668

FLIGHT International,

mini

DEFENCE

(Israel's 27th anniversary) had not

taken part in the 1973 Yom Kippur
war. This would appear to confirm
the Flight report in the January 23
issue that it was understood no J79powered Mirages were in Israeli Air
Force service at that time. Previous
reports had said that as many as two
squadrons of such aircraft had been
delivered by the time of the war.
Reliable sources in Israel now report,
nevertheless, that Kfir is operational
and, although the two aircraft at Lod
differed in minor respects, neither had
the appearance of a prototype.
Jurom demonstrated
The joint Jugoslav-Romanian light
strike-trainer, Jurom, emerged briefly
from the shadows of secrecy on April
15 when it was demonstrated at the
Batajnica military air base near Belgrade. Watching the demonstration,
according to the national news
agency, were the Jugoslav Defence
Minister, Gen Nikola Ljubicic, and
Air Force Commander Gen Enver
Cemalovic.
No details of the aircraft or flighttest progress were given but it is
understood that the Jurom flew for
the first time in August last year.
Subsequent progress with the twin
Viper 600-powered aircraft is thought
to have been fairly slow with only
about ten flights achieved by last
Christmas, but confidence in the project is clearly sufficient now for a
slight relaxation in the very close
security which has surrounded it
since its existence first became known
some three years ago.
Alpha Jet production agreement
France and Germany have finally
agreed to go ahead with production
of the Alpha Jet. Authorisation for
final drawings and production tooling
is expected shortly. Agreement was
reached in Bonn on March 26 at a
meeting between the French Delegue
Ministeriel pour FArmament, M JeanLaurens Delpech, and the German
Secretary of State at the Defence
Ministry, Dr Siegfried Mann.
No firm date has been fixed for the
actual start of production but it will
be as soon as the test centres have finished their evaluation of flight-test
results. This is not expected to cause
any major problems since both the aircraft and its Larzac 04 engine are
reported to have met almost the entire list of specifications already.
"Technical conditions of delivery"
were the subject of the discussions on
March 26 which took place after considerable delay in arriving at the basic
production agreement (see Flight for
February 27, page 328). According to
Dornier, "there is no doubt that the

production aircraft can be delivered

to the German Air Force and to the
Armee de FAir by the dates laid down
in the contract." These are not specified but it is expected that deliveries
will begin during 1977.
Alpha Jet 01 is now in the final
phase of acceptance flying at CEV,
Istres, with four more flights due as of
last week directly concerned with the
Larzac. The second aircraft has completed its schedule of performance
and handling trials with external loads
and will soon begin gun-firing trials at
Cazaux; 03 is temporarily grounded
for maintenance and will be carrying
out a series of demonstrations in Germany during May; 04 has finished airconditioning and hydraulic systems
checks and is engaged on electrical
and communications equipment trials.
Austria: fighter decision postponed
A decision on Austria's choice of
fighter has been postponed until at
least the summer of 1976, according
to the country's Secretary of Defence,
Karl Luetgendorf. The main reason is
almost certainly straightforward lack
of money although Herr Luetgendorf
has said that it would be better to
improve the ground radar environment in Austria first and then decide
which aircraft is required to take over
the air-defence role.
Estimates as to when improvements
to the radars could be completed vary
between 1978 and 1980 but it is probable that they will become a sine qua
non for buying combat aircraft. How
much of the diminutive defence budget would remain for buying aircraft
after radar improvements had been
made is a matter of some doubt.
At the same time as Army chief
Gen Emil Spannocchi was making an
urgent demand for intercepters to a
session of the Austrian Defence Council, Swedish newspapers published reports that negotiations between these
two neutral countries were far advanced. Eighteen ex-Royal Swedish
Air Force J35B Drakens would be
leased initially to Austria by Saab, said
one report, with the possibility of a
Viggen order to follow up. Another
report also said that 18 Drakens

A Zambian Air Force DC-6B recently paid a

visit on unknown business to Munich

24 April

I97S

would be leased at first but said more

Drakens would be leased later and
these aircraft would eventually be
bought.
As we went to press a demonstration of the Saab Viggen was being
planned for April 23 at Langenlebarn
air base west of Vienna. A delegation
recently visited Sweden from Austria
to evaluate the aircraft (see Flight,
March 20, page 447).
Several problems are involved in the
potential purchase. The remaining life
of some of the J35Bs is said to be only
500hr and maintenance would amount
to 20 per cent of the purchase price
annuallyestimated at AuS360 million (about 10 million) for 18 aircraft. Viggen is regarded as a very
expensive buy in such small numbers
as Austria is likely to want, with a
possible unit cost of AuS200 million.
Another problem which would confront the Austrian Air Force in the-'event of a true combat aircraft purchase is the general lack of high-performance trained pilots. The most advanced combat aircraft in Austrian
service at present is the Saab 105OE.
Apart from the Draken and Viggen
the other main contender is still the
Northrop F-5E Tiger with the Mirage
F.l lagging somewhat behind in the
"competition." It appears that so far
neither Hawker Siddeley nor British
Aircraft Corporation has made any
firm sales effort in the country.
Jaguar accident cause
The fatal accident to the Armee de
FAir Jaguar E near Rheims was last
week erroneously attributed in Flight
to both engines having flamed out
(page 637). The problem of Adours
flaming out in certain conditions after
a modification to reduce carbon buildup in the flametube is indeed a well
recognised one in the Royal Air Force
and a fix has been found, but none
of the Adours in French Air Force
Jaguar service has the original anticarbon modification and the flame-out
problem has consequently not been
encountered in French aircraft.
The Jaguar E which crashed was
taking part in a low-level groundattack training mission and is thought
to have carried out a diving attack
immediately before the accident.
Flight understands that at this stage of
the investigation into the cause there
is no suggestion of an engine problem.