Good day to you all, from Sara Compound, Half Moon Bay, Al Khobar.

AVIATION WORLD NEWS
Date: Monday April 04thto Sunday April 10th, 2011

Civil News

Southwest Scare: Feds Order 737 Inspections in Wake of Crack in Southwest Jet
Monday April 04, 2011
Inspections Have Already Uncovered Fatigue Cracks in Three More Southwest Jets
The federal government on Tuesday will order emergency inspections on 175 Boeing 737 airliners, and is rethinking its approach to plane inspections after a Southwest Airlines jet tore open in mid-flight Friday night, ABC News has learned.
Inspections will initially focus on 175 planes, used by airlines around the world, that make frequent takeoffs and landings. Eighty of the planes are in service in the United States, most of them for Southwest Airlines.
The government is particularly concerned about older 737-300, 737-400 and 737-500 jets that have taken off and landed more than 30,000 times. Jets that have accumulated many flight cycles are apparently more likely to develop the sort of fatigue cracks that may have caused the tear in the skin of the Southwest 737-300 last week.

As the nation's planes age, more jets could cause concern and require inspection for such fatigue cracks.
Inspectors use something called eddy current technology, passing an electric current through an aircraft's skin to look for small cracks. If any warning signs are detected, more sophisticated ultrasound 
and X-ray tools are then used for a closer examination. In some areas, a plane's skin can be as thin as a nickel.

Fatigue Cracks Found in Three Other Southwest Jets
Southwest said today that it has inspected some 90 percent of its 737-300s, which were removed from service after the weekend. So far, inspections have uncovered fatigue cracks in three planes, the airline said. 64 other planes have been inspected and returned to service, with a dozen other planes still requiring inspection. The airline believes its inspection process complies with the government's order.

Due to the voluntary grounding, Southwest has had to cancel at least 600 flights since Friday's emergency landing.
Southwest flight 812, en-route from Phoenix to Sacramento, Calif., was diverted to a military base at Yuma, Ariz., after a section of the plane's fuselage ripped open, depressurizing the plane and exposing the sky to passengers.
Last night, another Southwest flight was diverted. The flight, headed from Oakland, Calif., to San Diego, Calif. made an emergency landing because of a burning electrical smell.

Meanwhile, the five-foot section of the plane's fuselage that opened up Friday on flight 812 is headed back to Washington, D.C., for detailed microscopic analysis.
The jet came apart at a seam, where two pieces of metal are riveted together, which is an especially dangerous location because the plane can essentially unzip, experts said.

"We have clear evidence that the skin separated at the lower rivet line," Robert Sumwalt, a NTSB Board member, said.
The 15-year-old damaged aircraft had been through more than 39,000 takeoffs and landings -- each of which puts stress on an aircraft's skin. "When airplanes take off and land, aircraft are pressurized. The internal cabin is expanded and contracts just a little bit," said Steve Ganyard, a former military pilot. "You're exercising the skin of that aircraft."
Neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor Boeing requires an intensive inspection to check for fatigue cracks on the section of passenger jet that tore open Friday, ABC News has learned.

After the incident Friday, the revelation calls into question the inspection program for aging U.S. aircraft.
The Southwest jet had what is known as a D-check in March 2010, the most comprehensive check for an airplane.
Based on modelling and previous flight experience of Boeing 737-300s, it was believed that the cracks could not develop in this area of the plane.

Those cracks, which can develop after repeated takeoffs and landings, may well have been what caused the fuselage to fail, according to some experts.
"Now we may have to look at airplanes in places we never thought we would have to check before," said Ganyard, an ABC News consultant.
Other fuselage cracks were found and repaired on this particular aircraft during heavy maintenance in March 2010, according to The Associated Press.
Upon review of the records of the repair, ABC News discovered at least a dozen fuselage crack repairs.
Southwest now says that what was seen with Flight 812 was a new and unknown issue.

"Boeing has since identified an inspection program for this section of the aircraft," Southwest said in a statement. "Based on this incident and the additional findings, we expect further action from Boeing and the FAA for operators of the 737-300 fleet worldwide."

Southwest Flight 812 Drops 20,000 Feet in Four and a Half Minutes

On Friday's harrowing flight, the first 20 minutes all appeared normal as the plan climbed to 36,000 feet. Flight attendants had just taken drink orders when the plane's 118 passengers reported hearing loud pops. Then, with the plane at approximately 34,000 feet, the roof opened up near the luggage compartment and oxygen masks dropped in front of passengers. At least one flight attendant passed out.

Passenger Wade Allemand said he almost passed out.
"Your ears instantly start to hurt really bad. You feel like you're going to black out," he said. The crew turned the jet sharply to the right, pushed the nose down, losing more than 20,000 feet in just four and a half minutes.
Passengers had a short amount of time to get their oxygen masks on.
"It depends on what the decompression is. Sometimes it's minutes, sometimes it's two to three seconds," Lauren Jarmoszko, a flight safety instructor, said.

Loss of oxygen impacts cognition, memory and reaction time. It can also lead to brain damage.
In a rapid decompression, like the Southwest flight, the oxygen mask drops quickly. There are also instances of slow decompression which is usually caused by a small leak in a window or door seal. Passengers and crew may not even notice the first effects: fatigue, mental confusion, and dulled reflexes.

The captain on Flight 812 had 19 years experience with Southwest, while his first officer had seven years of experience, and he received assistance as typical when declaring a emergency, according to the NTSB.
Some terrified passengers clearly thought it was the end. One woman whose husband was on the plane received a text from him -- "Plane going down. Love you."

However, the plane was able to land at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station/International Airport at 4:07 p.m. Friday, said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Passengers applauded the pilots upon landing, called loved ones and waited for a new Southwest jet to pick them up and take them on their way.

New Discovery of Wreckage From 2009 Air France
Monday April 04, 2011

Wreckage from a 2009 Air France crash gives fresh hope to finally uncovering a mystery that left 228 dead, has been found in the South Atlantic which investigators hope will lead them to the plane’s black box.
Three previous attempts by the French and Brazilian military, including sending a nuclear submarine to the site, failed to locate the Airbus A330’s flight recorder onboard the doomed Rio De Janeiro to Paris flight on June 1, 2009.

Parts of the wreckage of an Air France plane found in the Atlantic at the weekend contain the bodies of some of the passengers who died when the aircraft crashed off Brazil in 2009, the French government said on Monday.
The latest search, the fourth since the crash, is being carried out using a salvage vessel equipped with unmanned submarines. An initial underwater search had also found parts of wreckage and bodies.

France's BEA accident investigation authority said on Sunday it had found a large part of the plane's wreckage including the engine and parts of the fuselage, and Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said on Monday there were human remains inside.
"We have more than just traces, we have bodies... Identification is possible," she told France Inter radio.
Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said victims' families would be informed of the findings at a meeting at the end of the week and no further details would be made public before then.

Air France boss Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said the discovery is ‘good news’ adding: ‘It gives hope that information on the causes of the accident, so far unresolved, will be found.’
The wreckage was found by a team onboard the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution vessel, France’s air-crash investigation agency, Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses, said.
The exact location of the latest sighting has not been disclosed but parts of the plane and bodies of some of the passengers were located 400 miles off the Brazilian coast across a 55 mile-wide area.
Air France and Airbus had preliminary corporate manslaughter charges handed down to them by a French investigating judge last month.
French law means any fatal accident automatically prompts a criminal investigation alongside enquiries by aviation authorities.

The exact cause of the crash is still not know, but on the fateful day storms were sending 100mph winds straight into the Airbus's path at that time.
Ten minutes later, the plane sent a burst of automatic messages, indicating the autopilot had disengaged, the flight-control computer system had been switched to alternative-power and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged.

Three minutes later, automatic messages warned that two other fundamental systems that monitor air speed, altitude and direction had failed.
Then came a cascade of electrical failures in systems that control the main flight computer and wing spoilers.
The last message indicated loss of air pressure and electrical failure.
The BEA has said a contributing factor to the crash may have been speed sensors, or Pitot tubes, icing up and causing unreliable speed readings.

UN Plane Crashes In Congo, 32 Dead
Monday April 4, 2011
A United Nations plane crashed while trying to land at the airport serving Congo's capital, Kinshasa, on Monday, killing 32 people, UN officials said. One person aboard survived.
"We can confirm only one survivor out of the 33 people on board," a UN spokesman said in New York. The world body earlier said Congolese and foreign nationals were on board the plane.
The operator of the plane, Georgian flag carrier Airzena Georgian Airways, said the crew was Georgian.

A UN source in Kinshasa, who asked not to be named, said: "The plane landed heavily, broke into two and caught fire." There were strong winds blowing at the time.
Congolese Health Ministry official Joseph Kiboko said: "We sent eight people to hospital who were still breathing, but I don't know whether they survived. Both the pilots were killed."

In New York, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said there had been four crew members, and that all but five of the 29 passengers were believed to be UN personnel. The others worked for non-governmental organisations, he told reporters. A witness at the Kinshasa airport said the plane was completely destroyed and the wreckage was lying at the end of the runway.

Le Roy said the plane had missed the runway, probably due to wind. The United Nations would set up an investigation immediately, he said.
The Bombardier CRJ-200 jet, had taken off from the eastern city of Kisangani, a UN spokesman based in Kinshasa said. Officials had told reporters earlier that the plane was a CRJ-300.

The UN’s 19,000-strong peacekeeping mission is backing Congo government efforts to fight rebel groups that have been haunting the country's troubled east since a 1998-2003 civil war that killed five million people.

