All Fixed-Wing news – Page 1264
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Pentagon seeks more money for weapons
The US Department of Defense wants to spend $257.3 billion during fiscal year 1999, according to budget figures presented to Congress. The request is $2.4 billion more than the US Congress allowed the Pentagon for FY1998 weapons spending. There are no surprises in the budget submission, which includes ...
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CFM pushes commonality in USAF re-engine bid
CFM International (CFMI) is stressing fleet-commonality benefits to the US Air Force in its bid to re-engine almost 200 Boeing KC-135E, RC-135, E-3 and Northrop Grumman E-8 aircraft. The company's response to the USAF's request for an "alternate propulsion-system assessment" will be complete in the "March-April timeframe", according to ...
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Australia opens competition door to admit CN235 Phoenix
Australia has revised its earlier draft request for tenders (RFT) for a replacement light tactical-transport aircraft so that the Indonesian IPTN CN235-330 Phoenix can be included (Flight International, 4-10 February). The move follows approaches by Indonesian science and technology minister Bacharuddin Habibie to Australian defence minister Ian McLachlan. Habibie, ...
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Pakistan buys refurbished Mirages from France
France has sold Pakistan 40 refurbished ex-air force Dassault Mirage III and Mirage V fighters. Under the deal, known as "Blue Flash 6", the aircraft are being upgraded by French companies Sagem and Sogerma. The contract was organised by the French defence ministry's maintenance division. The first refurbished aircraft was ...
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Phoenix training
Phoenix Air of Georgia is to provide electronic warfare training to support NATO Integrated Air Defense Systems training periods and the alliance's planned Distant Thunder, Dynamic Mix and Strong Resolve exercises. The company has been awarded a one year contract. Source: Flight International
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A smarter attacker
Allan Winn/DUBAI Ever since the then-Hughes AH-64 Apache entered service with the US Army in 1984, it has been the benchmark against which other combat helicopters are measured. Since then, it has undergone two marque-name changes (first to McDonnell Douglas, then, more recently, to Boeing) and become the most prolific ...
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Shake, rattle and roll
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC With deployment of the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche not due until the next century, and a conceptual Joint Transport Rotorcraft (JTR) available no earlier than 2015, the US Army and various defence contractors are working to improve the safety, comfort and performance of current-generation military rotorcraft. For ...
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EAI is selected to provide Joint Strike Fighter virtual prototype
Lockheed Martin has chosen visualisation software from Engineering Automation (EAI) for use in the virtual product-development environment being created for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and other advanced projects. EAI's VisProducts software will allow designers at different sites to work collaboratively on digital models. EAI's VisFly software will be ...
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Safer US military
Despite a rash of aircraft accidents during the final weeks of fiscal year 1997, the US military completed one of its safest flying years on record. The accident rate was 1.5 accidents per 100.000 flying hours, unchanged from the previous two years. There were 68 major US military accidents, three ...
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Thai Hornet sting
Thai and US military officials have begun negotiations over the fate of the Royal Thai Air Force's eight Boeing F/A-18C/D fighter aircraft, which Thailand says it can no longer afford. The Thais would like the USA to consider deferring payment or for the US Navy to try to find another ...
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Boeing ponders Chinook cockpit avionics choice
Boeing Helicopters intends to select an avionics subcontractor for the $3 billion Chinook Improved Cargo Helicopter (ICH) programme in the next few weeks, following a bidders' conference early in January. Company sources say that Boeing wants to have identified its avionics provider before the requirements document and engineering and ...
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Russian air force chief overhauls merger plan
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW Plans to merge the Russian air force with the country's air-defence forces are being overhauled by Col Gen Anatyoly Kornukov, the recently appointed commander-in-chief. Kornukov inherited the restructuring proposals from his predecessor, Col Gen Piotr Deinekin. While Kornukov, a former senior air-defence forces commander, is pushing ahead ...
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US Navy launches study to look into P-3 replacement aircraft
The US Navy has launched studies into a replacement for its Lockheed P-3 maritime-patrol aircraft. Industry was briefed in late January on plans to field a Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMMA) by 2015, to replace the Navy's land-based P-3s, electronic-intelligence EP-3Es, submarine-communications Boeing E-6s and tanker/transport Lockheed Martin C-130s. The ...
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Tanker savings
The US General Accounting Office claims that the Department of Defense could save as much as $209 million annually in Lockheed Martin C-130 and Boeing KC-135 costs - yet meet all mobility requirements - by requiring the US Air Force to re-organise the aircraft into larger-sized squadrons and wings. The ...
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Australia could issue Air 87 RFP by May
The Australian Army plans to issue a request for proposals (RFP) by May for Phase II of its Air 87 programme to replace six Bell UH-1H Iroquois and 43 Bell 206 Kiowas with a common type. Manufacturers will have "three to four" months to respond. Speaking at a Shephard ...
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France reconsiders multi-year Rafale purchase to aid exports
Julian Moxon/PARIS The French Government is reconsidering approving a multi-year procurement of the Dassault Rafale multi-role fighter in its 1998 defence budget, to bolster the programme's ailing credibility in the export market. Defence minister Alain Richard told the French senate in December that the 1998 defence budget had "no ...
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US Navy eyes unmanned aircraft for utility role
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A vertical take-off and landing support unmanned air vehicle (SUAV) is being pushed as an alternative to a crewed design for the US Navy's future carrier-borne utility aircraft. The USN's Common Support Aircraft (CSA) programme is intended to determine a successor to Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye ...
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USA makes last-ditch ASTOR effort
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A high-level US delegation visited the UK in early January in an eleventh-hour attempt to persuade the Government to procure a variant of the Northrop Grumman Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) to meet its Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR ) requirement. The delegation, say US sources, ...
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Grob favoured for RAF trainer
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON A battle between the Royal Air Force and the UK's Department of Trade and Industry over the choice of a basic trainer aircraft to replace the RAF's fleet of Scottish Aviation Bulldog T1s has been resolved in favour of the military. The stand-off between the two sides ...
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Marking territory
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS It was clearly strategic planning and global thinking, rather than short-term opportunism in the volatile pilot-training market, which recently impelled British Aerospace to boost its investment in Australian-based pilot-training schools. The training needs of the Asia-Pacific region, despite the recent economic downturn, are considerable, and Australian schools are ...