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| Sujet: US Air Force - USAF  Dim 19 Oct 2008 - 16:43 | |
| Rappel du premier message :l´USAF plane de retirer +300 jets,dont: -137 F-15 - 177 F-16 -9 A-10s 11 ans avant leur date,pour epargner 3,4B$ et accelerer ainsi les F-22/35 mais ca doit dabord passer le congress et le futur president doit signer! - Citation :
- US Air Force eyes fighter cuts to boost modernization
Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:51pm EDT
WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force is seeking to retire early more than 300 fighter aircraft next year to save $3.4 billion in the hope of funding advanced Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fighters and other modernization efforts, a published report said on Wednesday, citing internal Pentagon documents.
The plan would retire 137 F-15 and 177 F-16 fighters plus nine A-10 close air support attack aircraft as much as 11 years before the end of their scheduled useful lives, InsideDefense.com, an online news service, reported.
"Without accelerating these retirements, we are left with a larger, less-capable force unable to penetrate anti-access environments," the Air Force was quoted as telling John Young, the Pentagon's top arms buyer, in defense of a fiscal 2010 spending plan it submitted in August.
"Anti-access" is Pentagon jargon for spots defended by advanced surface-to-air missiles and state-of-the-art fighters such as those used or planned by Russia and China.
A key Air Force concern is what it calls a potential fighter gap until Lockheed's radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is produced in large numbers.
An Air Force spokesman said it would be inappropriate to discuss an internal working document that will continue to change until it is incorporated into the next president's fiscal 2010 budget submission.
The document was quoted as saying an Air Force analysis showed a "smaller but modernized fighter force, when coupled with a robust bomber fleet, can effectively bridge the gap until the F-35 can be produced in required numbers (ramping to 110) and the F-22 can be modified to a common configuration."
Air Force officials have said they plan to increase F-35 production over the next five years to address the fighter gap, InsideDefense.com said.
Two F-35s have entered flight test, two are in ground test and 17 are in various stages of assembly, including the first two production-model jets scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Air Force in 2010, Lockheed said last month.
The president of the Air Force Association, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Dunn, said it remained to be seen if Congress would let the Air Force get rid of so many aircraft so early and if Pentagon leaders would grab the savings to fund competing priorities within other armed services.
"There will have to be a lot of dialogue inside the Pentagon between the Air Force and the office of the secretary of defense, probably the secretary himself, before a decision is made," Dunn, a former president of the Pentagon's National Defense University, said in a telephone interview.
Old warplanes typically involve high maintenance costs and may require big outlays for structural upgrades. Still, lawmakers often have blocked Air Force attempts to retire aging warplanes early, partly to preserve jobs -- in their voting districts -- at bases from which they are flown.
In the fiscal 2010 budget request being readied at the Pentagon for the next president, the Defense Department is seeking ways to continue production of Lockheed Martin's F-22, the top U.S. dog fighter, while boosting F-35 output to capture economies of scale quickly, Pentagon officials have said.
The final say on whether to go on building the F-22 is being left to the next president, who is to be elected Nov. 4 and take office Jan. 20 -- only weeks before the administration's budget request normally is sent to Congress.
The proposed early retirements represent accelerations of seven years in the case of the F-15, six years for the F-16 and 11 years for the A-10, according to the document cited by InsideDefense.com.
The savings would fuel a push to modernize the Air Force's bombers, late-date fighters and go toward a new "nuclear-specific" B-52 bomber rotational squadron and Northrop Grumman Corp'a (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial system expansion, the document was quoted as saying. (Reporting by Jim Wolf; editing by Carol Bishopric, Gary Hill) http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1531730620081015?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mer 26 Oct 2011 - 17:16 | |
| - Citation :
- Nellis AFB F-15C crashes
10/25/2011 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -- An F-15C Eagle aircraft crashed at approximately 4:45 p.m. Oct. 24 on federal lands northwest of Alamo, Nev.
The pilot ejected from the aircraft and was transported to the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital for medical examination, but was uninjured.
There is no outstanding threat to the public at this time, and the incident is under investigation.
(Courtesy of the 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs) | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Jeu 27 Oct 2011 - 16:52 | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Ven 28 Oct 2011 - 23:56 | |
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- The Air Force has been secretly flying Reaper drones on counterterrorism missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethiopia as part of a rapidly expanding U.S.-led proxy war against an al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa, U.S. military officials said.