ASN Accident Digest
Date: 04 APR 2011
Time: ca 14:00
Type: Canadair CL-600-2B19 Regional Jet CRJ-100ER
Operator: United Nations - UN
Registration: 4L-GAE
C/n / msn: 7070
First flight: 1995
Engines: 2 General Electric CF34-3A1
Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 3
Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants:
Total: Fatalities: 29 / Occupants: 32
Ground fatalities:
Airplane damage: Destroyed
Location: Kinshasa-N'Djili Airport (FIH) (Congo (Democratic Republic))
Phase:  Landing
Nature: Domestic Non Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Kisangani-Bangoka International Airport (FKI)
Destination airport: Kinshasa-N'Djili Airport (FIH)
Flight number: 834
A CRJ-100ER passenger plane was destroyed in an accident at Kinshasa-N'Djili Airport (FIH). Three occupants survived the accident, 29 were killed. The airplane operated on behalf of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on flight UNO834 from Kinshasa-N'Djili Airport (FIH) to Kisangani (FKI) and Entebbe (EBB), Uganda and return. The airplane was operating on the final leg of the flight when it crashed in rainy weather. The weather reported about one hour after the accident (15:00 local / 14:00 UTC): METAR FZAA 041400Z 34004KT 9000 TS SCT020 FEW028CB BKN110 24/23 Q1008 CB SECT NE-NW BECMG NSW= [Wind: 340 degrees at 4 knots; visibility: 9000m; thunderstorm; scattered clouds at 2000 ft; few clouds with cumulonimbus at 2,800 ft; broken clouds at 11,000 ft; Temperature: 24°C; Dew point: 23°C; pressure: 1008 hPa; cumulonimbus to the NE-NW, becoming No Significant Weather]

5 E-Jets For KLM Cityhopper
Monday April 4, 2011
KLM Cityhopper has confirmed an order for additional five Embraer 190’s, expanding the options originally placed in August 2007.
The total value of the order is US$ 214 million. Initial deliveries are scheduled to take place during the first half of 2012. The Dutch airline still retains options on two more E-Jets.
Currently KLM Cityhopper operates 17 190s on its regional European routes, all configured for 100-seats in a dual-class layout. With the latest order, the fleet will grow to 22 Embraer 190.

Boeing, GECAS Finalize Order For 10 777-300ERs
Tuesday April 5, 2011
GECAS Has Ordered 53 777-Family Aircraft
An order for 10 777-300ER airliners has been finalized between Boeing and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). The order is worth approximately $2.8 billion at list prices. The new 777-300ERs will help GECAS meet growing airline demand for long-haul passenger airplanes.
"This order adds to our existing portfolio of 777 aircraft," said Norman C. T. Liu, GECAS president and CEO. "A key part of our strategy is to expand our long-haul product offerings to satisfy customer demand."

The 777-300ER extends the 777 family's span of capabilities, bringing twin-engine efficiency and reliability to the long-range market. The airplane carries 365 passengers up to 7,930 nautical miles.
"The Boeing 777-300ER has generated extraordinary market preference and global popularity, endorsed by industry leaders such as GECAS," said Marlin Dailey, vice president of Sales & Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "GECAS has played an important role in the success of the 777, giving Boeing valuable feedback about the airplane's performance and economics and demonstrating support for the 777's value proposition over the years. Today's order again underscores GECAS's confidence in the 777."
With today's announcement, GECAS has ordered 53 777s, including 41 777-300ERs.

Spanish Government, Iberia, And Airbus Launch Bio-Fuel Initiative
Tuesday April 5, 2011
'Value Chain' To Study Bio-Fuel Production To Reduce CO2 Emissions
The Spanish government, Iberia Airlines and Airbus have signed an agreement to develop a complete Spanish 'value chain' for sustainable and renewable aviation bio-fuel for commercial use. Other key members are expected to join the agreement shortly. Signatories to the agreement signed in Madrid include Isaías Táboas, Spain’s Transport Secretary of State, Suárez, Antonio Vazquez, Iberia Airlines Chairman, and Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO.

The agreement promotes and backs initiatives to develop a complete bio-fuel production chain for Spanish aviation, using sustainable resources from production to consumption in commercial aviation, with special consideration on economic and technical analysis. “The implementation of biofuels by the Spanish aviation industry for the development of a complete Spanish “value chain” is a goal that will reduce our dependency on fossil energy, make our companies more competitive by reducing costs associated to CO2 and create value and wealth in other sectors of our national economy," said Isaías Táboas. “We are fully confident that both, the public and private sector can cooperate in the development and implementation of this initiative."

“Climate change is a major challenge for our industry. The aviation sector’s ambitious CO2 reduction target is only possible if bio-fuels become a reality. Under this initiative, Iberia brings extensive experience in flight operations and in aircraft maintenance to perform the necessary tests that will make this goal a reality", said Antonio Vazquez.
Airbus’ focus is on providing expertise and management of the feasibility, life cycle and sustainability analysis. “Biofuels are a must for aviation to achieve our industry's ambitious CO2 reduction targets. In fact, we believe that biofuels should primarily be reserved for aviation as our industry has no other viable alternative energy source,” said Tom Enders. “All industry players including governments have a role in helping to reduce global CO2 emission levels. Airbus is supporting value chains to accelerate the commercialisation of aviation bio-fuels.”

The value chain brings together farmers, oil-refiners and airlines to spearhead the commercialisation of sustainable bio-fuel production. Phase one of the project will be the feasibility study. Phase two, will narrow down the most promising solutions to a demonstration level, and phase three from 2014 onwards will look at implementation and scaling up of the production process. 
The initiative is being lead by the Air Safety State-Agency (AESA) and the Services and Studies for Air Navigation and Aeronautical Safety/Observatory of Sustainability in Aviation (SENASA/OBSA), under the Ministries of the Environment, of Public works and of the Industry.

Thomson Flight Escorted By Fighter Jets In Security Alert
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Thomson Airways flight yesterday after an apparent bomb alert. 
The Boeing 757 flight from Bristol to Sharm-el-Sheikh was diverted into Athens by the Greek fighter jets. 

The 213 passengers on board were evacuated from the plane while checks were made but nothing was found  According to the BBC, the threat was received by an Egyptian news agency and passed on to the flight crew. 
A spokesman for Thomson said the crew decided to make the diversion "as a precaution and in the interest of safety". 
"There were no customer injuries as a result of the alert and all customers and crew were looked after in the terminal building while the investigation was conducted," said the spokesman. 

Once the flight got clearance, it operated as planned to Sharm el Sheikh, arriving 6hrs 15mins behind schedule. 
Thomson said all customers are now in resort. 

FAA Suspends Controller For Loss of Separation
Tuesday April 5, 2011
The US FAA has suspended a controller in the Central Florida Terminal Radar Approach Control after a Southwest 737 was placed in "close proximity" to a Cirrus SR22 during an incident on 27 March.

FAA states the controller requested assistance from the Southwest aircraft to check on the Cirrus after it was out of radio contact for over an hour.
The Cirrus was on course for Kissimmee, Florida maintaining an altitude of 11,000ft (3,352m), says FAA, with air traffic controllers at the Jacksonville centre repeatedly trying to reach the aircraft without success.
Southwest Flight 821 was ten miles in trail of the Cirrus at 12,000ft, en route to Orlando, says FAA.

The controller, a supervisor, asked the Southwest crew to check the cockpit of the Cirrus. The crew agreed, was directed toward the aircraft and reported two people present in the SR22 cockpit.
Afterwards, the Southwest 737 was turned away from the Cirrus, and vectored for its arrival at Orlando International airport.
Roughly 30 seconds later the Cirrus contacted Jacksonville centre and communicated its current frequency. Both aircraft landed safely.

"Preliminary information indicates that there was a loss of required separation between the two aircraft. The FAA has suspended the air traffic controller," the agency says.
FAA states it is reviewing air traffic procedures used in the incident.
"By placing this passenger aircraft in close proximity to another plane, the air traffic controller compromised the safety of everyone involved. This incident was totally inappropriate," says FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.

Inquiry Details Crashed Ethiopian 737's Erratic Flight Path
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Lebanese investigators have detailed the erratic course followed by the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed off the coast of Beirut last year, showing that it failed to follow instructed headings before straying and entering a sharp left-hand spiral dive.
It also shows that the aircraft received a stick-shaker warning during its climb, and momentarily descended before climbing again, and receiving another.

In its newly-disclosed progress report on the accident, the Lebanese transport ministry adds that bank-angle warnings sounded 10 times during the flight, the first coming shortly after take-off.
The aircraft had originally been cleared to follow the Lateb 1D standard departure off runway 21 but this was changed just before take-off to an immediate right-hand turn direct to the Chekka (CAK) waypoint north of Beirut.
Air traffic control then ordered it to follow a heading of 315° and says that this was selected on the mode control panel. But the aircraft continued to turn right, eventually reaching a heading of 003°.
Air Transport Intelligence has previously been told that the aircraft had to be turned away from the inbound traffic flow to Beirut, although this is not specified in the ministry's report.
But the ministry states that air traffic control did order the aircraft to turn left to a new heading of 270°, and that this new heading was also selected on the mode control panel - but that the aircraft failed to level out on this heading as well.

Instead it continued to turn southwards, receiving the first stick-shaker warning as it climbed to around 7,700ft. The ministry says the angle of attack peaked at 32°.
The warning lasted 29s and the aircraft descended to about 6,000ft. It then climbed again, to 9,000ft and received a second stick-shaker warning, lasting 26s, before the aircraft turned sharply left and started descending again - a course which, at this point, was taking the aircraft eastwards towards high terrain.
It continued to descend in a sharp left-hand turn, the bank angle reaching a maximum of 118° as the aircraft pitched 63° nose-down. The jet reached a speed of 407kt during the dive and an over speed warning sounded shortly before the aircraft struck the water.

FAA Moves To Fire Napping Air Controller

Wednesday April 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is moving to fire an air traffic controller who the agency says decided to nap on the job while working the midnight shift in the radar room at a Tennessee airport in February.

Unlike the controller supervisor at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport who told officials that he inadvertently dozed off while working the overnight shift in the tower last month, the controller at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville intentionally napped while seven planes landed over five hours on Feb. 19, according to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
The suspected napping came to light Wednesday in Babbitt's testimony before a House transportation subcommittee. He said he learned of it after the March 23 incident at National.
Landing procedures at Knoxville differ from those at Reagan National.

At Reagan National, planes are turned toward their final landing approach by radar controllers based in a Warrenton, Va., facility that serves the entire region. Those controllers hand off the planes to the Reagan National tower for guidance to the tarmac and boarding gate.
At Knoxville's airport, the radar controller and the tower controller work on different floors of the same facility.
When the radar controller decided to take a nap, the tower controller stepped in to assume his duties and guide the planes to the runway.
"The FAA will not tolerate this type of unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour," the FAA said in a statement, indicating that the napping Knoxville controller would be fired.

"The agency is committed to ensuring the safety of the travelling public and is conducting a nationwide review of the air traffic control system, including overnight staffing at selected airports around the country."
Babbitt suspended the Reagan National controller after two planes carrying a total of 165 passengers landed on their own while he slept. After learning of the incident, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered that two controllers be regularly assigned to the overnight shift at the airport. Federal officials are investigating the incident.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which voiced concern over single-staffing of overnight shifts when the Reagan National incident came to light, reiterated that position after learning about what happened at Knoxville.

