More anti-terrorism foolishness

[Blacksheep]

Not that all anti-terrorism actions are foolish of course. Far from it, the more attention that is paid to preventing terrorism the better. I'm referring to strange over-the-top reactions. Such as the latest mysterious US Government edict affecting non-US airlines. The US government has just banned Litton from exporting navigation equipment currently installed on new Boeing and Airbus aircraft, outside the USA. Totally. No exceptions. Not even for 'friends'

An operator that recently purchased new aircraft from Airbus, having specified mostly US equipment options for the avionic installation, now cannot receive spares ordered to support the aircraft in service. Previously such treatment was reserved for nations that incurred US displeasure such as Libya and Iraq. Meanwhile any terrorist who needs to accurately locate any spot on the surface of the earth need only pop down to an electronics retailer and buy the latest GPS gadget over the counter. Or are the US going to shut-down the GPS system too?

I'm off to buy some shares in Thales...

[Timothy]

Or are the US giong to shut-down the GPS system too? ...do you think you are joking? :(

Given all the other things they have done, this seems a not unlikely scenario. Buy shares in whoever makes whiz-wheels :}

Timothy

[Basil]

Can't see US avionics OR aircraft manufacturers taking that lying down for long.
It's handing their business to the rest of the world. "Thank you President Bush!"

[Flap 5]

At the moment the US dollar is weak and that will attract a lot of people to the states or to purchase from the states. However when it strengthens again and the US continues their present high handed attitude to all other countries they will surely suffer.

[Grandpa]

Whatever we think about present US Administration, it seems uncredible.................

[My names Turkish]

Whats your source Black sheep? It would suprise me greatly because here in the States even more so than anywhere else Big Business have serious swing and get the rules changed for them. Seems a little unusual....

[Blacksheep]

My source is our own operation, Turkish. We cannot purchase the parts because, we are told, new Federal anti-terrorism regulations prevent the parts in question - Litton ADIR modules - from being exported outside the USA. We can't even get them from Airbus, although the Litton system is selected for the A380 navigation system. I presume the Feds are worried that the Koreans or someone will reverse engineer one of the sensors and use the technology for missile guidance. As others have mentioned, it seems incredible but that's all part of the foolishness that we are seeing these days.

Incidentally the Feds have had tight controls on the export of FMCs for many years. You never could ship an FMC out of the States without a special State Department licence, consequently we avoided sending any FMCs to the USA for repair; we've always sent them to Australia or Singapore. Even then the OEM repair station has to report all movements to the Federal Government. The new regulation appears to be a tightening of these previously existing rules and an indication that isolationism is still alive and well in the USA.

Europe and Russia are of course, quite capable of developing navigation systems of their own and no doubt after a short hiccup the result will be a further strengthening of the European aerospace industry, so I'm not going to complain too much.

[Civil Servant]

And people, mostly US of A type people, wonder why Europe wants to put its own GPS constellation into orbit!!

[Check 6]

The reason Europe wants to put up its own GPS constellation is because of capitalism (so shocking) and empire building by governmental civil servants. One more agency to tax, tax, tax.

:E