F 16

PARIS -- Lockheed Martin Corp. struck back at suggestions that its F-16 fighter's technology is out of date, saying the United States will keep the planes in service until 2020 and production will continue well into the next century.Bob Elrod, vice president in charge of F-16 sales for Bethesda-based Lockheed, spoke yesterday at the Paris Air Show in response to comments from Saab Aircraft that its Gripen fighter alone is the first fighter to have "fourth-generation" technology that integrates sophisticated electronics and missiles.

WASHINGTON -- Civilian investigators said yesterday that they believed that a military air traffic controller had failed to provide enough information about the identity, route and location of two civilian aircraft to the pilots of two F-16s, setting the stage for an encounter Wednesday in which one or both fighter planes flew too close to a passenger airliner.The investigators also said the incident, which occurred off New Jersey, made it clear that anti-collision equipment that is now standard on civilian airliners has rendered risky long-standing military procedures on visually identifying intruding aircraft.

A miscommunication resulted in two military jets intercepting a US Airways flight yesterday morning and escorting it to a landing at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, authorities said. The aircraft landed at a remote section of the airport at 9:30 a.m. and was met by state and federal law enforcement and aviation officials who determined no safety threat was on board the flight carrying 45 passengers and a crew of five. Passengers were permitted to leave the plane about 11 a.m., airport officials said.

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Standing at the checkpoint that divides the capital city of this island, Andreas Kouloufides shows his 4-year-old daughter a grisly photographic display of the violent clashes that mark the Greek Cypriots' centuries-old conflict with their Turkish cohabitants."

WASHINGTON -- As the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina escalated this week, American political leaders debated the pros and cons of U.S. involvement in the bloody and complex civil war in the former Yugoslavia.But yesterday's downing of a U.S. fighter jet over Bosnia -- the first since U.S. pilots began flying over the region more than two years ago -- brought home the fact that U.S. troops have played a role in the Balkans war almost since its beginning.While there are no U.S. ground troops among the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, U.S. planes and ships have been part of NATO operations there, conducting air and sea patrols since July 1992.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has rejected Pakistan's request to release a fleet of F-16 jet fighters that it bought in the 1980s, U.S. officials said yesterday, adding that the United States wanted to avoid destabilizing relations in South Asia. In an interview Saturday, the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said transferring the fighters would be an important symbolic gesture of U.S. gratitude for his nation's strong support in the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan purchased 28 F-16s in the 1980s, but their delivery was blocked when Congress cut off all aid and military sales in 1990, citing Pakistan's secret development of nuclear weapons.

There was a Toys R Us across the street, but all the kids were lined up outside Annapolis Mall yesterday for the newest toy in town: the U.S. Air Force Experience. Who could blame them? A real F-16 Fighting Falcon on display in the parking lot lured them to the high-tech recruiting exhibition that rolled into this Navy town Tuesday. Inside the huge trailer, the show aimed for its audience with giant video screen presentations, computer kiosks and a fleet of F-16 flight simulators that dared them to pilot a high-speed virtual mission.

A Baltimore corporation pleaded guilty yesterday and agreed to pay more than $1.2 million in fines and damages to the federal government for falsifying tests on antennae it built for a planned radar-jamming system on the Air Force's F-16 jet fighter.U.S District Judge Walter E. Black Jr. accepted negotiated guilty pleas yesterday evening from attorneys for Nurad Inc. of the 2100 block of Druid Park Drive and for the U.S. attorney's office. No officials appeared for the corporation, which is incorporated in Delaware and is a subsidiary of the Dover Corp.

The Western Maryland College offense was in Franklin & Marshall territory most of the game yesterday afternoon, but the end zone was another matter.The Green Terrors squandered opportunity after opportunity -- particularly in the first half -- as Franklin & Marshall's "bend, but don't break" defense made the plays when it needed to in a 16-7 win at Bair Stadium in Westminster.It was the second straight win for Franklin & Marshall (3-4, 2-2) while Western Maryland fell to 1-5-1, 0-5 in the Centennial Conference.