"Once again, we're talking about the midnight shift," said union spokesman Doug Church. "We continue to be concerned with the issue of safe staffing on the midnight shifts and are working collaboratively with the FAA to determine appropriate staffing levels at all facilities nationwide on all shifts."

ERA Worried That Air Safety Threatened By Criminalisation Trend
Wednesday April 6, 2011
The increasing trend towards prosecuting airline personnel before the cause of an air accident has been determined, as illustrated in the recent Airbus / Air France case, has led the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) to issue a 20-page document to its members with advice on how to put measures in place to defend themselves against unjust criminal procedures.
Produced in conjunction with law firm and ERA member Gates & Partners, the document was presented to ERA Airline Presidents today in Malta at the start of the association’s annual Regional Airline Conference.

Mike Ambrose, ERA director general said: “We have been forced to produce this document because of the increasing global trend to give a higher priority to the apportionment of blame rather than to determination of the factors which may have caused an incident or accident.  Experience has shown that it is not just key post holders within airlines that may be subject to prosecution, but anyone in the organisation who is concerned or involved in safety operations.  These people need professional and expert advice in order to defend themselves against justice systems that are prejudiced towards persecution rather than prevention of air accidents.”

ERA has been a long-standing advocate of no-penalty occurrence reporting as the best method for the prevention of accidents.  “The ability for an individual to admit an unintentional error without fear of penalty, which others can subsequently learn from, is of benefit to airlines and their passengers,” said Ambrose.

Brian Simpson MEP, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Transport & Tourism Committee says in his Foreword to the document:
“The criminalisation of air accidents and incidents is on the rise, with many countries being intent on finding a culprit rather than determining the factors involved in causing the incident in the first place and the subsequent implementation of measures that would avoid a repeat scenario.  Forced with this real threat of criminal prosecution, Board members and key post holders in any airline have an obligation to ensure that they and their employees are aware that the exposure to a criminal prosecution can be a very traumatic and expensive exercise.”

Airbus Wins 69 Plane Orders in Q1
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Airbus sold 69 aircraft in the first quarter and delivered 119, the European plane maker said on Wednesday.
Kuwaiti low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways scrapped orders for 25 A320s last month, after Dubai Aerospace Enterprise's DAE Capital leasing unit cancelled orders for 18 A320 jets and 12 A350-900 wide-body aircraft in February.
The 43 cancelled A320 orders were worth around USD$3.7 billion at list prices.

After adjusting for cancellations, the Toulouse-based plane maker booked a net total of just one plane order between January and March.
Deliveries of Airbus aircraft over the same period included four A380 superjumbos. In the latest available figures, Boeing sold 135 planes between January 1 and March 29 and took 88 net orders after adjusting for cancellations.

Saudi Urged to Consider Using Gulf Carriers
Wednesday April 6, 2011
An advisory council in Saudi Arabia has called for a study on allowing Gulf airlines to fly domestic routes in the biggest Arab economy as the national carrier struggles to meet demand, a spokesman said.
"The Shoura Council (recommended) a study on allowing some Gulf airline carriers to operate within the kingdom," Mohammed Almohanna, a council spokesman, said.

The Shoura Council, which advises the rulers of the world's biggest oil exporter, urged the civil aviation body to carry out the study.
Currently, Saudi Airlines and low-cost carrier National Air Services serve a domestic market of around 27 million people.
With a price cap on domestic flights, private airlines in Saudi Arabia have struggled with their profit margins, leading a third carrier Sama Airlines to suspend its operations last year.
State-owned Saudi Airlines, which is currently undergoing a privatisation process, receives fuel at subsidised prices which puts it at an advantage, allowing it to continue serving the domestic market but its services are not enough for the country's needs.

"There is great demand for domestic operated flights, especially as demographics are strong and Saudi Arabia can not meet rising demand," said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi.
"Opening up the market should help competition and improve services and supply of flights," he added.
Many in Saudi Arabia complain of a shortage of flights in smaller towns and poor quality due to an absence of competition.

Airbus to Launch the A.320NEO Early
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Airbus said on Wednesday it would bring forward the entry into service of a new version of its A320 passenger jet by six months.
The fuel saving model of Airbus's best selling aircraft will now be available in October 2015, Airbus said in a statement, citing spectacular market demand.
Airbus said the upgraded model has generated strong sales of a Pratt & Whitney engine, the PW1100G turbofan, which Airbus said customers had established as the "lead development engine".

Airbus sales chief John Leahy was quoted as saying on Tuesday the jet maker would consider putting a version of Pratt & Whitney's latest jet engines on its A350 mid-sized plane if the US engine maker proposed it.
The engine, developed by Pratt, competes with an engine developed by General Electric and Safran joint venture CFM International.
The move to speed up the introduction of the A320neo comes as Boeing considers whether to launch a new version of its successful 737 passenger jet.
Together the two aircraft compete in the largest segment of the market worth an estimated USD$1.7 trillion over 20 years.
Separately, Zodiac Aerospace said on Wednesday it had won a deal to become the sole supplier of kitchen and stowage compartments for Airbus's short-to medium range narrow-body A320 fleet.

FAA Seeks to Fire Second Sleeping Controller
Wednesday April 6, 2011
The Federal Aviation Administration has identified a second air traffic controller who fell asleep on the job, the agency said on Wednesday.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told a congressional hearing that the controller was "found intentionally sleeping" in the radar room during a midnight shift on February 19 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Babbitt said the agency is seeking to have the person, who was not named, fired.
The sleeping controller was found asleep with cushions and a blanket.
The airport tower controller was forced to perform his own duties as well as handle radar responsibilities for seven flights while the other controller slept, Babbitt said.
Last month, US aviation authorities said a lone controller at the tower at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport fell asleep on the job on March 23, leaving two jets to land without any airport guidance.
That controller, a 20-year veteran and a supervisor, was suspended.

Qatar Air to Sign USD$1.3 Bln Boeing Contract
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Qatar Airways will sign a USD$1.3 billion contract with Boeing on Wednesday to buy five 777 aircraft, Qatar's state news agency said in a statement.
The Gulf carrier will acquire five new 777s, adding to its current fleet of 97 aircraft which includes 25 Boeing 777s, QNA said.
Qatar, the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is building a new airport with the capacity to accommodate 50 million passengers per year.
Qatar Airways said in December it is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in early 2012 after three consecutive years of profit.

Branson Confirms Partner Search for Virgin Atlantic
Thursday April 7, 2011
Sir Richard Branson has confirmed that he intends to find an equity partner for Virgin Atlantic Airways and is likely to sell down his 51 percent stake in the airline. 
Branson, 60, has hired Deutsche Bank AG to assess his options. 
“I will certainly still be extremely involved in the airline, whatever we decide to do, and I will still be a major shareholder. We are in discussions with various people and will see what comes out of it,” he said. 

Virgin has 288 takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow - three percent of the total - which would allow a buyer much sought-after extra slots to add flights to US and Asian business markets. 
Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines, which owns 49 percent of Virgin Atlantic, said last month that it hadn’t made a decision about any “immediate divestment” of its stake. 
Virgin Atlantic is also looking at joining an airline alliance and expects to announce details within a few months. 
“It makes sense for Virgin Atlantic to have a partner,” Branson said in an interview in San Francisco, reported by Bloomberg.

Older Jets Face Tougher US Inspections
Thursday April 7, 2011
Airlines flying older jets are facing tougher, more time-consuming US inspections after the fuselage of a Southwest Airlines jet ruptured last week, leaving a 5-foot hole and questions about how companies and regulators will manage aircraft fatigue.
Addressing metal fatigue has become more of an issue for the industry as the life of commercial planes is extended by structural and cabin refurbishing, new engines and cockpit technology. Boeing has faced this on its older 737, or "classic" fleet. The ruptured Southwest jet was a Boeing 737-300.
"There have been issues with this in the past," said Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel, noting that the design of the 737-300 series was changed in 1993 due to fatigue issues. He said Boeing had not seen this kind of incident since those changes were made.

The modifications were aimed at preventing large tears in the fuselage skin, like the one that occurred last Friday on the Southwest jet while it was en route from Phoenix to Sacramento, carrying 118 passengers. The plane made an emergency landing at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona.
Boeing engineer Paul Richter said Boeing did not expect the type of fatigue suspected in the Southwest plane to occur until much later in the jet's life. It is 15 years old.

A review of FAA records showed that since 2002 the agency has issued six directives regarding inspections for fuselage-related cracking involving older model 737s, including the 300, 400, and 500 series. Those models were targeted in an FAA order on Tuesday for urgent electromagnetic inspections on heavily used models made between 1994 and 2003.
A 2009 inspection order was in response to another incident involving a Southwest jet with a smaller hole in its fuselage. Southwest paid a USD$7.5 million FAA fine for operating 737s without required fuselage inspections in 2006-07.
Something Different
"We don't expect aircraft in service today to rapidly decompress and have a situation where the airplane fuselage is ripping open," National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said on Tuesday.
"We've seen events in the past where there was a failure. We understood the failure mechanism there. This is not the same. This is something different," Hersman said.

"We want to understand why we saw the extent of tearing on an aircraft this size," Hersman said.
She said the FAA was reviewing records regarding the Boeing 737-300 incident and fatigue cracks in general.
The latest FAA order requires more aggressive inspections for the 70 or so affected jets flown by Southwest. Nearly 600 planes worldwide would be affected by the directive that was stricter than a Boeing service bulletin also issued on Tuesday.

The FAA has not indicated if it will seek more design changes. But the agency's administrator, Randy Babbitt, told Congress on Wednesday that whatever is learned from the Southwest incident will be incorporated into any design, inspection or maintenance requirements.
Babbitt said he would ask his staff to review the FAA's procedures for safety on older aircraft to "ensure we are asking the right questions and taking full advantage of all available data."

BALPA Report Highlights Over-Fatigued Pilots
Friday April 8, 2011
Pilots' abilities are compromised through fatigue, according to a report published this week by their union BALPA.
 The organisation, which commissioned University College London to send questionnaires out to pilots working for a major British airline, said 492 pilots – that’s almost half -  replied to the survey and 45% of them said they suffered “significant fatigue”.

