PARIS - Two very different approaches to the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) requirement were detailed in presentations at the Paris Air Show by Northrop Grumman and Boeing, which, with Lockheed Martin/General Atomics Predator, are in contention for a $3 billion contract. BAMS is the planned supplement to the abilities of the new Boeing P-8A maritime patroller, calling for some 48 unmanned, high-altitude, long-range aircraft controlled from ground stations.

FARNBOROUGH - Squeezed, shrunk and kept guessing about military plans and procurement, U.S. defense and aerospace urgently need a "new deal" from Washington, says Robert H. Trice, Lockheed Martin's senior vice president of business development. Trice, speaking this week at the Farnborough Air Show outside London, displayed stacks of statistics and phalanxes of percentages showing that the perception of aerospace being a prohibitively expensive drain on taxpayers is just plain wrong.

LE BOURGET, France - The diversion of scarce funds to more urgent projects will hurt the market for trainer aircraft, according to a new study by intelligence and analysis provider Forecast International. The Advanced European Jet Pilot Training (AEJPT) program is marking time, says Bill Dane, Forecast's senior aerospace analyst. No common specification has emerged from the 12 interested "Eurotraining" countries, while one of the local contenders, EADS, "appears to be losing interest in its design and ... has only built a mock-up [of the Mako] to date."