Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Bradley Perrett (Beijing), Alexander Velovich (Forecast International)
Ahead of a recovery in the civil market and anticipating a downturn in defense, U.S. primes continue to adjust their businesses, looking for cost reductions and growth opportunities. Several defense programs were terminated in 2009 and more are under threat this year. Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, was hit by decisions to end F-22 production and cancel the VH-71A presidential helicopter and TSAT communications satellite. The company is cutting jobs and combining units in its electronic systems business.
Stepping up its push to become a leading player in global aerospace, South Korea proposes to build a 90-seat turboprop under an industry development plan that also seeks to press ahead with the KF-X fighter and KAH attack helicopter programs.
The South Korean government will press ahead with the KF-X fighter and KAH attack helicopter programs, despite parliamentary opposition, under a national aerospace industry development plan. The government has decided that the KAH should be a new aircraft, not a derivative of the Surion utility helicopter of Korean Aerospace Industries. A civil derivative of either the KAH or Surion also will be delivered.