 A further one in five said their flying capabilities were compromised at least once a week because they hadn’t had enough sleep.
 One pilot, working for a different airline, has now admitted to the BBC that he fell asleep after giving his co-pilot the go ahead to take a power nap, leaving the plane unmanned.
 He said: “When I woke up, it was a big adrenaline rush. The first thing you do obviously is check your height and your speeds and all of your instrumentation.

 "The worst scenario is that the autopilot would disconnect itself and then the aircraft would lose or gain height and that would be extremely dangerous as you'd go into the path of oncoming aircraft.
 "Now there are warning systems that tell you you are deviating from the correct altitude but they are not excessively loud - it would be easy enough to sleep through that, and I probably don't need to tell you what the consequences of that are."
 It is not known which airline the pilot works for or what route he was flying on during the incident.
 BALPA has published the report to highlight its concerns that the state of affairs will worsen as European authorities prepare to raise annual flying hours allowed from 900 to 1000. This, however, has been refuted by European officials.

Gulfstream Supporting NTSB In Investigation Of G650 Crash
Friday April 8, 2011
Henne Says Flight Testing Will Not Resume Until FAA Says It Is Safe
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. has flight-test and engineering department personnel on site in Roswell, NM, participating in the NTSB's investigation of the April 2 crash of a Gulfstream G650 aircraft.
Immediately following the accident, Gulfstream elected to temporarily suspend the flight activities of its four remaining G650 flight-test aircraft as the NTSB, the FAA, the company and suppliers work together to analyze the accident. All other certification and production work on the G650 program continues, and all other activities at the company are proceeding normally.

"We are participating fully in the aircraft investigation," commented Pres Henne, senior vice president, Programs, Engineering and Test, Gulfstream, "and will only resume flying the G650 when we and the Federal Aviation Administration are satisfied it is safe to do so."
The crash of G650 Serial Number 6002 occurred during takeoff-performance testing. The airplane first flew in February 2010. As of March 31, 2011, the aircraft had accumulated more than 425 hours of flight-test time, involving tests of performance and systems. The G650 flight test fleet has accumulated more than 1,570 flight test hours.
Gulfstream, in consultation with the NTSB, will provide further status updates on the G650 flight-test program appropriate with the pace of the investigation.

NTSB Updates New Orleans Runway Excursion Incident Investigation
Friday April 8, 2011
Team Gathering Facts After UAL A320 Landed With Limited Electric Power
The NTSB continues to make progress in its investigation of United Airlines flight 497, which returned to the airport on April 4, 2011, in New Orleans, shortly after take-off due to automated warnings of smoke in the equipment bay. The airplane's nose wheel exited the side of runway 19 upon completing the landing roll and an emergency evacuation was conducted.
The NTSB team, comprised of 3 NTSB investigators and representatives from the designated parties and advisors, arrived on scene April 4 to document and examine the aircraft and retrieve the data and voice recorders. Two other NTSB investigators, specializing in operational factors and maintenance factors, travelled to various locations to review pertinent documentation and records and conduct interviews.

After documenting the condition of the equipment in the electronics bay, investigators applied limited electrical power to various systems on the airplane. At this time, the preliminary examination has not revealed any signs of burning, indications of smoke or other anomalous system findings.
The NTSB operations group completed interviews of the flight crew Wednesday. The crew indicated that, at about 4000 feet, the airplane's electronic centralized aircraft monitoring (ECAM) system provided an auto throttle-related message, then an avionics smoke warning message, accompanied by instructions to land. Despite receiving this message, neither crew member recalled smelling smoke or fumes during the flight.
The captain indicated that he used the electronic checklist for the avionics system smoke warning indication, which included shutting down some of the airplane's electrical system. The crew reported that the first officer's display screens went blank, the ECAM messages disappeared, the cockpit to cabin intercom stopped functioning, and the air-driven emergency generator deployed. The captain said that he took control of the airplane at this point and managed the radios while the first officer opened the cockpit door to advise the flight attendants of the emergency and their return to New Orleans airport.

The crew also noted to investigators that they requested runway 10 for landing, but were told the runway was not available due to the presence of construction vehicles. The captain said that he was able to use the airspeed, altimeter, and attitude information on his primary flight display during the return to the airport, and that he ordered an evacuation after landing.
As previously reported, the airplane's forward right slide did not properly inflate during the emergency evacuation. After examining the evacuation slides, investigators found that the aspirator for the forward right-hand slide was partially blocked. The aspirator component is the mechanism for inflating the slide during an emergency evacuation. Investigators have retained the slide for further evaluation.

Preliminary reports provided to investigators suggest that the flight attendants did not smell or see smoke in the cabin, but observed the cabin lights turn off and the intercom system cease to function during the flight. Interviews of the cabin crew will be conducted after the investigators complete their on-scene work to more thoroughly document the cabin crew's observations and communications throughout the flight and emergency evacuation.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) arrived at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. on April 5 and were successfully downloaded. The CVR is of good quality and captured approximately 7 minutes and 30 seconds of the incident flight. The FDR contained in excess of 25 hours of data and captured approximately 18 minutes of data relevant to the incident flight. Both the CVR and FDR stopped recording data prior to landing. Investigators will remain on scene to complete their evaluation of the airplane and documentation of other factors in the incident.

First Of 10 A330s Flying For Virgin Atlantic
Friday April 8, 2011
Will Begin Operating Twin Engine Jets On Transatlantic Routes
For the first time in its history, Virgin Atlantic Airways has deployed a twin engine jet to serve on its transatlantic routes. The airline says the inaugural A330-300 passenger flight between Manchester and Orlando, FL, is part of its commitment to invest in economical aircraft. The airplane is the first to be delivered from the ten A330-300s ordered in December 2009.
"The arrival of these new aircraft over the next two years marks a period of expansion for the airline," said Julie Southern, Chief Commercial Officer for Virgin Atlantic.  "We look forward to increasing services on existing routes as well as adding new long haul routes with these new planes, (while) improving our fuel efficiency."
Virgin Atlantic's first two A330-300 aircraft will operate on "leisure" routes, and will have a two class configuration of 59 Premium Economy seats and 255 in Economy. "The A330 really is the aircraft of choice on medium to long haul routes. It offers airlines unparalleled productivity, low fuel burn and reliability, and passenger’s love it too," says John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers.

With a true wide-body fuselage allowing very high comfort standards, the A330-300 is able to accommodate seat and class configurations to suit diverse customer requirements. It has a range of up to 5,600 nm with a typical 300 passenger load. Airbus says orders for the aircraft stand at more than 480.

The A330 Family, which spans 200 to 400 seats for the passenger variants and also includes Freighter, VIP, and Military Transport/Tanker variants, has now attracted more than 1,100 orders.

Mirabel Plant Prepares For Final Assembly Of Flight Test CSeries Aircraft
Friday April 8, 2011
First Step Is Space Optimization And Re-Tooling
Bombardier has started work at its aircraft production facility in Mirabel, Quebec, to accommodate final assembly of the first flight test CSeries aircraft. This is another step in the five-phased development of the Mirabel plant, which will ultimately double in size to some 860,000 square feet.
Space optimization and re-tooling at the Mirabel facility, which began last month, will accommodate final assembly of the first CSeries aircraft required for the flight test and certification program. The Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Area (CIASTA), the first area at the Mirabel plant developed for the CSeries aircraft program, is progressing on schedule, with the installation of systems rigs currently underway.
In addition, new buildings for the CSeries aircraft program will include a supplier satellite area; final assembly structural joining and pulse line areas; an area for pre-flight testing; paint shops; and a delivery and administrative centre.

Production, quality and ergonomic requirements are driving Bombardier's technical approach to the final assembly of the CSeries aircraft. While they will be shorter than the 128-foot-long CRJ1000 NextGen regional jet, the largest aircraft currently produced at the Mirabel plant, the CSeries aircraft will have a fuselage with a larger diameter, their wings will be longer and their tails taller than those on the CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft. Bombardier will therefore employ different final assembly techniques to those used for its regional jets. As an example, two pairs of robots will be used to drill holes, apply sealant and install fasteners to join the major sections of the CSeries aircraft's fuselage.
"Advanced robot technology will provide predictable repeatability, enhance quality and prevent ergonomic issues on the assembly line," said Francois Minville, Vice President, CSeries Manufacturing, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. "The fuselage of the CSeries aircraft is 12 feet in diameter, which presents an assembly challenge using our conventional methods. The benefit of the robots is they can work on the top, the side and underneath the aircraft without any limitations."

A moving production line is being introduced at Bombardier's St-Laurent Manufacturing Centre, where major components of the CSeries aircraft, such as the cockpit and aft fuselage, are being produced, and a moving final assembly line is planned for Mirabel. Compared to many other industries, aircraft manufacturing has traditionally been characterized as a low volume, long cycle time industry. The introduction of a moving final assembly line creates a dynamic environment that improves production efficiency.
To reduce the cycle time required to assemble a larger and more complex airliner, Bombardier is introducing advanced processes to ensure that high quality parts are received at the plant on time.
"We are enhancing our quality culture at Bombardier to support the production of the CSeries aircraft," said Mr. Minville. "Through the sharing of knowledge and best practices, we are building on our experience with aircraft programs that involve risk-sharing suppliers and are refining our processes."
Beginning with the development of the ultra long-range Global Express business jet in the mid-1990s, Bombardier has obtained considerable experience working with international partners and a global supply chain in building large structural aircraft components, such as wings and fuselages.

To augment this experience, new advanced quality planning (AQP) and advanced logistics planning (ALP) processes are being introduced to identify potential areas of risk in manufacturing, systems integration and supply chain logistics on the CSeries aircraft program. The introduction of AQP and ALP highlights Bombardier's embrace of preventive quality tools such as Process Control Plans, Mitigation Approach Plans, and Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEAs) commonly employed in the technology, health-care and automotive industries.
Bombardier teams started rolling out the advanced quality logistics planning methodology to suppliers on the CSeries aircraft program in 2010, and the system has now been deployed to 26 tier one suppliers at 46 manufacturing sites. The CSeries aircraft, which are optimized for the single-aisle 100- to 149-seat market, will deliver the lowest operating costs in their class, exceptional operational flexibility, widebody comfort and an unmatched environmental scorecard. Bombardier's goal is to capture up to half of its forecasted market demand for 6,700 aircraft in the 100- to 149-seat commercial aircraft market segment. This segment is valued at $393 billion over the next 20 years.

