With the end of the Cold War, many military forces will lose their raison d'etre unless they bolster their airlift capabilities. The demise of the traditional Soviet threat, and the lack of any other predictable threat outside of the Middle East, rules out prepositioning forces. Future threats are likely to be more random, arising in relatively inaccessible places.

Until 1997, rotorcraft makers defied the broader aerospace industrial trend toward consolidation. Aside from Eurocopter, which in many ways was consolidation in name only, all five major U.S. manufacturers, plus Agusta, Westland, Kawasaki and numerous others, survived as independent players. The recent absorption of McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems into the Boeing entity has changed this defiance. The merged entity will probably be the world's predominant military helicopter maker.

The battle for additional B-2 procurement has effectively been killed by Congress' Fiscal 1998 defense appropriations budget. Even B-2 proponents admit the fight for more B-2 acquisition is over, leaving the Air Force with a 21-aircraft fleet. ``The silver bullet has given way to the silver stake,'' says Loren Thompson of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.