European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 23, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday april 23, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 17 Money matters the army and air Force sex. Change service wants servicemen Bers who return from duty in the persian Gulf to. Contact the Exchange in order to restart dormant accounts cafes established special procedures allowing service members sent to operation desert storm to have most accounts put on hold. Included were deferred payment plans layaway purchases rain checks and other special orders. When accounts Are restarted an cafes sales associate will advise customers of How much their first payment will be and when it s due. Conversion rates London up mondays closing rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in i dollars a a a a a a. A. V a Gold was quoted at 1355.50 a ounce Silver at $3.95. -1. A april 19 april22 British Pound .i,.,1.7245 a. 1.6935 a Gentian Mark .1.7340 a 17640 a French franc .,.,.5.7980 5,9155 a dutch Guilder. 1.9337 1.9677 belgian franc .35.4025 36.1400 a Quot. Italian lira. 270.20 1,292,50 Swiss franc .1.4670 1,4829 greek drachma .186.02188,95.turkish lira .,.�?z.,.11.i�?z. 113.b25.40 3,838.50 a a saudi arabian Riyal. ,.3.7504 3 7502 Spanish peseta.,.,.105.90. 107.60. Portuguese escudo.,. 148.40 a 150 40 Canadian Dollar .,.1.1532r 1.1565 austrian Schilling. -12,075 12 292 a norwegian Krone .,. ,6.682 6 7090�?T danish Krone .6.5625. 6,6725 a a. These Are unofficial rates As reported by wire service and banking sources and they Are listed to give some idea of daily currency fluctuations. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.70 through tuesday based on mondays noontime Price spending increases in Britain London up March consumer spending in Britain registered its biggest monthly Rise for almost 12 years the government said monday but economists dismissed the figure As an aberration and said other data pointed to continuing recession. The seasonally adjusted retail sales Index Rose 3.7 percent in March from february the biggest monthly increase in Britain since percent registered in june 1979, the Central statistical office reported. The figure compared with a fall of 1,0 percent in March last year and Bro tight the Rise in retail sales for the preceding 12 months to 2 percent. The so pointed out that the March figure was affected by a number of one time factors and might not indicate a sustained upturn in sales. March sales were artificially boosted by consumer buying ahead of a 2.5 percentage Point increase in value added tax which took effect april 1, and by easter spend my the so said. Sales in the first three months of the year we Ere up 0.8 percent in the previous three months but 0.5 percent Down on the same period of 1990, the so said. Business of building Ai Down to survival by Steven Pearlstein the Washington Post Washington a at the end of the korean War there were More than a dozen . Companies vying to make fighter bomber and attack planes for the military. By 1980, there were seven. And As. Consequence of a contract the air Force is expected to award tuesday the number could dwindle by two or three. A the contract is for americans next generation Jet fighter the advanced tactical fighter Worth an estimated $65 billion Over the next 10 to 15 years. It is Likely to be the biggest and certainly the most glamorous piece of air plane business awarded by the Pentagon in the 1990s. A two competing teams a Northrop corp. And Mcdonnell Douglas corp. On one Side Lockheed corp., Boeing co. And general dynamics corp. On the other have each committed their Best engineers latest technology and $1 billion of their own Money in a five year Winner take All Competition. A without at it will be difficult for anyone to sustain a Long term position in the fighter business a said b. Daniel i Nick president of the defense division of Boeing co., which is trying to return to the fighter plane business after an absence of More than 50 years. A in the future i see one two even companies either going out of the business or downsizing significantly a predicted Lockheed chairman Daniel. a High stakes Fly offs like this have become the catalysts in a survival of the fit test process that is shrinking and reorganizing the defense Industry in response to scaled Back Pentagon budgets. By the end of this year the aerospace Industry expects to have lost a third of the military aircraft workers it had just four years ago or 165,000 jobs with More cuts expected. Pentagon spending on aircraft adjusted for inflation will have dropped from $48 billion a year in 1985 to $16 billion in this fiscal year it is no coincidence that Only two of the five companies in the at Competition a Lockheed and Northrop a made a profit last year in their military aircraft business. Winning the at contract however looks to be More a matter of survival than a guarantee of growth and profit. At its Peak at production will amount to Only 48 planes a year and even that will have to be spread among various team members and subcontractors. What makes the at vital to Many companies according to those involved is the Chance to stabilize employment master the latest technology recoup development expenses and build up a poo of profits to finance a credible entry into the next Competition. For the losers tuesdays announcement is expected to set off a scramble for research projects contracts to upgrade existing fighters a a big part of future Pentagon budgets a and a less glamorous role As specialized subcontractors. But Many in the Industry now question whether this darwinian process of natural selection will leave enough companies to ensure the kind of innovation and Cost a Competition the Pentagon always has taken for granted. A the problem is that the criteria you might use to pick a team to build the at May be different than the criteria for picking the Best supplier of military aircraft for the next 40 years a said Robert costello former