DEFENCE

MDC pushes Super Hornet as EFA alternative BONN

McDonnell Douglas is again to present its Super Hornet Plus to West Germany as an unsolicited alternative to the European Fighter Aircraft.

Flight understands that the MDC proposal is for a 250-aircraft buy, and that the company is quoting a non­recurring price of $1,750 million. This figure, which includes four development aircraft, is based on $24-2 million for the basic airframe, rising to $26 million per copy with systems, and another $1-5 million per aircraft for an updated version of the Hughes AN/APG-65 multi-mode radar. The total cost of each aircraft is thus $27-5 million. The Super Hornet Plus bears little resemblance to the standard F-18, but is only 30-35 per cent different and "offers 90 per cent of EFA's performance at only 30 per cent of the cost", claims MDC.

The General Electric F404-GE-400 engines would be replaced by a growth version offering higher thrust and the engine intakes would be enlarged to cope with a 10 per cent increase in flow. The basic Hornet fuselage would be retained, with wing attach­ment changes for the1 new cranked-arrow wing, and dihedral canards would replace the current flying tail-plane. The twin fins would be of larger area, with increased chord. The aerodynamic changes will provide increased manoeuvrability and better supersonic-flight perform­ance, and would require new control-law software to be written. The weapon-system architecture would also be new. McDonnell Douglas says it is willing to set up a co­operative programme with European partners for joint development of Super Hornet Plus.

Meanwhile, EFA's parent company, Eurofighter, awaits the outcome of a series of meetings in Germany to determine exactly what Defence Minister Manfred Woerner wants. Woerner is beset by budget difficulties, and senior officials in defence procurement are to meet this week to clarify Woerner's case before presentation to various

The Super Hornet Plus will be capable of performing 90 per cent of the EFA mission requirement at 30 per cent of EFA's cost, claims McDonnell Douglas. MDC says that the aircraft will be agile enough to warrant the inclusion of systems to aid the pilot in fighting g-induced loss of consciousness

Bundestag committees. MBB will represent West German industry at the meetings with Woerner.

Also to hold a meeting within the next week is the Defence Ministry's procure­ment committee, which will report its views on EFA procurement and how it will budget for it. This meeting was to have been held on December 16, but the Commander-in-Chief of West Germany's armed forces, Admiral Wellershof, was ill, and is only now well enough to return to work.

The decision as to which radar system will be fitted to EFA will be made on February 5. Eurofighter's choice of radar will then be passed on to the Nato European Fighter Management Agency (Nefma), which will endorse the proposal with its own recommendations before referring the decision to the four EFA nations for their views. Thus the radar choice, either the Ferranti-led consortium's ECR.90 or the rival ' GEC Marconi con­sortium's MSD upgrade of the APG-65, will probably not be announced until mid-to-late March. Although the radar is on EFA's critical path, it will not delay prototype flying. However, a similar process

was used to pick the EFA prototypes' interim engine. The proposal left Eurofighter last July, and a hard decision has yet to be announced.

Eurofighter has also passed to Nefma its draft Requests for Proposals on EFA systems. As most of these are major (or safety-of-flight related) systems, Nefma is empowered to amend the RFPs before they are passed to industry. No RFPs have as yet been called for.

USA/Israel to build Cobra night sights TEL AVIV ~ A total of 120 night targeting systems (NTS), for use in Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicop­ters, will be jointly construc­ted by US and Israeli industry if a proposed letter of offer to the Government of Israel is approved by the US Congress.

The deal would include joint development, integra­tion, and co-production. Also

proposed is the provision of five prototypes, training, support equipment, technical assistance, and spares. No opposition by either govern­ment is expected, and the first operational equipment is anticipated to become avail­able by 1992. Israel's share in research, development, and production is presently esti­mated to amount to $62 million.

These NTS, of which 40 are needed by Israel for its AH-lS fleet and 80 by the US Marine Corp's AH-lWs, are suitable for use with anti-tank missiles of the present and future generations. Taman Precision Instruments Industries, a division of IAI, has been designated as prime con­tractor. The US Department of the Navy will have responsibility for transactions related to this sale. Extensive initial work done by Taman in this field is expected to result in significantly lower acquisi­tion costs for the US Govern­ment.

It is also possible that the German MoD might partici­pate in the venture, or order the equipment from Taman directly. An NTS is urgently needed for the second phase of the modernisation of the West German Army's BO. 105 fleet, scheduled for the early 1990s.

FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 30 January 1988