The Air Force has invested millions of dollars to upgrade an airfield in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, where it has built a small annex to house a fleet of drones that can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs. The Reapers began flying missions earlier this year over neighboring Somalia, where the United States and its allies in the region have been targeting al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group connected to al-Qaeda.
The United States and its allies in East Africa have been targeting al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group connected to al-Qaeda.
On Friday, the Pentagon said the drones are unarmed and have been used only for surveillance and collecting intelligence, though it would not rule out the possibility that they would be used to launch lethal strikes in the future.
Mindful of the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” debacle in which two U.S. military helicopters were shot down in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and 18 Americans killed, the Obama administration has sought to avoid deploying troops to the country.
As a result, the United States has relied on lethal drone attacks, a burgeoning CIA presence in Mogadishu and small-scale missions carried out by U.S. Special Forces. In addition, the United States has increased its funding for and training of African peacekeeping forces in Somalia that fight al-Shabab.
The Washington Post reported last month that the Obama administration is building a constellation of secret drone bases in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, including one site in Ethiopia. The location of the Ethiopian base and the fact that it became operational this year, however, have not been previously disclosed. Some bases in the region also have been used to carry out operations against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
The Air Force confirmed Thursday that drone operations are underway at the Arba Minch airport. Master Sgt. James Fisher, a spokesman for the 17th Air Force, which oversees operations in Africa, said that an unspecified number of Air Force personnel are working at the Ethiopian airfield “to provide operation and technical support for our security assistance programs.”
The Arba Minch airport expansion is still in progress but the Air Force deployed the Reapers there earlier this year, Fisher said. He said the drone flights “will continue as long as the government of Ethiopia welcomes our cooperation on these varied security programs.”
Last month, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry denied the presence of U.S. drones in the country. On Thursday, a spokesman for the Ethiopian embassy in Washington repeated that assertion.
“That’s the government’s position,” said Tesfaye Yilma, the head of public diplomacy for the embassy. “We don’t entertain foreign military bases in Ethiopia.”
But U.S. military personnel and contractors have become increasingly visible in recent months in Arba Minch, a city of about 70,000 people in southern Ethiopia. Arba Minch means “40 springs” in Amharic, the national language. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-drone-base-in-ethio%20pia-is-operational/2011/10/27/gIQAznKwMM_story.html |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Sam 29 Oct 2011 - 13:55 | |
| - Citation :
- B-1 aircrews drop the hammer during exercise
  
10/27/2011 - ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. -- Aircrews from the 37th Bomb Squadron "Tigers" thundered into the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Oct. 25 and employed two Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles from a pair of B-1 bombers as part of the Air Force's air-to-ground Weapon System Evaluation Program known as Combat Hammer.
The goal of the exercise, managed by the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is to evaluate the effectiveness, maintainability, suitability, and accuracy of precision guided munitions and other advanced air to ground weapons. The entire process of weapons handling is evaluated from start to finish during Combat Hammer.
"Combat Hammer is the only training opportunity available to operational B-1 squadrons to employ the AGM-158 (JASSM), so it is an invaluable opportunity for our crews," said Lt. Col. Brian Mead, 37th BS commander. "We continually train to employ the AGM-158 on a regular basis ... but nothing can replace an opportunity to load and shoot an actual missile."
The JASSM is a 2,000-pound conventional, precision, standoff missile with a lethal penetrator/blast fragmentation warhead, JASSMs cruise autonomously in adverse weather, day or night, using a state-of-the-art infrared seeker and anti-jam global positioning satellite-aided technology to find a specific point on a target. A single B-1B can carry 24 JASSMs.
One of the purposes of the WSEP is to evaluate the ability of a baseline operational aircrew to successfully employ a given weapon in an operationally representative environment as a means of validating current tactics, techniques and procedures, according to Mead. The 37th BS Tigers chose a mix of experienced instructors and younger aircrew with more retainability -- all of whom are experienced combat aviators -- to not only meet the intent of the WSEP, but also to ensure the squadron is able to retain the experience and lessons learned by the aircrew for as long as possible.
"It was definitely a rush," said Maj. David Bennett, 37th BS B-1 pilot. "It all went as planned and briefed, but you always get that nervous energy when you are doing something as big as this for the first time. We've simulated employing these weapons since receiving the Block E software upgrade, but it is definitely one of the first times we've employed it live, so it's quite an honor."
