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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 1728.PDF
CONTRA • Sagem has received orders worth €150 million ($138 million) to supply inertial navigation systems for Dassault Rafale fighters and NH Industries NH90 helicopters. • Raytheon has received the first production contract for the latest version of its AIM-120 medium-range air- to-air missile, AMRAAM P'l Phase 3. The $165 million deal covers 387 missiles for the US Air Force and Navy, Japan and Saudi Arabia, and includes five additional annual options, taking the potential value close to $2 billion. Raytheon is also to upgrade 16 US Navy Phalanx close-in weapon systems to Block 1B standard and produce four additional upgrade kits under a $47.8 million contract. • Lockheed Martin has received a $498 million amend ment to its November 2001 contract to develop the US Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency communica tions satellite. This has increased the development cost from $2.7 billion to $3.2 billion and is a result of a funding shortfall in the fiscal year 2002 budget and the loss of interna tional partner funding. • L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training division has received a $29.9 million sec ond production contract for Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 training devices. Link will build full mission and weapon tactics trainers and supply seat and canopy trainers for maintenance training. • South Korea has ordered 23 llyushin 11-103s light aircraft and taken options for 19 more. The aircraft will be used for basic training, with first deliv eries early next year. The aircraft will be manufactured at the RSK MiG Lukhovitsie factory near Moscow. • The Spanish Ministry of Defence is to lease X-band capacity on the XAT-EUR satellite to be launched later this year by XTAR, a joint venture between Loral Space & Communi cations and Spain's Hisdesat. The deal will bridge the gap until Hisdesat's SpainSat satel lite enters service in 2004, on which Spain will lease one Ka-band and five X-band transponders. DEFENCE MISSILE DEFENCE GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC RC-3 in doubt after tests end with semi-successes Questionmark over full rate production after half of missiles fail to launch or miss target Planned operational testing of the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) has concluded with four partial successes in four tests, cast ing doubt on whether the US Army will win approval later this year for full-rate production of the anti-tac tical ballistic missile (TBM) system. A Lockheed Martin PAC-3 mis sile hit the intended target on its fourth operational test, on 30 May, but a second missile failed to launch. The test, at the Kwajalein range in the Pacific, was to involve the ripple firing of two of the hit- to-kill missiles against a target sim ulating a two-stage ballistic missile with a separating re-entry vehicle. The test was planned to demon strate the system's ability to classify the high-velocity, low-signature target as a TBM, discriminate between the re-entry vehicle and debris and destroy the target. The US Army says the first PAC-3 inter cepted and appeared to destroy the re-entry vehicle. Why the second launch failed is being investigated. On the first operational test, in February, a PAC-3 missed a subscale drone configured as a cruise mis sile, because of an inaccurate cue from the ground. Two Raytheon PAC-2 missiles were fired at the same time: one hit a QF-4 full-scale target aircraft while the other missed the subscale drone. On the second test, in March, a PAC-3 intercepted and destroyed a Hera TBM target, but the second missile in the ripple firing failed to launch when the launcher lost power. A PAC-2 fired at the same time hit its intended target, a subscale drone. On the third operational test, in April, one PAC-3 failed to launch against a Storm II TBM target while the second hit a Patriot missile act ing as a target, but failed to destroy the warhead. Preliminary analysis indicates the missile seeker experi enced a reset during transition to internal power and was not ready to fire when the command came. Before entering operational test ing, the PAC-3 had missed only one ballistic-missile target in six flight tests. The missile is in low- rate initial production and entered service with the US Army in September last year. The PAC-3 is also planned for the US/German/ Italian Medium Extended Air Defence System, due to begin replacing Patriot around 2012. Whereas Patriot reserves the expensive PAC-3 for high-value ballistic missile targets, MEADS will use the interceptor against all threats. As a result, Germany is studying the option of adding a second, low-cost missile type to the system, for use against low-perfor mance targets such as unmanned air vehicles. Weapons studied include ground- launched versions of air-to-air mis siles, such as Europe's infrared- guided short-range IRIS-T and radar-guided medium-range Meteor. SEE FEATURE P28 Aero Vodochody expects a contract for the two-seater from the Czech air force within the next few months ADVANCED TRAINERS L-159B takes flight in time for Farnborough debut Aero Vodochody flew the first two- seat L-159B on 1 June. Although the proof-of-concept L-159 flown in August 1997 was a two-seater, Aero has concentrated on the sin gle-seat L-159A light attack aircraft, now in Czech air force service. The L-159Bflew for around lh and reached an altitude of 36,000ft (11,000m) during the flight. Aero says it will concentrate on evaluat ing systems that differ from the single-seater and adds that the test programme will ensure the aircraft is ready for its public debut at the Farnborough air show in July. Aero says that it is still waiting for the Czech air force to order the two-seater, although a contract is expected in the next few months. The air force's order for 72 L-159s has always been expected to include a number of the two- seat version. 18 11-17 JUNE 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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