Helicopters – Page 452
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AMC rebuffs An-70 as basis of Future Large Aircraft project
Airbus Military Company (AMC) has rejected any possibility of it using the Antonov An-70 as the basis for a European Future Large Aircraft (FLA). The timing of the statement during the Berlin air show angered senior Airbus Industrie management, apparently concerned that the rejection of a German-led initiative to ...
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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 $7 billion sale of the aircraft to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The event marks the closure of a threatening fissure between ...
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Polish anti-armour missile buy stays in neutral
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Polish defence officials are pushing Israel to agree to test firings of the Rafael NT-D anti-tank missile on Polish soil before the country commits itself formally to buying the weapons. Officials were due to meet on 15 May to plan the tests, which could include the ...
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UK details RAF project delays
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Lockheed Martin has paid the first instalment in a £23.5 million ($38 million) penalty charge to the UK Ministry of Defence for delays in delivery of the Royal Air Force's C-130J Hercules 2 tactical military transport. Details of the "liquidated damages" are revealed in the National ...
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Normalair-Garrett moves to AlliedSignal
Andrew Chuter/LONDON Control of Normalair-Garrett (NGL) in the UK has switched from GKN to AlliedSignal in a move which sees the US company acquire an additional 4% share in their joint venture operation. AlliedSignal has also purchased New York-based Hermetic Aircraft from GKN. The £12 million ($20 million) ...
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Airbus fights FLA delays
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Airbus Military Company (AMC) is attempting to pull forward a German-led study on the Antonov An-70's ability to meet European tactical military transport requirements. This is in an effort to avoid further delays to the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) programme. The German study timescale conflicts with AMC's ...
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Singapore issues letters of request for attack helicopter
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Singapore has formally kicked off the tendering process for an attack helicopter by issuing competing European, South African and US manufacturers with letters of request (LoR) for up 20 airframes The LoR has given the three shortlisted bidders until June to submit their offers to the ...
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Berlin airlift impasse
Douglas Barrie/LONDONThe sight of an airlifter over Berlin used to be welcome. In the case of the Antonov An-70, making its Western show debut, there will be those among the crowd who wish it had remained in Ukraine. The An-70 is being championed by none other than Volker Rühe,Germany's defence ...
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A new conflict
The spat between the USA and South Africa over the former's ambition to bid for the latter's fighter and helicopter requirements, and therefore have hooks in South African military technology and its export, has the veneer of the old East/West conflict. For many, it merely presages the rumblings of conflicts ...
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Northrop Grumman eyes more Hawkeye sales
Northrop Grumman rolled out the first of two E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning (AEW) command and control aircraft - destined for the French navy - on 28 April , with further French purchases expected. The first French E-2C flew in March and the second will be completed in the ...
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JDA may focus on tanker and transport
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Japan Defence Agency (JDA) planners are weighing up options to defer development of a replacement maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) to focus its increasingly tight financial resources on acquiring a combined inflight refuelling tanker and transport jet. Local defence sources in Tokyo say that the JDA is ...
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Thomson protest holds up Philippine radar plans
The Philippine air force has been forced again to delay issuing a tender for new air defence radars after Thomson-CSF protested about being dropped from the shortlist. The new fighter programme has now taken a step forward with the issue of the long awaited invitation to bid (ITB). Manila ...
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Racal using DC-3 for Searchwater 2000 radar tests
Common processing and system elements of Racal's Searchwater 2000 maritime reconnaissance (MR) and airborne early warning (AEW)radars are undergoing a series of over-sea tests, fitted under the nose of a Douglas DC-3 leased from Air Atlantique of Coventry. The MR variant is for the British Aerospace Nimrod 2000 replacement maritime ...
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Japan considers SARV-22 tiltrotor
Japan's Defence forces and its Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) are showing growing interest in a search and rescue (SAR) version of the V-22 Osprey, which Bell and Boeing are promoting as one of several future military variants of the tiltrotor. Japan has opened tentative discussions with Bell Boeing on ...
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Malaysia postpones AEW procurement for five years
Aircraft manufacturers lining up to meet Malaysia's airborne early warning (AEW) requirement are anticipating a delay of up to five years because of Asia's continuing economic crisis. Malaysia cut its defence budget by 10% after its currency plunged against the US dollar, although defence minister Syed Hamid Albar says ...
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Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman respond
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have issued an official response to the US Government's anti-trust complaints against their proposed merger, arguing that the deal is necessary if they are to compete with Boeing in military aircraft and Raytheon in defence electronics. The complaint was filed with the court on ...
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Partners re-arrange KTX-II schedule after budget cuts
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Samsung Aerospace and partner Lockheed Martin are examining ways of re-arranging KTX-II development work and funding schedules, in the wake of the South Korean Government's decision to slash the programme's first year budget. The new administration of recently inaugurated President Kim Dae Jung has halved the ...
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An-70 bid for FLA nears an end
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) partners are to meet early next month to discuss the outcome of a critical study into considering the Antonov An-70 as an FLA candidate. The study, which is widely expected to reject the An-70 as a serious contender, is almost ...
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German MoD pushes ambitious helicopter and missile wish list
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH The German defence ministry has prepared a lengthy procurement wish-list for the 1999 budget, including key helicopter and missile programmes, but it threatens to overload the parliamentary defence committee's ability to pass all the items this session. According to sources in Bonn, it seems likely that ...
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Hornets nest
Paul Lewis/BANGKOK New jobs inevitably entail fresh challenges and the position of commander in chief of the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) is certainly no exception. Air Chief Marshal Tananit Niamtan reached the pinnacle of his 27 year air force career in October 1997, just as Thailand's economy was diving ...