undersecretary of defense for acquisition. A i done to see anybody thinking about what special Steps you take to preserve the capacities of the losers Quot added Gordon Adams director of the defense budget project a Pentagon watchdog group. Northrop and its partner Mcdonnell Douglas have positioned themselves As the committed and experienced fighter makers in the at contest a and thus the team with the most to lose if they done to get the contract. Mcdonnell Douglas makes the f-15 and with Northrop produces the Navy a multiuse fighter the f/a-18, the Complex computer systems and highly trained technicians used by Northrop to build its Stealthy b-2 bomber also were used in designing and producing the yf-23 a Gray ghost a its prototype in the at Competition. A this is Pur mainline business Quot said Northrop chairman Ken Kresa. Kresa contrasted his team with his at competitors which have charted a different route to survival in the aerospace business. Lockheed has its varied product lines in space technology and missiles Boeing has its giant commercial Airliner business and general dynamics has wide ranging interests in submarines missiles and helicopters. For these and other aerospace companies the at selection May not be the do or die event Many have portrayed it to be. A in the future i think the Edge will go to the companies that Are diversified a said Jacques Gansler author of several books on the defense Industry. A for old companies never die. They simply come Back As major Gordon Adams director of the defense budget project those that Arent this will be a soul searching period.�?�. Quot you hear that at is the Only game in town but we done to buy it a said Sam Iacobellis vice president and chief operating officer of Rockwell corp maker of the troubled by bomber and an at Competition no show. A we feel that with diversity we can weather peaks and valleys better than other Rockwell for example produces parts for the Boeing 747 and 777 commercial jetliners made of materials called composites a materials similar to those to be used in the at. Rockwell also makes Large parts for the military a global positioning satellite. The number of Rockwell air plane engineers has declined but there is work for those who remain designing and constructing prototypes of two experimental planes the x-31 High Angle of attack fighter that can turn on a dime while flying under stall conditions and the x-30 National aerospace plane which one Day May Fly into Earth orbit from regular Airport runways. A a we done to have mass production going but we re not out of business by any Means a said another Rockwell executive. Indeed Rockwell has continued to show a steady growth in profit something few other military contractors can claim. Others however warn that no company can remain competitive simply by cob bling together research contracts for a trimmed Dow n design team but never actually building planes. Only Large scale production contracts generate the profits and business base to sustain a wide ranging research and devel. Ozment Effort. And Only Long term production allows a company to get the kinks out of its production processes a the key to reducing the Cost of each plane a application of a technology to a product is what keeps a work Force Sharp a said Walter Bylciw the head of the at team at United technologies Pratt amp Whitney division which is competing with general electric co. In a separate engine Competition. A without that you have to play catch up a you can to be a viable major producer today without being in on the production Side of things a said Northrop a Kresa. Northrop has staked its future and its corporate egos on winning the Lead position on air plane programs. But being a prime contractor today is not always what it used to be. V Mcdonnell Douglas and general dynamics for example recently discovered the negative Side of prime contracting when the Pentagon cancelled their Devil pm in t con tract on the n Avys new a-12 attack plane and stuck the companies with losses that could eventually run into billions of has $1 billion at stake in its dispute with the Pentagon Oyer the cancel a Tion of the development contract for a Navy anti submarine plane the p-7a, forty years ago a prime contractor often had responsibility for 70 percent of the work on a plane. Today it is Lucky to have a third. The extraordinary Cost of designing fighter planes is one reason contractors increasingly Are forced into team arrangements. In the Case of one of the two contending versions of the at Boeing would make the wings general dynamics the midsection Ana Tail and Lockheed would attach them both to a Lockheed Cabin at its Plant in Marietta a. Because software and highly specialized advanced electronics now account for More than half the Cost of each plane prime contractors have to rely on major subcontractors with highly refined skills. The result is that a number of companies including Martin Marietta corp. And Hughes aircraft co., have Given up building air planes in favor of a growing and profitable business making electronic subsystems. Grumman corp., once the King of naval aviation never made it to the at starting line. It a future in aviation based on radar and warning systems a electronics stuffed inside an old Boeing 707. A a old companies never die a said Adams at the defense budget project. A they simply come Back As major sub a healthy Industry requires More than Niche specialists. Brian Brimelow general manager of general electric s Jet engine division the country May no longer need seven full scale air plane makers a but you want to get to just three or four. You need some competitive and Kresa pointed out that despite the diminished role of prime contractors it is their ability to manage and integrate the work of hundreds of companies into sophisticated systems. That a Quot the real Genius of the . Aerospace Industry a he said a. Quot that is what is holding Back the japanese a and is the key to our being the world Leader Quot he said
