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EADS Tanker Woes Part One

A400M test-flight schedule under strain: EADS head
The timing of a test flight for the Airbus A400M military plane, currently planned for this summer, is coming under strain, the executive head of Airbus parent EADS warned on Monday. "Our objective is still to have a first flight this summer even if we must acknowledge that it's becoming more and more under pressure, notably because of the engine," EADS chief executive Louis Gallois told a press conference. "The plane is complicated, the engine is complicated and the interface is also complex." He noted that the A400M military transporter programme was already six months behind schedule, and there was now a question over another six-month delay. Earlier Monday a German press report said Airbus, a European consortium, faced fresh delays in the programme stemming from communication problems between French and Spanish partners, as well as cooperation hiccups with sub-contractors. The magazine Wirtschaftswoche, which did not identify its sources, said the problems were mainly with cabin and cockpit construction and the plane's engines. But it added that the first A400M was nonetheless expected to roll out of its factory in Seville, Spain, within two weeks.
by Antonio Gil Morales
Washington (UPI) Jun 16, 2008
Imagine a bizarre scenario in which the president of the United States had to ask permission from foreign leaders to use a critical missile-defense system, starting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and ending, hat in hand, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Until recently, that scenario was fancifully unimaginable. The United States has long been the global leader in such vital areas as aerospace and defense electronics. Unimaginable, that is, until now.

Indeed, a recent U.S. Air Force decision may augur the advent of this kind of alternate reality. By using questionable criteria that disadvantage U.S. manufacturers to unfairly award a huge, militarily critical contract to the European Aeronautics, Defense and Space Co. -- the aerospace giant controlled by France and Germany -- the U.S. Air Force actually could be unwittingly undermining the very industrial base that has defended the United States, Western Europe and much of the free world since the end of World War II more than 60 years ago.

The competition for the $35 billion contract to replace the 1960s-era old Boeing KC-135 tankers was billed by the news media as a clash of the aerospace titans, a trans-Atlantic dogfight between U.S.-based Boeing on the one hand and the Paris-based EADS -- and its minority American partner Northrop Grumman -- on the other.

Most experts put their money on Boeing; the U.S. firm has produced 2,000 tankers over the past 75 years, while EADS/Airbus has almost no experience producing them.

The award to Boeing would have supported 44,000 highly skilled aerospace jobs, many of which could employ returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. The award to EADS/Northrop Grumman would outsource most of those jobs to Europeans.

EADS also receives some $100 billion in what the U.S. trade representative alleges are illegal subsidies designed to take the market share from Boeing and other U.S. manufacturers.

But even though EADS used $5 billion of these subsidies to finance its tanker airframe, the no-risk funding couldn't make up for the company's complete inexperience in building tanker aircraft: Its KC-30 design is 52 percent larger and 32 percent heavier than Boeing's KC-767, and is far too large to operate out of many critical military bases in Asia.

Next: How EADS used its lobbying power.

(Antonio Gil Morales is national commander of the American GI Forum of the United States. The American GI Forum is a congressionally chartered veterans organization that represents the interests of more than 1.3 million veterans of Hispanic descent who have defended the United States in almost every major war of the 20th century and continue to risk their lives in the struggle against terrorism.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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Pope Calls On Arms Dealers To Examine Their Consciences
Vatican City (AFP) June 16, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI issued an appeal Monday for arms dealers to think of the victims of their lucrative trade, especially in Africa, as he welcomed Cameroon's new ambassador to the Vatican.







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