Military News

U.S. to Pull Strike Jets From Libya Mission
Monday April 4, 2011
BRUSSELS — The U.S. military will pull its warplanes from front-line missions Monday and shift to a support role in the Libyan conflict, a NATO official said.
Britain, France and other NATO allies will provide the fighter and attack jets to conduct intercept and ground attack missions as they enforce a no-fly zone over this North African country.
The hand-over is expected to take place later Monday, a NATO official said.
"There won't be a capabilities gap," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of regulations.
Last week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates told Congress the U.S. would continue to provide assets that others don't have in sufficient numbers.
These will likely include air surveillance planes, electronic reconnaissance aircraft and aerial refueling tankers.
American aircraft — including Air Force AC-130 gunships and A-10 Thunderbolts and Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers — will still be available to back up the allies in case of need.
U.S. aircraft account for 90 of the 206 planes deployed by NATO in the Libyan conflict.
Western jets have been hitting the forces of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for more than two weeks. They initially targeted anti-aircraft missile defences and quickly crushed a government offensive by destroying a large number of tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and other vehicles advancing into rebel-held areas.
But military experts say Gadhafi's forces have rapidly reorganized since then, shedding their heavy armour and relying on light forces to repeatedly ambush the lightly armed rebels.

Hellfire And Brimstone
Monday April 4, 2011
British warplanes have had great success in Libya with their Brimstone missiles. Originally developed as an upgraded version of the American Hellfire, Brimstone ended up as a Hellfire in shape only. Weighing the same as the Hellfire (48.5 kg/107 pounds), Brimstone was designed to be fired by fighter-bombers, not just (as with Hellfire) from helicopters and UAVs. Three years ago, Britain added a dual-mode (radar and laser) seeker to its Brimstone missiles. Originally, Brimstone was to be just an American Hellfire with a British seeker (a miniature, millimetre wave, radar), but it has become a highly effective anti-vehicle weapon for fast-movers (jet fighter-bombers).

Hellfire was first developed three decades ago as an anti-tank weapon, but has proved to be very useful against enemy infantry hiding out in buildings or caves. The current version has a range of eight kilometres, while Brimstone has a range of 12 kilometres.
The radar seeker makes it easier to use the missile in "fire and forget" mode. The laser seeker is more accurate (to within a meter or two of the aim point.) When used on jet fighters, like the Tornado, there is a special launcher that holds three Brimstone missiles (instead of one larger missile). The launcher hangs from one of the Tornado hardpoints. This launcher will also be used on the new Eurofighter. The nine kilogram (20 pound) warhead was sufficient to destroy vehicles, without causing a lot of casualties to nearby civilians. British fighter pilots have become quite good at coming in low and taking out individual vehicles with Brimstone missiles.

F-35 Flight Test Program Shows Progress In First Quarter
Monday April 4, 2011
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II test jets made considerable flight test progress during the first quarter of 2011, conducting 199 test flights versus a plan of 142 flights. Additionally, the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant logged six times more vertical landings in the first quarter than in all of 2010. The test program remained ahead of plan despite the grounding of various test fleet aircraft for 4-15 days during the period as officials investigated the cause of a dual generator/starter failure during a flight on March 9.

The following totals and highlights provide a snapshot of flight test activity in the first quarter:
* Conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL: F-35A) aircraft conducted 82 flights against the plan of 62.
* STOVL (F-35B) aircraft conducted 101 flights against a plan of 62.
* Carrier variant aircraft accomplished 16 flights of 18 planned.
* Two production-model aircraft, AF-6 and AF-7, flew for the first time in preparation for delivery to the U.S. Air Force this year. AF-6 and AF-7 flew seven times in the first quarter.
* The STOVL variant performed 61 vertical landings (compared with 10 vertical landings in all of 2010). BF-1 performed the first touch-and-go maneuver in VL mode this quarter.
* From the start of flight testing in December 2006 through March 31, 2011, F-35s have flown 753 times, including production-model flights.
The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

RAF Sends More Jets to Warzone as Troops Risking Their Lives Are Told: We're Cutting 17,000 Jobs
Monday April 4, 2011

• Another four Tornados will fly out to Libya
• Air chief warns we'll be there for six months

Britain was sucked deeper into the Libya conflict last night as the number of Tornado bombers targeting Gaddafi’s forces was dramatically increased and ‘non-lethal equipment’ was lined up for the rebels.
On a visit to RAF pilots in Italy, David Cameron announced that four more GR4 ground attack planes will deploy to their Gioia Del Colle airbase.
Britain is having to shoulder a greater share of the burden after the U.S. began to withdraw its jets.
William Hague told MPs the UK was also prepared to give ‘non-lethal equipment’ to help the opposition forces trying to overthrow the dictator, starting with communications gear.
Amid mounting concern that the conflict could go on for months, the Foreign Secretary said only a ‘genuine ceasefire’ and a withdrawal of armed forces from contested cities would end the air strikes.

Senior military sources said there were still a large number of ‘bad guys’ for Nato warplanes to attack – an indication that the ground war is not going as well as hoped.
This will raise fears that Britain is being pulled ever deeper into the conflict – leaving the RAF overstretched.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton warned yesterday that he is preparing for a six-month deployment that risks exhausting his men unless they get more money.

The no-fly zone over Libya has been successful in grounding Gaddafi’s air force but Mr Cameron has been warned by his military advisers that the rebels need more help to overcome Gaddafi’s better-armed forces.
The four aircraft are the first major military reinforcements of the campaign and show the Prime Minister is prepared to scale up the UK’s involvement – a move that brings the prospect of arming the rebels a step closer. Two of the aircraft, from RAF Marham in Norfolk, flew out last night and two more are due to deploy today.

Last night, Mr Cameron met Tornado and Typhoon pilots.
En route to Italy, he had said: ‘I want to say a big thank you to them and also to make the announcement that four new additional Tornados will be deploying in the next couple of days, which will mean we will have ten Typhoons for the mission in terms of the no-fly zone and a total of 12 Tornado ground attack aircraft involved in operations.’
Earlier Air Chief Marshal Dalton said: ‘On current planning, we can continue in Afghanistan, the Falklands and Libya.
 ‘But that does bring you nearer the point where we have just about exhausted the bag. It’s a heck of a lot to be doing at one time.’
William Hague's statement to the House said that only a 'genuine ceasefire' and withdrawal of troops would end Allied air strikes
He said without genuine increases in funding, the RAF would find it very difficult to maintain levels of capability.
‘If we are to meet the requirements laid upon us, there is no question that more investment will be needed,’ he added.
In addition to beefing up Britain’s contribution, Mr Cameron spent yesterday monitoring the progress of attempts by Colonel Gaddafi to formulate an exit strategy.

Officials said the dictator’s decision to send one of his most trusted negotiators, deputy foreign minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi to Athens, was evidence of a decline in morale within the Gaddafi regime.
But the dictator’s proposal – that his son Saif should oversee a transitional government – has been rejected by Mr Cameron, who has been in close touch with the Greeks. The Italian Foreign Office said the proposal was ‘not credible’, a view shared by senior British officials.
They said Gaddafi’s overture would not be taken seriously until he withdrew his forces from towns once held by the opposition, and ordered a genuine ceasefire.

In talks with the RAF pilots, Mr Cameron admitted he had no idea how long the war would last. He told them: ‘We are rightly saying no ground troops, no occupation so it is less easy to know how the endgame will work.
‘At some stage there will have to be a genuine ceasefire then the political process can start. Until then we’ve got to keep the pressure up.’
Wing Commander Andy Turk, commander of 9 Squadron, said the new Tornados would see Britain step up ground attacks. He said that the increased number of Tornado would see Britain step up ground attacks but Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton warned Britain could become involved in too many conflicts ‘We’re rebalancing the number of offensive assets we require in theatre,’ he said. ‘We have control of the air, now we’re refocusing on control of the ground.’ Meanwhile, sanctions on Gaddafi’s henchman Musa Kusa, who defected to Britain last week, could be lifted within days, Mr Hague has told MPs.

Kusa, who resigned as Libya’s foreign minister and flew to the UK, is prevented from travelling and accessing his assets under EU restrictions.
But the Foreign Secretary said: ‘Sanctions are designed to change behaviour and it is therefore right that they are adjusted when new circumstances arise.’ He insisted that Kusa had not been granted immunity.
Soldiers and sailors risking their lives in Afghanistan and Libya could face the sack within months, the Ministry of Defence admitted yesterday.
The Army will lose 1,000 personnel and the Royal Navy 1,600. The RAF announced last month it was axing 1,020 jobs.

Defence minister Andrew Robathan yesterday announced details of cuts outlined in last October’s strategic defence and security review.
On the day David Cameron was visiting their RAF colleagues based in Italy, Harrier crews were told their jobs will go following the axing of their planes.
The armed forces are looking to shed 17,000 posts by 2015 in an attempt to save £4.7billion over four years.
Around 11,000 are likely to be compulsory redundancies in the most crippling defence cuts for a generation will reduce the strength of the military to just 160,600.
Royal Navy personnel who have been in action off the Libyan coast could also receive redundancy notices.
These include sailors on the warships HMS Cumberland, HMS Liverpool and HMS Westminster and personnel on the hunter-killer submarines HMS Triumph and Turbulent.

The Government was accused of a U-turn after originally pledging to protect those serving on the front-line from the chop.
Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy said: ‘I am glad that the Prime Minister is rightly meeting our Forces in Italy but there will be real anger among forces families that at the same time back home his ministers have announced the redundancy of many service personnel.’
Some 15 of the Navy’s 59 Harrier pilots will be made redundant along with 150 troops from the 3,500-strong Brigade of Ghurkhas. The axe would fall on the infantry, engineers, signallers, and logisticians, said head of Army manning Brigadier Richard Nugee.
The historic Ghurkha brigade, part of the Army for more than 200 years, will bear the brunt of the cuts because of changes in their length of service.
Military chiefs said remaining infantry, special forces, bomb disposal experts, the Intelligence Corps and the Royal Army Medical Corps would avoid cuts this year.
Around a quarter of Army redundancies will come from top brass – with 250 officers up to the rank of brigadier expected to go every 12 months.
 The Navy is cutting 121 officers from the warfare, engineering, medical and logistics branches of the service.
Commodore Paul Bennett, the head of Royal Navy manning, said two thirds of the redundancies were directly linked to the axing of warships and planes.
In all, 5,600 Royal Navy personnel and 5,000 in the Army are waiting to find out whether they will keep their jobs. Under the cuts, around 5,000 Army personnel will be made redundant, 3,300 from the Navy and 2,700 from the RAF. Another 6,000 posts will go by not replacing leavers.
The 102,000-strong Army will lose 7,000 personnel. The Royal Navy and RAF, 35,000- and 40,300-strong respectively, will each lose 5,000.
In theory, a serviceman could land back in Britain in August and be told they are being made redundant in September.

