, was effectively identical to the Italian Aspide airframe. The LY-60 is understood to be a truck-mounted surface-to-air mis sile system, similar to the Alenia Spada, which uses the Aspide SAM. Italy and China secretly con cluded a deal in the 1988-9 period, covering provision of the semi- active radar-guided Aspide as the basis for a Chinese air force medi um-range air-launched missile. Deliveries started almost immedi ately, with a few "small batches" being provided. In the wake of the Tiananmen massacre in 1990,the contract was blocked by the Italian Gov ernment, say sources. The Aspide airframe, besides forming the basis of the LY-60 SAM, has also been given the PL- 11 AAM designator, and been shown in model form fitted to the proposed FC-1 single-engine fighter aircraft. China almost certainly intended to acquire additional Aspide/ PL-11 missiles to meet its medi um-range AAM requirement, al though the collapse of the Italian deal places a question mark over this programme. The PL-11 may have super seded the PL-10 semi-active AAM programme, which was an attemp ted copy of the Raytheon A1M-7E Sparrow. With the entry into ser vice of the Russian Vympel R-27R (AA-10 Alamo) semi-active radar- guided medium-range AAM, as part of the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker deal, China's aspirations to pro duce indigenously a semi-active missile may be primarily intended for the export market. While the PL-10 and the PL-11 use semi-active radar guidance, China also has intentions to acquire active radar-guided missile technol ogy. Alongside its own efforts it is also aiming to acquire the Vympel R-77(AA-12 Adder). • Singapore expands attack/transport rotary needs SINGAPORE INTENDS to bolster its rotary-wing capabili ties: itis evaluating new attack heli copters and plans the purchase of additional Boeing CH-47 Chin ook transports. The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is drawing up plans to evaluate and acquire a fleet of attack helicopters. It is now dis patching teams to Europe, Russia, South Africa and the USA to assess competing types of attack designs. Attention is primarily focused on the Denel CSH-2 Rooivalk, Eurocopter Tiger and McDonnell Douglas (MDQAH-64D Apache. The flight evaluation of the latter, planned for early 1997, will include live firing of Rockwell AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles. The RSAF isalsothoughttobe sending a team to Russia to look at the KamovKa-50 Hokum and MilMi- 2 8 Havoc helicopters. RSAF interest in an attack-heli copter capability has been prompt ed in part by Malaysia's intention to acquire a similar type of machine, together with its plans to purchase main battle tanks. Denel and MDC have already submitted unsolicited sales and industrial co-operation proposals to Kuala Lumpur in the expecta tion that a formal request for ten der will be issued in 1997. MDC hopes by then to have US clearance to offer the Lockheed Martin Longbow millimetre-wave radar with the AH-64D. Wash ington is now understood to be considering a formal request from Kuwait to purchase the Apache Longbow and its decision will be likely to set a policy precedent for South-East Asia, say sources. Singapore, in the meantime, is discussing purchasing a second batch of six Boeing CH-47D Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The additional machines are need ed to supplement six already deliv ered and being used for training RSAF personnel at Grand Prairie in the USA. A follow-on CH-47 order would allow the RSAF both to maintain its training operation in the USA and to deploy the helicopter oper ationally in Singapore and, possi bly, for exercises in Australia. Boeing Helicopters continues to talk with Harbin Aircraft Manu facturing about restarting produc tion of the Model 234 Commercial Chinook in China (Flight Inter national, 13-19 November). "We are still in discussions. The real question is the market poten tial and whether we can build a good business case. We are gather ing data to confirm a good business situation for both parties," says the company. A final decision on a joint venture is expected to be made within the next 12 months. Should the talks fail, Boeing has no inten tion of restarting Model 234 pro duction on its own. • 22 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 27 November - 3 December 1996
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