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Aviation History
2000
2000 - 1322.PDF
Budget cuts Wedgetail numbers Dispute threatens Python deal Boeing works to reduce F/A-18E/F export price definitive number on anything like that yet." When Boeing was selected as preferred supplier last July, defence minister John Moore said the deal would be for seven aircraft. Australian Department of Defence (DoD) estimates suggest seven air craft and support facilities would cost AS3.4 billion ($2 billion). The on-going Australian Defence Force budget crisis has prompted widespread speculation that AEW&C aircraft numbers could fall to four, or be purchased as a phased buy with at least three aircraft being deferred. The pro ject faces a major hurdle over the next three weeks to secure funding in the 2000-1 defence budget, to be released on 10 May. Any funding deferral would push contract finalisation back until at least August next year. The Australian DoD is considering awarding Boeing an interim risk reduction study for August 2000- August 2001 as a means of main taining project momentum. The Australian DoD suspended negotiations with Boeing Australia late last year for the Project Air 5333 "Vigilare" airspace command and reporting system after failing to secure US State Department approvals for release of source code and processing algorithms. Boeing Australia was selected as the preferred supplier for the ground-based system in Sep tember 1998, but featured a pro posal in its AEW&C bid to include m work ex PETER LA FRANCHI/WILLIAMTOWN THE NUMBER of Boeing 737-700 "Wedgetail" air borne early warning and control aircraft to be acquired by the Australian Air Force is in doubt as a result of budget pressures, but a deal will proceed, says Royal Australian Air Force chief Air Marshal Errol McCormack. McCormack also expects to finalise a contract for a replace ment airspace command and reporting system with Boeing Australia, despite negotiations being suspended late last year. The final number of AEW&C aircraft, McCormack says, "will be up to the negotiations and they will start shortly. I wouldn't like to put a LOCKHEED Martin and Rafael have been forced by the Israeli Ministry of Defence to introduce measures to safeguard sensitive Israeli technologies with in the Python 4 air-to-air missile, which is to be built in the USA. The dispute hinders Lockheed Martin's plans to enter the air-to- air missile business using its deal with Rafael. The latter expects its partner to provide resources to develop the missile. The pair has agreed to build the Python 4 at the Precision Guided Systems US (PGSUS) plant in Troy, Alabama, where Rafael's Popeye/AGM-142 Have Nap \ stand-off strike missile is built. Opposition within the Israeli defence ministry delayed imple mentation of the agreement. The fiercest criticism has come from Maj Gen Yitzhak Ben Israel, head of the ministry's research and development directorate. Lockheed Martin and Rafael are waiting for a decision by Amos Yaron, director general of the Israeli defence ministry. Rafael sources suggest that the result of the on-going evaluation will be a limitation on the transfer of certain Python 4 technologies to Lockheed Martin, hampering plans for Python's development. U GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC BOEING IS meeting widi sup pliers to identify cost-reduc tion initiatives to drive the unit price of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet down to the $40 million target set for export sales. Programme general manager Pat Finneran says Boeing has a "strategic imperative" to get the F7A-18E/F's price down to "around $40 million" by 2005 so that it can be competitive on the export market. Production efficiencies afforded by die 222-aircraft multi-year pro curement contract about to be signed with the US Navy will reduce the flyaway unit cost by $ 10 million over five years, "but we will have to go another $7-10 million below that to get into the $40 million range", he says. Boeing has established produc tion lot 27, to be produced in 2005, as the "benchmark" for the export F7A-18E/F Super Hornet, he says. This will incorporate upgrades under development, including an active-array radar and third-gener- Air 5333 development as a com mon system. McCormack says the RAAF is seeking "as much com monality as possible" between the projects. An Australian Defence Acquisition Organisation official says that while Boeing intends to manage the projects as a common entity, planning calls for separate contracts. The official adds that ongoing releasability problems mean that Air 5333 contract completion is now dependent on the final sched ule for Wedgetail, delaying die for mer until at least mid 2001. As an interim step Boeing Australia may be funded to carry out a further nine month advanced requirements analysis. • ation navigation/targeting pod; advanced mission computers and cockpit displays; a helmet-mount ed cueing system and off-boresight air-to-air missile and an advanced aft crew station. "By 2005 the com petition will have these," he says. Finneran believes the F/A-18FVF Super Hornet will be competitive, if its price can be reduced. "We do not have a $40 million aircraft. We have got to fig ure out how to get there." Boeing is working on pro- ducibility improvements for the wing and forward fuselage, but Finneran says "fundamental change" in the company's relation ship with suppliers is needed to further decrease costs. Summit meetings are being held with suppliers, including with F414 engine supplier General Electric, and an executive is being appointed to head the drive to reduce the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet's cost. , "We think we can get to a $40 million aircraft if we continue to push change," he says, adding: "We have two years to achieve it." • Python may remain Rafael-only if a technology dispute is not resolved 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 25 April - 1 May 2000
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