The MoD said the changes would have ‘no impact on current operations’. Those volunteering to leave the armed forces would leave within six months. Those selected for redundancy would be given a year.
Andy Smith, a spokesman for the UK National Defence Association pressure group, said: ‘How David Cameron seriously believes we can continue punching above our weight on the global stage, and intervening in places like Libya, when our armed forces are being cut to the bone, is beyond me.’
The Government blamed the cuts on the ‘dire economic situation and appalling deficit in the defence budget’ inherited from Labour.
He avoided making a major address to the troops – perhaps to avoid a repeat of his heckling by Harrier pilots the day the defence cuts were announced in October.

He said: ‘The point of the trip is to go and say well done and a heartfelt thanks from the British public to the brave Typhoon and Tornado pilots and their crews who have done an incredible job in a short period of time to save, I think, literally thousands of lives in Benghazi and elsewhere in Libya.
‘The whole country should be proud of what they’ve done. They’ve been extremely successful in holding back Gaddafi’s forces
The Prime Minister met Britain’s only female Typhoon pilot, Flight Lieutenant Helen Seymour, who had just returned from a five-hour mission in the no-fly zone.
Separately, the MoD announced on 5 April that some of its eight Gioia del Colle-based Typhoons have for the first time been made available to conduct strikes against land-based targets in Libya.

"In agreement with NATO, the UK has today agreed to move four RAF Typhoons from an air defence role, policing the no-fly zone, to a ground attack role," it says. "As a result, the total number of UK fast jets deployed in southern Italy, including those under UK command on standby to support operations, currently stands at 20."
Operations with the UK's deployed Typhoons have until now been limited to supporting the enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya.
Approval for some of the aircraft to perform air-to-surface missions could lead to them using their Raytheon Paveway II/Enhanced Paveway II precision-guided bombs in anger for the first time.

Boeing Steps Up Military Business In Emerging Markets
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Boeing, the world's largest aircraft maker, has a "historic window of opportunity" to boost its military business in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific as countries such as the UAE upgrade their defence systems, the company says.
The aerospace giant is seeking to increase international defence sales within its overall defence business from 18 per cent last year to 25 per cent by 2013, at a time when it faces incremental growth in the US.
GCC states, as well as India, Japan and Australia, are among countries leading the way, with heavy investments in military aircraft programmes.
"Right now we see the Middle East and Asia-Pacific in a recapitalisation phase, and there is a historic window of opportunity where they are looking to upgrade and procure new capabilities," said Chris Chadwick, the president of Boeing Military Aircraft.

The UAE is set to become the world's third-largest operator of Boeing C-17 heavy lift military transport aircraft, after the US and UK, with deliveries for six planes starting this year. "We will deliver four this year and two next year," Mr Chadwick said.
The aircraft will give the UAE Armed Forces an added measure of mobility at a time when it is beginning to flex its muscles regionally in peacekeeping, anti-piracy and humanitarian missions. In the past two weeks, the UAE has sent 12 fighter jets to join NATO and Qatar in enforcing the no-fly zone in Libya, and successfully deployed special forces off the coast of Oman to rescue a Dubai-bound ship from pirates.
According to US congressional notifications and industry estimates, Boeing is in line to earn up to US$11.4 billion (Dh41.87bn) of orders for equipment, long-term logistical support and training from the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on pending and recently closed aircraft sales.
That includes a proposed sale of one C-17 to Kuwait with long-term support of the aircraft; the sale of two C-17s to Qatar with long-term support and training; and the six C-17s for the UAE.
The UAE is also considering buying 16 additional Chinook military transport helicopters and 30 Apache attack helicopters from Boeing.
Catering to the UAE's desire to forge industrial partnerships with its contractors, Boeing is also in negotiations for a wide-ranging alliance with Mubadala Development, a strategic investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi Government.

In Saudi Arabia, Boeing is also expected to win the lion's share of an estimated $60bn of arms deals with the US that includes F-15 fighter jets as well as Little Bird and Apache helicopters.
Boeing has also provided the UAE with information on its F-18 fighter jet, although company officials stopped short of calling it a formal request.
The company has been encouraged by its progress in establishing relationships with emerging nations that had not previously purchased western military aircraft.

Boeing has established a foothold in Qatar's defence market by selling the two C-17s and is positioning itself for a new fighter jet campaign there. It opened its first office in the country in December.
India and Brazil are also important emerging markets. "Five years ago, we did not do business in India from a defence perspective," Mr Chadwick said.
Now Boeing is in line for a potential $5.8bn order for 10 C-17 aircraft from India, and its F-18 is one of six finalists for one of the biggest prizes in global aerospace - a contract for 126 fighter jets worth an estimated $10bn.
"This is an exciting historic time frame for international engagement," he said. In addition to existing international customers, Boeing has "new emerging markets like India and Brazil, where they would really like to move to western technology", Mr Chadwick said. "We believe we are very well positioned for that."

Over Libyan Skies, U.S. Pilots Stretch Mission
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Mildenhall, U.K. and at the Ramstein Air Base, Germany Maj. Gen. Maggie Woodward commanded air operations over Libya this week from the U.S. base outside Frankfurt, pulling 20-hour shifts as she wove together an operation involving 15 countries.
Yet just days into the new operation, quickly lashed together and handed over to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Thursday, some are already wondering whether Air Force resources are in danger of being spread too thin.
To keep coalition fighter jets up in the air as long as possible, refueling is done at 35,000 feet using giant tanker planes carrying 170,000 pounds of fuel. WSJ's Alistair MacDonald reports from the RAF bomber base in Mildenhall, England.
"If this was to continue for any length of time, I think you would see it having a large impact on our operations tempo," Gen. Woodward said. "For this period of time, it's a huge challenge, and it's asked an awful lot of people and weapons systems."

Libya underscores how even incremental missions add strain on an Air Force already engaged elsewhere. Even as the U.S. moves to a background role, crews with support functions such as air refueling can expect more long days and weeks.
For units such as the 100th Air Wing in Mildenhall, U.K., in southern England, that means flying a lot. Sgt. Joe Koch typically flies two missions a week, but since allies imposed a no-fly zone over Libya on March 17 it has been four or five. The length of some sorties has nearly doubled to up to 11 hours, pilots say.

"It's been pretty busy," Sgt. Koch said as he prepared to hook the refueling boom from his KC-135 Stratotanker into the back of an F-16.
Over the past two decades the U.S. Air Force has rarely been out of combat, operating no-fly zones over countries where the Army and Navy have had less presence, such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and now Libya. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force has flown 663,000 sorties since Sept. 11, 2001.
The high tempo of operations has "had some detrimental effects on our overall readiness," according to congressional testimony by Michael Donley, secretary of the Air Force, and Norton Schwartz, its chief of staff. "Since 2003, we have seen a slow but steady decline in reported readiness indicators," they testified on March 20.
More than 3,000 U.S. airmen have been deployed in the two-week Libya mission, with representatives from 12 other nations working out of the Ramstein command center. Coalition members were housed in a dozen green tents crammed onto the base grounds, with paper flags designating which tent was which country's temporary home.

Because in recent years Libya had seen relative stability, intelligence leadership had only days to collect the needed information for the operations, said Lt. Col. Patrick Flood, an intelligence officer.
"It was hard, it was painful, there were a lot of really tired people here working, you know, 20 hours a day for a few days there," he said.
Ramstein's leadership deployed aircraft such as Sgt. Koch's KC-135 Stratotanker. Loaded with 170,000 pounds of fuel, the plane punched through a shroud of gray English clouds early Wednesday and climbed to 35,000 feet.
Through the outward leg of a nine-hour journey, five sets of two sleek F-16 fighter jets, their undersides bristling with weaponry, came to refuel. The jets took fuel from a "boom pod," a long tube that is inserted into the jet's fuel tank by airmen such as Sgt. Koch laying flat on the plane's floor.
Recent months have seen the planes and crew of the 100th Air Refueling Wing taking part in Iraq and Afghanistan operations and refueling U.S. and NATO jets across Europe. One recent mission saw them refuel Finland's entire fleet of F-18s. Now they are working flat out over Libya.
There is no doubt that 10 years of operation in the Middle East are a challenge," said Col. Michael F. Winters, vice commander of the Wing. The comments echo those Col. Paul H. Guemmer, wing commander of another U.S. air refueling group, the 92nd Wing, who spoke of his crew being "spread pretty thin."

Col. Winters said his group is operating "24-7," something which "can be stressful on the crews."
The increase in operations also adds stress on the planes, said Captain Hollie Diesselhorst, flying an aircraft that was built in 1960. Morale appears high. "We're the 'bloody hundredth,' we are always there," said Capt. Hollie Diesselhorst in reference to the nickname the 100th Air Wing got as a World War II bomber unit.

Adm. Samuel Locklear, who was leading joint operations from the USS Mount Whitney, visited Ramstein Tuesday to congratulate the airmen and thank the coalition forces for their work. He said the Libya mission would be a model for future efforts.
"Politicians are going to second guess this for 100 years," he told a meeting of coalition commanders of their contributions. "But it doesn't matter. We did what was asked of us."

NATO Lacking Strike Aircraft For Libya Campaign
Wednesday April 6, 2011
US withdrawal of attack planes puts pressure on European countries, especially France, to offer more strike capability
NATO is running short of attack aircraft for its bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi only days after taking command of the Libyan mission from a coalition led by the US, France and Britain.
David Cameron has pledged four more British Tornado jets on top of eight already being used for the air strikes. But pressure is growing for other European countries, especially France, to offer more after the Americans withdrew their attack aircraft from the campaign on Monday.
"We will need more strike capability," a NATO official said.
Since the French launched the first raids on Libya 16 days ago, the coalition and NATO have destroyed around 30% of Gaddafi's military capacity, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, the Canadian officer leading the air campaign, told NATO ambassadors.

But attempts to "degrade" the Libyan leader's firepower further were being complicated by a shift in tactics by Gaddafi, said Brigadier General Marc van Uhm, a senior NATO military planner.
A Danish F-16 after a mission over Libya
"They are using light vehicles and trucks to transport," while hiding tanks and heavy weapons, he said.
"We try to identify where those heavy assets are, because we have seen they have chosen to hide themselves into urban areas to prevent being targeted, even using human shields."
NATO officials insisted the pace of the air operations was being maintained. But it has emerged that the US and the French, who have been the two biggest military players until now, are retaining national control over substantial military forces in the Mediterranean and refusing to submit them to NATO authority.

