US arms makers cite strong demand from foreign buyers

Reuters: Military budgets may be under pressure in the United States and Europe but there is growing demand from the Middle East, Asia and other regions for new fighter jets, helicopters and surveillance equipment, top weapons industry executives say.

“We have probably our busiest air show as of right now,” William Swanson, chief executive of Raytheon Co told Reuters in an interview on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow, the largest aerospace showcase in the world.

British Prime Minister David Cameron opened the show, where 83 trade and military delegations from over 43 countries got a firsthand look at new commercial and military aircraft, including Boeing Co’s  787 Dreamliner, the European four-nation Typhoon and the V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron.

Foreign sales account for about 25 per cent of Raytheon’s $25 billion in annual sales, said Swanson, who comes to the show every year to meet personally with foreign buyers, and can’t understand why other defence companies are so focused on their domestic troubles.

“There’s opportunities there. Don’t sit there and go, ‘Oh woe is me.’ Look at it and say, ‘Okay, where’s the opportunity?” Swanson told Reuters in an interview.

Even the US military market remained very rich, despite deep cuts in spending expected in coming years, he said. “They’re still spending $500 billion dollars.”

Northrop Grumman Corp, maker of the B-2 bomber and the Global Hawk high-altitude surveillance drone, stayed home this year, saying it preferred air shows in the Middle East and Asia, where most of the new demand for weapons is emerging.

The Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, Frank Kendall, and Vice Admiral David Venlet, who runs the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, also skipped this year’s arms and airplane bonanza, mindful of pressing budget problems at home.

Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Military Aircraft, said continuing uncertainty about the US budget had dampened the mood at the show, where rain clouds literally darkened the sky all day.

Foreign arms buyers were still out in force.

Boeing was offering demonstration flights of its V-22 Osprey, which flies like a plane but takes off and lands like a helicopter.

 It also reported continued interest in its F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets, mainly from buyers in the Middle East.

US Marine Corps Colonel Greg Masiello, program manager for the V-22, told reporters that the first foreign order for the V-22 could come within the next year.

Israel, Japan and the United Arab Emirates are among countries looking at possible purchases of the V-22, which captured a great deal of interest at the Dubai Air Show in November 2011, Boeing officials say.