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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 1361.PDF
DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES UK and EUROPE Display Advertising Enquiries +44 (181) 652 3315 Display Advertising Fax +44 (181) 652 8981 Group Advertisement Director lanBurrows +44(181)6523319 Sales and Events Co-ordinator Lisa Devlin +44 (181) 652 3315 Advertisement Manager (UK) Michael Wall +44 (181) 652 3904 Display Sales Executive Sarah Clague +44 (181) 652 4986 Advertisement Production Display/Classified eommmNT Howard Mason +44(181)6523267 UK, IRELAND, BENELUX, IBERIA, GREECE, THE MIDDLE EAST and ISRAEL, AFRICA Sales Manager Stuart Downing +44(181)652495 GERMANY, SCANDINAVIA and EASTERN EUROPE Sales Manager Julian Miall +44(181)6523316 FRANCE and SWITZERLAND Sales Director France Pierre Mussard Tel +33 (1) 55 95 9513 Reed Business Information France. 2, rue Maurice Hartmann, 92133 Issy-les-Moulineaux. France Fax+33 (1)55 95 9515 ITALY Managing Director Roberto Laureri Tel +39 2 236 2500 Laureri Associates SRL. 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CLASSIFIED & RECRUITMENT Classified Advertising Enquiries Classified Advertising Fax Group Advertisement Manager Gareth Pask Sales Manager Judith Slann New Media Manager Simon Lees International Sales Executives Andrea Hall Toby Phelps Martin Robinson Daniel Sedman Adam Wyartt Classified USA Gail Tavelman Classified Asia/Pacific Karen Kwan Publisher Allan Winn Fax i65 338 3213 +44(181)6523811 +44(181)6524802 +44(181)6524814 +44(181)6523811 +44(181)6524757 +44(181)6524898 +44(181)6524897 +44(181)6524322 +44(181)6524806 +44(181)6524896 +1(212)5455403 +654343303 +44(181)6523882 The text of Flight International and Airline Business can be found on the following databases: Lexis-Nexis, Knight-Ridder DataStar. FT Profile. ESA. lAC/Predicasts. and Reuters Details from: tel. +44 (181) 302 5101 Published in association with Airline Business by Reed Business Information. Quadrant House. The Quadrant. Sutton. Suney. SM2 5AS. UK Flight International & sold sub|ect to the following conditions: namely, that it is not, without the written consent of the publishers first given, lent, re-sold, hired out or in any unauthorised cover by way of trade: or affixed to. or as part of. any publication or advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever The publishers of Flight International are prepared to accept unsolicited material, but only on the understanding that such material is submitted wholly at the risk of the provider, and that the publishers cannot guarantee the receipt, safekeeping or return of non-commissioned work in any format, including manuscripts, digital data, photographic prints and transparencies Flight Interational: is a registered trademark of Reed Business Information Ltd © 1998 Reed Business Information Ltd. BOXING CLEVER US VICE PRESIDENT Al Gore's planned visit to Lockheed Martin's Forth Worth, Texas, F-16 production line on 15 May was effectively a celebration of far more than a S7 billion sale of the aircraft to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The event marks the clo sure of a threatening fissure between US defence manufactur ers, die Department of Defense, and their political masters, which had jeopardised Lockheed Martins clinching of the UAE contract. The signi ficance of the victor^' will not be lost on the European defence aerospace industry, and should not be lost on its respective govern ments. Once again, European pretenders to the fighter throne have been knocked out by die incumbent champion. The US giant had looked to the UAE as the launch customer for die Block 60 F-16, a technol ogy bridge between die current generation of die Fighting Falcon and die Joint Strike Fighter (J SF) - a contract still to be won by Lockheed Martin or its rival, Boeing. Launching the Block 60 would also provide an industrial bridge untilJSFproduc- tion came on stream, protecting employment for Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors: a point not lost on Gore and his Congressional entourage. The deal, however, almost foundered on the rock of technology transfer. Lockheed Martin's bait of a significantly enhanced F-16 for the UAE was almost snatched away by die US mili tary, which was loath to release certain key tech nologies into die region such as the active ray radar and the Raytheon ALM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile. Being rele gated to second class citizenship did not rest eas ily with die UAE,'so it very publicly allowed the Eurofighter EF2000 to re-enter a competition which in late 1996 it had been on the brink of awarding to the USA. The Block 60 and the Dassault Rafale had originally been shortlisted in 1996. While the French aircraft remained, on paper, in the running, the UAE had taken on board Norway's similar competition, and its decision to eliminate the Rafale, realistically leaving only the Block 60 and the EF2000. There is no doubt that, in the wake of the UAE's opening die door to the EF2000, Lock- FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 May 1998 "Once again European pretenders to the fighter throne have been knocked out by the incumbent champion." heed Martin redoubled its efforts in disabusing the US Government of any notion diat a Block 60 sale to the UAE should be sacrificed on the alter of technology release. Arguments about die control of military technology-, irrespective of legitimacy, tend to pale beside the economic realities of keeping a production line alive. President Bill Clint on was told last week of the F-16 decision by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy supreme com mander of the UAE Armed Forces, during the latter's visit to Washington. This was the culmination of the Government working in concert with its industry in selling the USA. The end result is a partnership that allows Lockheed Mar tin to develop a highly advanced fighter that can enter forthcoming competitions in Europe and elsewhere, with a significantly lower price tag than that for either the Rafale or EF2000. While European industry is now even more painfully aware of die need to consolidate in competing with die likes of Lockheed Martin, a single Furopean defence aerospace entity would still lack a political champion of Clinton's stature. Even a genuine consolidation of all of Europe's combat aircraft manufacturing capac- ity can only be half of the equation. A European industrial champion needs a political patron of equal stature to the occupier of the White House and it is unlikely that, in the near to mid term, this role will be met by the President of the European Union. The only choice for Europe's embryonic fighter house is to get national state leaders to weigh in behind a sin gle product champion. The alternative is to push for an international mechanism for amis deals that defines what is allowable - or acceptable - in terms of technolo gy transfer and political influence in support of industry in overseas contests. The only other option for a level playing field in negotiating significant arms contracts on die international market is for Europe to devise its own political strategy over how it competes. Failure to take up any of these choices will simply result in another round of market forecasts by its fighter aircraft manufacturers being; thrown in the litter bin. J
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