The French have the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, two escorting frigates and 16 fighter aircraft, none of which are under the NATO command and control which was announced last Thursday.
Until last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy was the loudest opponent of handing over the operations to NATO control. Nonetheless, the French are not only taking part in the NATO campaign, but are the biggest non-US contributors, with 33 aircraft, double Britain's 17. Not all of these are strike aircraft.
Until Monday, the Americans had performed most of the attacks on ground targets, with the French executing around a quarter and the British around a 10th. Given the US retreat, NATO is seeking to fill the gap, but only the British have pledged more.
"We're very happy that one country decided to bring in more assets," said Van Uhm.
When NATO took over from the coalition it was stressed that it had assumed "sole command and control" of all air operations.
However, countries are dipping in and out of NATO command, withdrawing "air assets" for national operations before returning them to alliance control.
"It's pretty clear that NATO is in command. NATO is in the lead," said Van Uhm. "There are assets under national control in the area. But General Bouchard is commanding what Nato does ... You could say nothing is happening without NATO knowing."
The general stressed that no air strikes on ground targets in Libya had taken place outside Nato's command.

Six countries are believed to be engaged in the bombing campaign – France, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, and Norway – with many others involved in policing an arms embargo and enforcing a no-fly zone.
Gaddafi's air force had been grounded, Van Uhm said.
In London, the Ministry of Defence said RAF aircraft had struck targets in Libya on each of the past three days.
Tornado GR4 ground attack planes, flying from the Italian airbase of Gioia del Colle, hit a battle tank and two surface-to-air missile launchers near Sirte on Monday when they launched three anti-armour Brimstone missiles. The previous day, they fired Paveway IV bombs and Brimstone missiles to target a group of 10 armoured vehicles south of Sirte.

On Saturday, they fired Paveway IV missiles at two tanks in Sirte and also hit "several small ground attack aircraft" on an airfield near Misrata, the MoD said. Two of the 10 Eurofighter/Typhoons based in Italy have returned to the UK. The Typhoons are not equipped to conduct ground attack operations

Rocket Sled Tests Prove F-35's Ejector Seat
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning single-seat fighter jet is having a difficult birth, with its development program dogged by budget overruns and power and software failures. Some parts of the program are in excellent health, however: in a series of spectacular rocket sled tests, military boffins at Martin Baker and BAE Systems have proven the worth of the nascent combat plane's pilot escape technologies.
BAE chief engineer Chris Garside says the sled included a full scale mock up of the F35's cockpit, which in addition to the rocket-assisted ejector seat also included an "emergency transparency removal and structural severance system" made by Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials, which uses a small, controlled explosive to fracture and remove the canopy clear of the soon-to-be-ejecting pilot.
The sled powered the F-35 'mockpit' along at a cool 966 kilometres per hour (600 mph) on a track at a Martin Baker test site at Chalgrove Airfield near Oxford, UK. It proved that just three seconds after pulling the armed 'eject' handle, a pilot would be safely strap-hanging from a parachute well clear of the doomed plane. In 30 such test runs in the UK, France and the US, the system is said to have passed all its tests.

That is more than can be said for the F-35's cost controls. The Congressional Research Service in Washington DC said in a report on the F-35 leaked to the Federation of American Scientists last September that the program, designed to supply the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps with 2,400 of the supersonic stealth fighters, will cost the US government a cool $238 billion. That puts the cost per plane about 50 per cent higher than original targets - and has allies like Canada who are expecting to buy it getting cold feet. 

Airliner Fuselage Cracks And The Perils Of An Aging Military Air Fleet 
Wednesday April 6, 2011
When a five-foot hole opens up in the fuselage of a commercial airliner, it gets the media’s and public’s attention. In general, the possibility that metal fatigue in older aircraft can result in such hull failures comes as no surprise to airline personnel and aviation experts. The stresses imposed on aircraft fuselages by repeated pressurization/depressurization cycles, landings and takeoffs, bad weather, pollution and aerial manoeuvres are enormous. Combine these factors with the natural effects of the aging of metals and other components and you get the potential for parts failure. This is why commercial aircraft undergo such rigorous inspection regimes. 
What is alarming about the recent incident involving a Southwest Airlines 737 -- an aircraft type with an extremely good safety record -- was that the tear appeared in the middle of the fuselage, rather than at a joint where stresses are thought to be greater. This suggests that even after we have been flying metal-skinned aircraft for some 80 years there are still surprises left. 

The stresses imposed on commercial airliners are nothing compared to those experienced by military aircraft, particularly those designed for combat. Military aircraft don’t fly as often as commercial aircraft but the way they fly tends to put additional stress on airframes and engines. No commercial airliner has the requirement to fly at supersonic speeds or pull multi-G manoeuvres. There are also the little things like the requirement to land on the moving deck of an aircraft carrier or at an expedient airfield. 
What should really scare us is that the average age of U.S. combat aircraft, fighters and attack planes, is over 20 years. This is the average; some are so old that the sons of their original pilots are now in the cockpits. Both the tankers and the long-range bombers in the joint fleet average over 40 years of age. Virtually all these aircraft have undergone life extension programs, sometimes several times. These programs can involve taking them down to the bare skeletons and rebuilding them with new fuselages, engines, sensors and avionics. However, these programs can take years to complete during which the older aircraft can be placed on flight restrictions or even grounded. 

Current plans to recapitalize the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fleet are inadequate to prevent further aging. The principal reason for this is that DoD is not planning on buying new aircraft at a rate that will replace old with new planes rapidly enough. The newly awarded KC-46 tanker program will take place over decades during which the Air Force will still have to fly -- and maintain -- the aging KC-135. The eldest portion of the KC-135 fleet is already precluded from conducting missions in war zones. Similarly, because the Pentagon has moved procurement of the F-35 farther into the future and reduced the numbers of aircraft bought in the initial years, the Air Force has had to spend money on upgrading legacy F-15s. The first new strategic bomber will not even be built until around 2020, at which point the youngest of the remaining B-52s will be some 60 years old. 

As the recent Southwest Airlines experience shows, there is still room for surprises. The possibility of a sudden, unanticipated airframe or system failure keeps military aircraft maintainers up at night. So do the mounting costs of maintaining aging and obsolescing aircraft. Ultimately, the only way to insure against such an outcome is to fund aircraft modernization programs adequately. 
Daniel Goure, Ph.D.
Early Warning Blog, Lexington Institute 

2 Dead as Super Hornet Crashes Near Lemoore
Wednesday April 6, 2011
SAN DIEGO — A two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet crashed Wednesday in a field just outside Naval Air Station Lemoore, killing two aboard, Navy officials said.
The Super Hornet crashed about a half-mile from the air station at 12:08 p.m., according to Cmdr. Pauline Storum, a Naval Air Forces spokeswoman in Coronado, Calif.

“No other injuries or details were reported,” Storum said.
Local and military emergency crews responded to the scene of the crash in Lemoore, located in California’s Central Valley.
The Super Hornet aircrew, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 122, was conducting “routine flight training” at the time of the crash, officials said.
As of Wednesday night, the Navy had not released the victims’ names.
Navy officials have started an investigation into what happened.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends, and shipmates of the aircrew,” Capt. James Knapp, the air station’s commanding officer, said in a statement.

NAS Lemoore is the Navy’s West Coast hub for its F/A-18 Hornet squadrons and is home to a fleet replacement training squadron.
Bu No 165877

Boeing C-17 steps up in Japan relief effort
Thursday April 7, 2011
Boeing's C-17 Globemaster III has played a crucial role in the relief efforts that followed last month's earthquake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan.
Working with a fleet of other aircraft, notably the Lockheed Martin MC-130H Combat Talon II combat tanker, C-17s from the US Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force have been prominent in the relief effort.
The day after the disaster, two C-17s were sent to Japan from US bases, one from Elmendorf-Richardson AFB in Alaska and another from Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

On 13 March the first aircraft reached Misawa air base, 200km (125 miles) north of the devastated eastern city of Sendai. Sendai's airport grabbed world attention on 11 March when aerial footage showed a wall of water sweeping trees, cars and light aircraft along its apron and runway.
While the C-17s flew Japan self-defence force personnel into airfields on the periphery of the disaster zone, members of the USAF's 320th special tactics squadron worked with the Japanese service to make Sendai airport ready for fixed-wing operations. The 320th's role is to establish drop and landing zones, combat medical care and evacuation, as well as combat search and rescue, says the USAF.
Over 12 days in late March, three RAAF C-17s made 31 landings at Japanese airfields delivering over 450,000kg of cargo to the disaster area. Equipment included pumps to help douse the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, food and water, vehicles, and personnel and equipment of the Japanese ground self-defence force's 15th brigade.

Wing Cdr David Howard, who led the RAAF relief contingent, says: "The C-17 enabled us to move significant amounts of cargo between the major ports, including ones that had been recovered from the debris, in a fairly short space of time, getting the humanitarian assistance and the specialists to the places they need to be to help the Japanese people as quickly as possible."
Aero Logic, the DHL-Lufthansa Cargo joint venture, has donated a cargo flight to support the European Union's disaster relief effort. Carrying 30t of goods from Hungary, Slovakia and Sweden, Aero Logic's Boeing 777 Freighter departed Frankfurt on 4 April, arriving in Tokyo two days later.

Probe Into Russian Su-27 Jet Crash Could Take 30 Days
Thursday April 7, 2011
The Russian Air Force has suspended Su-27SM flights until the end of the investigation.
VLADIVOSTOK © RIA Novosti -- It would take Russian investigators at least a month to establish the cause of an accident with a Su-27SM Flanker fighter jet that crashed in Russia's Far East on Wednesday, a military source said.
The jet crashed during the landing at an airbase near Vladivostok after a routine training flight. The pilot ejected successfully and was hospitalized with minor injuries.

