This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com. http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015 \----------------------------------------------------------/ At the Air Show, the U.S.-France Rift Shows June 17, 2003 By EDWARD WONG LE BOURGET, France, June 16 - Who would have thought that grounding fighter jets and pouring fine wine down the drain would amount to the same thing? But just as the latter became a symbol of American hostility toward the French during the Iraq war, the former is being seen by many at this year's Paris Air Show as America's latest contribution to trans-Atlantic tension. The show, which opened Saturday and runs through this Sunday, was intended to celebrate a century of cooperation between the countries in the field of aviation. Instead, the United States is delivering several slaps to the Gallic face. Not only will there be a notable absence of American fighter jet demonstrations, but the Defense Department has cut by half the number of its planes here, from the dozen it had in 2001. No officer above the rank of colonel is present. American military contractors and aerospace companies have scaled back their presence, with some saying that the Pentagon's cutbacks influenced their decisions. As a consequence, there is bound to be less business done between American and foreign companies, some industry analysts and executives said. "This is one of those little telltale signs of a much broader drift in trans-Atlantic relationships that reveal the gradual breakup of the Western alliance," said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. American officials, the show's organizers and some executives insist that the reduced American presence is because of the economic slump rather than the political rift that occurred when France became the most vocal critic of the United States-led invasion of Iraq. But the European news media and many executives on this side of the Atlantic are not persuaded. Liberation, a left-leaning French newspaper, wrote on Sunday that the economic explanation "doesn't convince anyone." Over dinner, the chief executive of a European military contractor impatiently dismissed what he considers American posturing. "Some people have to make a political gesture, so they should make it, then move on," he said, speaking on the condition that he not be identified. At the height of political sniping over the Iraq war, "we felt there was great risk, and we still feel there is some risk" to business interests, he added. "Someone needs to open up this dialogue again." This event, held every two years along the runways of Le Bourget, where Charles Lindbergh landed after his trans-Atlantic crossing in 1927, is an air show only in the most nominal sense. Fighter jets thunder across the sky, but more omnipresent than pilots are executives from the world's major military contractors and aerospace companies. The exhibition halls are essentially souks for the global military-industrial complex: surface-to-air missiles and laser guidance systems sit in booths near commercial plane engines; Brazilian jet makers brush shoulders with Russian arms traders. The show, now in its 45th year, gained prominence during the cold war, when significant deals often were struck on the premises. These days, it serves largely as a marathon networking opportunity for executives and military officials, punctuated by announcements of commercial jet orders for Boeing or Airbus that have long been in the works. Nevertheless, the show, with its 1,700 exhibitors, can still make a difference for some companies, said Yves Bonnet, its director. "Little companies have the ability to develop their business," he said after watching eight French fighter jets loop through the air. "It is an opportunity for them to meet everybody and begin the discussion." If so, American industry could be losing out. American companies renting exhibition space number 280, down from 350 in 2001. Virtually all of those missing are small and medium-size companies. A few larger ones, like Gulfstream and Cessna, are also absent, said Fabrice Galzin, the show's marketing director. The most prominent American contractors are here, but they have scaled back. Philip M. Condit, the chief executive of the Boeing Company, is not attending. Lockheed Martin has sent 125 people, half as many as at the last show and down from 450 in 1997, said Tom Jurkowsky, a company spokesman. Like Mr. Condit, Vance D. Coffman, Lockheed's chief executive, decided not to come. Mr. Jurkowsky said the cutbacks were made to save money and not because of political pressure. But he added that "we certainly look to the customer, and if the customer sets a tone, we're going to fall in line with that tone." The customer, in this case, is the Defense Department, Lockheed's biggest buyer. At a dinner at the Ritz in Paris on Sunday night, Robert H. Trice, Lockheed's senior vice president for corporate business development, said the company recognized "that the strains the alliance is experiencing are real and that they are serious." But he added that Lockheed saw virtues in a "single, integrated marketplace" for the military industry. Jeffrey Bialos, deputy under secretary of defense for industrial affairs during the last two years of the Clinton administration, said that senior leaders in the Pentagon had "real questions about the future" of French-American relations. "Plainly, the attitudes at the top trickle down in that world and create an environment that will not be particularly open" for executives in military contracting, he added. Master Sgt. John Tomassi, a spokesman for the European command of the Defense Department, said that the absence of Pentagon brass from Le Bourget this year was a matter of tact. "To have generals wined and dined here at the show doesn't send the right message," he said, when "we have thousands and thousands of troops who are out in the field." There have been several instances lately when companies claimed that nationalism colored a major military contract award. Last month, Pratt & Whitney Canada bristled when Airbus chose a European consortium, Europrop, to make the engines for its first military plane, the A400M transport jet. Pratt & Whitney executives said politics swayed the decision, though an Airbus spokesman said "the engine selection was purely commercial." Dassault Aviation, the French aircraft maker, said that North American companies buying its Falcon business jet asked a lot of questions about its military contracting business during the Iraq war, though no customers canceled orders. "Some customers were troubled because of the political atmosphere between France and the U.S.," said Vadim Feldzer, a company spokesman. At a news conference Saturday, Charles Edelstenne, chief executive of Dassault, said that the renewed determination by the United States to assert its power "may change the hand dealt in certain markets which are more sensitive to politics than civil markets," according to Aviation Week. Mr. Feldzer said that Mr. Edelstenne was referring to military sales and that Dassault did not expect its civilian division to feel any serious impact from political tensions. The trans-Atlantic rift could permanently change the nature of the Paris Air Show. Several members of Congress have been lobbying to start a rival event in the United States, possibly in Dayton, Ohio. Representative John L. Mica, a Republican from Florida and chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, recently added language to a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that would require studying the idea. Asked about this, Mr. Bonnet, the air show's director, swept a hand across the air and said, "Good luck for them, if they succeed." A few hundred yards away, a throng of aviation fanatics from Paris and other places were milling around a wooden replica of the plane that the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Crowds also swarmed the gleaming B-17 Flying Fortress farther up the tarmac, along with a Concorde, its tail fin painted in the colors of the French flag. All are symbols of highflying cooperation between the United States and France, and all have been grounded. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/17/business/17SHOW.html?ex=1056854044&ei=1&en=501e5dead4241dac --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company