Monthly Archives: September 2009

Air Force, Contractors & Vendors, General Atomic

Predator crashes in Afghanistan

The Air Force reports, “An Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan Sept. 4 at approximately 8:45 p.m. Kabul time.  The crash was not due to hostile fire. There were no reports of civilian injuries or damage to civilian property at the site…A board will be convened to investigate the incident. ”

The Air Force has has taken a lot of flack for its handling of UAVs, requiring that combat-rated pilots fly the robotic aircraft — and also having lost more Predators to human error than hostile fire.  Almost a third of all Predators purchased by the Air Force have crashed (more than 70 out of the 195 purchased thus far by the Air Force), most of them resulting in a total loss of a $3.5 million aircraft.

Ironically, the crash came only two days after the findings from an investigation of another Predator crash in April near Creech AFB in Nevada. That crash was caused by a disconnected vacuum line.

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Boeing, Coalition/Allies, Defense Department, EADS

WTO Decision may impact Tanker program

UPDATED at 2332: The WTO has made a preliminary ruling against Airbus.

While Boeing and EADS  Airbus have gone round and round in the fight over the future of the U.S. Air Force’s tanker fleet, a World Trade Organization decision may throw gasoline on the fire.

The WTO has found that Airbus received illegal subsidies from European governments. The WTO said in a confidential interim ruling that the preferential government loans for the A380 passenger jet constituted an illegal export subsidy, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Undersecretary of Defense Ashton Carter has stated that the KC-X refueling tanker competition, which was thrown back open again last year on the heels of what the GAO called a flawed decision to award the contract to the team of EADS and Northrop-Grumman, would be re-launched “this fall.” If sanctions are issued by the WTO against either the US or the EC, or both, it’s not clear whether there would be an immediate impact on the competition; however, a decision that imposed tariffs on aircraft and aircraft parts from EADS would significantly alter the economics of the EADS/Northrop bid.

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