"Judging by experience, investigators work on such cases for at least a month," the source in the Defense Ministry said. "Experts will have to question the pilot, the technicians and eye- witnesses."
Other military sources said Wednesday that said that the crash might have been caused by a technical failure, including engine failure.
The Russian Air Force has suspended Su-27SM flights until the end of the investigation.
Russia lost several Su-27s due to technical failures and pilot errors in the past few years.
The Su-27 is a Mach-2 class air-superiority aircraft designed as a direct competitor for the heavy fourth generation Western fighters, such as the F-15 Eagle.
About 450 Su-27 aircraft have been built for the Russian Air Force since 1984, and over 200 jets have been exported to other countries, including China, Indonesia, Angola and some ex-Soviet states

Danish Sea Kings Take to the Air For The Last Time
Thursday April 07, 2011
The Danish Air Force has flown its S-61 Sea King helicopters for the last time, it has emerged.
The SAR helicopters were removed from operational service last year after a career spanning some 45 years. The aircraft have been replaced by the EH101 Merlin and while the S-61s were kept on standby, they have only ever flown on maintenance check flights.
However, now the Danish Defence Material Service, the Forsvarets Materieltjeneste, has decided to halt all S-61 flying.
The last flight was made by S-61 U-276 on 5 April. Commanding the aircraft was Captain AB Thomsen, while the rest of the crew consisted of Captain Bo B. Larsen as the second pilot, Staff Sergeant Frank Olsson and Staff Sergeant FM Hansen.

The trip lasted 40 minutes, and at 14:34 the helicopter landed for the last time at Karup Air Base.

'It is both sad and gratifying to say goodbye to the helicopter,' said Captain Larsen. 'A bit sad for me personally, but gratifying for the crew that now works with the new rescue helicopters. They are a great step forward,' he added.

Eurofighter Rejoins Danish Fighter Contest
Thursday April 7, 2011
HELSINKI - Eurofighter has formally rejoined Denmark's delayed Fighter Replacement Program (FRP) contest, having first flagged its intention during a meeting with the Danish legislature's Parliamentary Defense Committee last December. The Danish government is expected to revisit the FRP, which it suspended in March 2010, by 2012.
"What we're saying is that while there is no official Danish tender at present, Eurofighter wants to participate in such a competition when the new tender is launched," said Eurofighter spokesman Marco Valerio Bonelli.
Maj. Gen. Henrik Røboe Dam, the head of the Royal Danish Air Force's Tactical Air Command, said that Danish pilots flying a squadron of six F-16s operating under the NATO-led "no-fly zone" mission in Libya would benefit from having access to more advanced stealth technology than available to the updated F-16s.

The Air Force recognized, based on the experience gained from initial flight operations in Libya, that having fighters with greater stealth qualities and technologies would make missions safer for pilots, Dam said.
"There is no doubt that if we had the availability of a fighter with stealth characteristics, and difficult to track by radar, it would be a comfort-enhancing factor for pilots," Dam said.
The European consortium pulled the Eurofighter Typhoon out of the tender being run by Denmark in December 2007, claiming that the Danish competition favored Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter, which it argued was not constrained to offer the same industrial offset commitments as its European rivals, including the Saab Gripen.
"Everything has changed. The Danish political, military and competitiveness picture is different. The Eurofighter has also changed a lot. It is now a much more mature combat aircraft and we can make a more complete, affordable and competitive offer to Denmark," Bonelli said.
Eurofighter views the offset arrangement being sought by Denmark as a major competitive plus for the consortium, which includes Alenia, BAE Systems and Cassidian, Bonelli said.

"Between them, the companies in Eurofighter have a turnover in excess of 120 billion euros. The potential for offset is huge, and we have a very successful history in offset. The consortium is so big, and the range of products so large that we would have no problem to include the Danish aerospace industry, which is already quite advanced," said Bonelli.
The Air Force had occasion to take a "close-up" look at Eurofighter in February when its F-16s had to fly against the Typhoon during joint Winter Hide 2011 exercises hosted by the Italian Air Force's 4th Stormo air-wing in Grosseto, Italy.
The Danish F-16 squadron, which forms part of its Skrydstrup-based air-wing, comprised eight operational fighters and three reserve aircraft.
As a direct consequence of the political decision to postpone the FRP, Denmark's defense industry federation, FAD, restructured its lobbying efforts in November by forming a new representative group called the Danish Industry Fighter Aircraft Team (DIFAT).

DIFAT, which operates under FAD, will work with all present and future potential candidates in the project. Eurofighter now joins that list, along with Lockheed's F-35, Saab's Gripen NG, and Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet.
DIFAT met with representatives from Lockheed, Saab and Boeing in January.
Future meetings due to take place in 2011 and 2012, which will discuss industrial offset opportunities arising from the project, will include talks with Eurofighter.

New A400M Contract Finally Inked
Thursday April 7, 2011
More than a year after A400M customers and industry broadly agreed on new contractual terms for the European transport aircraft program, both sides have finalized the actual wording of the deal.
The intervening time has seen the order book from the seven core A400M buying countries shrink to 170 units from 180, with the U.K. and Germany reducing their purchase plans. Malaysia is looking to buy four aircraft.
The new contract deals with several years of program delays and cost overruns. The first aircraft delivery to the French air force is planned for late 2012 or early 2013 — around three years after first flight.
The contract follows what was spelled out in March, although some payments are more back-loaded than first planned. To help industry, especially EADS, with cash flow, some pre-delivery payments are being accelerated. Governments also are providing a €1.5 billion ($2.1 billion) export levy facility under which they get repairs for exports.

In advance of the deal, EADS Airbus Military already has begun series production of the A400M, with a plan to ramp up output to 2.5 aircraft in 2015.

EADS CEO Louis Gallois hailed the contract signature as “a major milestone.” EADS notes that the four flight test A400Ms — based in Seville, Spain, and Toulouse, France — have logged more than 1,400 test flight hr. and nearly 450 flights. The fifth flight test aircraft is due to join in the fall.

Thousands of defence ministry jobs to go, but JSF 'testing' goes ahead
Thursday 07 April 2011
Over 5,000 military service personnel and defence ministry civil servants are facing compulsory redundancies as the government decides on Friday where to make savings of €1bn in its defence budget.
The job losses will affect all ranks in the defence ministry, according to government sources quoted in the Volkskrant.
Defence minister Hans Hillen also plans to scrap tanks and Cougar helicopters, to cut the 87 F-16 fighter jets by around a third and to sell off a number of naval vessels.
The controversial purchase of a second JSF fighter jet for €100m will, however, go ahead to protect the participation of Dutch firms in its development and production, says the Volkskrant.

RAF Reaper Reaches 20,000 Hours Over Afghanistan
Friday April 8, 2011
The RAF's Remotely Piloted Air System, the Predator MQ-9 Reaper, has notched up a landmark 20,000 operational flying hours over Afghanistan.
Controlled by 39 Squadron, the Reaper force has repeatedly proven itself, both in combat and as eyes in the skies for front line troops and military commanders on the ground.
Reflecting on the achievement, Air Officer Commanding No 2 Group, Air Vice-Marshal Phil Osborn, said:

"The RAF's Reaper force has proven itself time and again in combat and is an essential element of the RAF's combat intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capability.
"The real-time, day and night video coverage of the battle space, combined with the extensive use of onboard radar, provides a unique, cost effective and sustained capability that enhances the safety of troops on the ground.
"This cutting-edge remotely-piloted aircraft provides an impressive range of capabilities that are saving lives and making a real difference to the troops in Afghanistan.
"The aircraft is only as good as the individuals operating it though and I am most grateful for and must praise the dedication and operational focus of all the members of 39 Squadron, who are drawn from across all three Services, in achieving this milestone."
A Reaper pilot from 39 Squadron spoke of his experiences after a recent tour in Afghanistan:

"When you're assisting troops on the ground and insurgents are trying to take shots at them we can be called to use the Reaper's precision weapons.
As with fast jets, you're still speaking to the troops on the ground and feel immersed in the operational environment.
"In many ways, you actually feel better connected to the situation on the ground than you do in a fast jet - the detailed computer systems that we've got with Reaper make it easier to get better intelligence pictures."
Reaper was introduced in October 2007, and, with its array of high tech sensors and precision-guided weapons, it can carry out a wide range of missions to support forces in Afghanistan. It can gather pre-raid intelligence on target compounds, assist in countering IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and provide surveillance for routine patrols and supply convoys.

Reaper can use its sensors day and night to spy on insurgent activity for hours at a time and at a range where it is undetected from the ground. The images are complemented by radar, mounted in the nose of the aircraft, gathering another dimension of detailed imagery that is analysed by a team of highly trained intelligence specialists in military bases around the world.
If necessary, Reaper can also strike at insurgents with a range of precision-guided weapons.

Recycling, Not Reefs, In Store For Old Aircraft Carriers
Friday April 8, 2011
Environmental group worried about sea pollutants welcomes choice

The decommissioned USS Forrestal is towed last June to a Navy site in Philadelphia for aging vessels.
 An environmental group that's been championing the shift said it makes sense: creating shipyard jobs in the U.S., instead of a potential toxic mess at sea.
"The Obama administration's new plan to recycle these four aircraft carriers appears to be a signal that the administration may be correcting long-standing misguided policies that not only squander resources, but American jobs as well," stated Colby Self of the Basel Action Network, a group that monitors global toxic issues and that last December issued a report critical of the artificial reefs.
The four decommissioned carriers are:

• USS Constellation
• USS Forrestal
• USS Independence
• USS Saratoga

The Navy would not comment but Navy records show that bids are being accepted to dismantle the veteran ships.
Self said the Forrestal alone has some 40,000 tons of recyclable steel, copper and aluminium.

"With a strong metal market, these recoverable metals could bring a return of up to $30 million," Self told msnbc.com. "After accounting for the ship purchase price by competitive bid, towing, environmental remediation of toxic materials and labour rates, the recycling of this vessel should be a profitable venture for the domestic ship recycling industry and should give the local economy a great boost."
Dozens of other warships have previously been dumped at sea or turned into reefs after efforts were made to remove toxic material.
BAN said that the environmental work on two recent aircraft carriers to meet that fate — the America and the Oriskany — cost more than $20 million each and that not all contaminants were removed.

The Oriskany was sunk off Pensacola, Fla., in May 2006 at a depth of 210 feet with the purpose of becoming an artificial reef.
The America was used for live-fire tests and scuttled in May 2005 at a depth of nearly 17,000 feet about 250 miles off the coast of North Carolina.
BAN estimates that recycling the Forrestal will save millions of taxpayer dollars and sustain about 1,900 jobs for one year.
BAN said it was still concerned that plans might still be in place to sink the decommissioned destroyer USS Arthur W. Radford next month in waters off Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland.

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