ISRAEL AND CHILE have settle a row which threatened to delay substantially delivery of the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI)-developed Phalcon airborne early-warning system to the Chilean air force.
Following agreement between IAI and the Chilean air force, the aircraft will now be delivered early in May. Chile had previously said that it would not accept delivery of the Boeing 707-based airborne-early-warning aircraft until software for the mission system had been completely debugged (Flight International, 29 March-4 April).
The two sides have agreed that debugging of the system's software will continue in Chile and will be supervised by IAI specialists.
Menashe Broder, IAI's corporate vice-president marketing, says that deal was agreed with senior Chilean air force officers late in March
He adds that IAI will also assist the Chileans to build the necessary software tools for updating the Phalcon's mission-system suite to adapt it to the specific arena of operation.
IAI is continuing in its efforts to market the Phalcon to other countries. Broder says that he hopes another contract will be signed before the end of the year. IAI is offering the Phalcon in several configurations, depending on the aircraft.
Source: Flight International
