Paris 2001 - How was it for you?

By Richard Randell, editor Defence Systems Daily

Paris 2001, for me, with one or two exceptions, was marked by the sound of silence - silence on the ground and silence in the air. We have not been treated, as we were in former years, to the daily announcement of mega-deal for this company, mega-deal for that company, all carefully orchestrated to provide a crescendo at the largest air show of the year. And the flying display has been conspicuous by its ordinariness.

One man who bucked the trend is Noel Forgeard, CEO of Airbus, who had a good week. Airbus ran away with the commercial jet stakes, signing deals with five customers for a total of 175 aircraft worth a whopping US $14 billion. Boeing by contrast could only manage an order for three aircraft from Japan. Seddik Belyamani, Boeing Commercial Airplanes executive vice president sales, even resorted to moving the goalposts, by announcing that it wasn't orders that counted, it was deliveries. I don't remember that being the message at Farnborough last year or Paris the year before.

Airbus Military at last had the MOU for the A400M signed, but even as the European Defence Ministers put pen to paper in a scene startlingly reminiscent of an A400M signing in Farnborough a year ago, doubts were being raised about where the money was coming from. The main concern was Germany where allocated funding is inadequate and political opposition strong. Alberto Fernandez, Head of EADS Military Transport Aircraft Division said there was still an anxious period of months of negotiation before any meaningful contracts could be signed. So A400M flies - maybe!

On the fighter aircraft scene the only large order announced was for 50 F-16s for Israel. Lockheed Martin was upbeat about the future of this ageing aircraft, saying that the latest order would keep the production line open until 2008-9, and forecasting a market of some 500 more aircraft around the world, despite the advent of the Joint Strike Fighter.

The military scene may have been affected by the ongoing 'root and branch' reviews being undertaken by the Pentagon at the behest of the Bush Administration, the results of which are only now beginning to emerge.

The JSF community, The DoD's Programme Office, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, was positive about the new aircraft's chances of survival, especially since a recent review into 'Transformation' has said that JSF fits the bill, even recommending the advancement of the in-service date for the carrier version. Nevertheless, no one was prepared to say categorically that the programme would go forward. And although everyone I spoke to said they were happy about the 'winner take all' nature of the competition at the moment, privately Boeing and Lockheed Martin that, at the end of the day, jobs in key Congressional seats and politics still had a large part to play in any final decision.

Likewise General James L Jones, Commandant of the US Marine Corps was firm in his support for the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor, saying it was 'a national asset', 'mature technology' and 'technically robust' (this latter despite the recent crashes). Again the future of this twenty year old programme awaits the outcome of several reviews.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the show was the mixed signals on transatlantic cooperation. Raytheon and Thales, Northrop Grumman and EADS, all signed up to joint enterprises. But equally senior officials were worried that the climate of cooperation between governments might not be so forward looking, citing the difficulties in deciding workshare for the A400M and the US attitude to the release of classified technology as barriers to true transatlantic cooperation. Vince Coffman, Chairman of Lockheed Martin said to reporters, "In the defence market our customers are sovereign governments buying .... for national security purposes. That imposes limits on how much the forces of globalisation can reshape this industry."

And as for the silence in the air, it was almost deafening, particularly when the A340-600 was flying - it was impressive in its quietness. Apart from that I was left with an impression of an air display going through the motions - no Patrouille de France, no wow factor, but thankfully, no accidents so far.

All in all then, a low key end to what, in this observer's eyes has been a low key event - which is a surprise. I hope Paris 2003 returns to the vibrancy I remember.

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