Thursday, November 19, 2009

DTN News: Dubai Airshow Ends On Sharply Lower Sales Note

DTN News: Dubai Airshow Ends On Sharply Lower Sales Note *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) - November 20, 2009: The biennial Dubai Airshow ended on Thursday, fulfilling pessimistic analyst forecasts, as sales of only a bit more than 14 billion dollars dimmed against 155.5 billion dollars in 2007.Emirati officials and visitors attend the opening ceremony of the Dubai Airshow "The declared on-site order book for Dubai Airshow 2009 is now over 14 billion dollars (9.3 billion euros)," the organisers' website said, with final figures expected to be released in the coming days. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus walked away with the highest share, with orders and letters of intent to buy planes worth 5.3 billion dollars. The Airbus orders were for 15 aircraft worth more than 3.6 billion dollars, in addition to memorandums of understanding on another 18 valued at around 1.7 billion dollars. "We had a good airshow, better than many expected," said Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy on Wednesday. But this year's figure paled against the 2007 show, when Airbus received its largest-ever single order valued at 20 billion dollars from Dubai's Emirates. Airbus's US arch-rival Boeing lagged behind, making only two announcements worth not more than 800 million dollars. Boeing received orders from the Algerian national carrier Air Algerie for seven Boeing B737-800s. The price was not disclosed, but it should range between 493 million dollars and 553 million dollars according to catalogue prices. Boeing also confirmed an order for four B737s by the Algerian domestic carrier Tassili Airlines, valued at 228.4 million dollars. The armed forces of the United Arab Emirates placed two orders worth 700 million dollars for Swiss basic-training planes and Swedish early warning jets. Airbus and Boeing took orders for some 458 new aircraft worth around 75 billion dollars in the previous show. That was mostly from Gulf carriers, who kept a low profile this year. Even so, some of these carriers continue to be major clients on the order books of Airbus and Boeing as they await delivery of aircraft ordered over the past few years. Dubai's Emirates, the largest Middle East carrier, has placed orders for 156 planes from both manufacturers, according to its website. Emirates remains the largest single client of Airbus's superjumbo A380 with 58 planes, of which it received four. Abu Dhabi's Etihad, established only in 2003, ordered 55 aircraft from Airbus last time, while Qatar Airways, says on its website that its firm orders and options amount to 93 planes from Airbus and 89 from Boeing. "We see tremendous growth for the Middle East region," Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said on the sidelines of the show. Airbus chief Tom Enders also acknowledged that the Middle East is weathering the turbulence in the global aviation market well. "I think this show is encouraging ... to see that there is growth, particularly in the Middle East, (and) Africa," he said. Ahead of the show's opening on Sunday, Morgan Stanley Rupinder Vig had predicted that it would be "much more low key than the last few years." Another analyst, requesting anonymity, said "the small contracts that will be made public during the show will not have an impact on stock exchanges."

DTN News: China Humbly Launches Serial Production Of Stolen Russian Fighter Jets

DTN News: China Humbly Launches Serial Production Of Stolen Russian Fighter Jets *Source: DTN News / Pravda.ru (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - November 20, 2009: China has launched the serial production of J-10, J-11 and FC-1 fighter jets, which are rip-offs of Russia’s Su-27/30 and MiG-29 aircraft. The nation intends to build and sell not less than 1,200 planes at the prices which will be much lower than those of the Russian planes. The report is not the news for the Russian defense industry. In 2003, China refused to prolong the license for the production of Su-27CK planes and started working on the construction of its own jet – a copy of the Russian analogue. China will put competitive pressure on Russia on the market of spare parts too. Beijing plans to challenge Russia on its traditional defense industry markets and become the maker of inexpensive and efficient air materiel. Malaysian military officials have already expressed their readiness to cooperate with China at this point. A senior official of Malaysia’s Air Force said that his nation was going to purchase a batch of spare parts to Russian fighter jets from China. Malaysia ’s Royal Air Force has 18 Russian-made Su-30MKM aircraft. Their technical servicing is the corner stone of Russia’s entire arms export. There were a number of serious incidents when Russian manufacturers could not execute their contracts with delivering spare parts to Malaysia. Malaysia had to refuse from the exploitation of MiG-29 planes. The promised technical center in India was never materialized either. Russia has delivered 76 Su-27 fighter jets to China since 1992. In 1995 Moscow granted a license to Beijing to assemble 200 more of those planes. As a result, Russia’s renowned Su-27 fighter jet was “cloned” in China as J-11. Russia was originally delivering spare parts to China, but Beijing refused to prolong the license in 2003. By 2008, China had designed its only analogues of the Russian engine, radar and other equipment. Chain started the licensed and non-licensed production of analogues of Soviet planes a long time ago. The nation’s J-6 and J-7 fighters were created on the base of MiG-10 and MiG-21. H-6 bombers were copied from Tu-16; Y-5, Y-7 and Y-8 are rip-offs of Russia’s An-2, An-24 and An-12. The military cooperation between Russia and China has had a 62-percent reduction since 2007. There are practically no new contracts between the two countries. The Pentagon traditionally evaluated China’s defense technologies in its recent report about the level of the nation’s defense power. US officials believe that China’s level of technological development in the defense industry was much lower than that of the United States. Nevertheless, the Pentagon acknowledged that China’s defense budget was growing faster than the nation’s economy. China is going to start the production of large vessels and develop a new generation of arms and military hardware for its navy. Priority will be paid to the construction of superships, a new type of submarines, supersonic jets, missiles and other arms. After 2020, Beijing plans to build two nuclear-powered aircraft-carriers in addition to two other conventional vessels which are going to be launched in 2015. When it happens, China will establish control over the entire western part of the Pacific Ocean.