The last time the Tigers fired an actual JASSM was in 2006. Operational squadrons aren't provided a training allocation of the JASSM due to their cost and limited numbers.
"The vast majority of B-1 aircrews will go their entire career without shooting an actual AGM-158. That said, we regularly train on AGM-158 employment in SIM mode on the aircraft as well as in the WST (B-1 simulator)," Mead added. "Every lesson we learn from valuable, realistic scenarios provided during exercises like Combat Hammer is shared with every aviator in the B-1 community to ensure they are prepared for any type of situation they may face in combat."
In addition to providing valuable training for B-1 aircrews and ensuring the munitions operated correctly, Combat Hammer provided base munitions specialists the chance to work with the JASSM and aircraft maintainers the opportunity to hone their ability to prepare bombers and load munitions.
"Our Airmen assisted Lockheed-Martin engineers while they performed pre-flight inspections on the JASSM telemetry kit and the flight termination system, supported the assembly of the test munitions, assisted with munitions preparation before the WSEP evaluators arrived at Ellsworth, and delivered the munitions to the flightline," said Lt. Col. Carlos Dalmau, 28th MUNS commander. "The evaluators inspected the munitions to ensure they were correctly assembled and evaluated each step of the process."
Dalmau added the information isn't gathered to better prepare his Airmen for assembling munitions, but to protect forces on the ground by improving the accuracy and reliability of the weapon.
More than 60 Airmen from the 28th AMXS worked tirelessly to ensure the aircraft were ready for the live fire exercise, refueling three aircraft with more than one million pounds of fuel (149,253 gallons), providing 84 hours of pre- and post-flight inspections, conducting nearly 95 hours of unscheduled maintenance and uploading the munitions.
"Our crew chiefs, weapons loaders and specialists readied the aircraft five hours prior to launch, enabling effortless aircrew pre-flights, with zero maintenance late takeoffs," said Lt. Col. Brian Sitler, 28th AMXS commander. "Our Airmen were evaluated during the aircraft preparation and weapons loading procedures to ensure each person was qualified to perform the required tasks, and did each step correctly."
Sitler added that his Airmen are proud to be part of the exercise, and that the skills gained handling the live weapons will further build on their experiences gained while deployed.
According to Maj. Michael Ballard, 86th FWS lead bomber evaluator for Combat Hammer, the data gathered during the live weapons drops is not only crucial to maintaining the long term effectiveness of the American arsenal, but is immediately applicable to current and future conflicts around the world. acc.af.mil | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Sam 29 Oct 2011 - 20:09 | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Lun 31 Oct 2011 - 10:40 | |
| - Citation :
Pilots await go-ahead for F-35 flight ops
Pilots at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., are eagerly awaiting the go-ahead to fly their new F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters.
There are currently four Air Force conventional takeoff F-35As at the seaside base that are being used for validating technical data for the aircraft, said Col. Andrew Toth, who commands of the 33rd Fighter Wing.
“That’s helping us do preparations in order to get us flying later this fall,” Toth said.
The base’s pilots are waiting for a military flight release to begin flight operations on their new mount.
“We expect that flight release to come no earlier than the end of October,” he said. The month ends on Monday.
Around the same time, in the latter half of November and early December, new Marine Corps F-35B short-takeoff, vertical-landing, or STOVL, jets will begin to arrive at the base, Toth said.
The Air Force leads a triservice command that will oversee aircraft and entire squadrons from the Navy and Marine Corps.
Currently, Eglin has two lead instructor pilots who are qualified to fly and teach in the F-35: Marine Maj. Joseph Bachmann and Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Smith. The two veteran test pilots recently completed a set of “maturity tests” at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., which mimicked the initial pilot syllabus at Eglin, in order to make sure the jets are ready for instructor pilots and students to begin training.
Once the pilots at Eglin receive their flight clearance, Smith and Bachmann will clear the rest of the unit’s instructor pilots, including Toth, to fly and instruct in the new jet.
The first class they will teach will be part of an operational utility evaluation, which will validate the training course, Toth said.
“It’s just to make sure our training system is in place, up and running, and can effectively produce pilots in a transition-type course,” he said.
Once the unit completes the evaluation course, Air Education and Training Command will declare the unit ready for training.
The initial class will consist of two pilots from the 33rd Fighter Wing and two operational test pilots who will go on to fly at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., with the Joint Operational Test Team. The start date is “event driven,” Toth said, but he expects the flying portion of the evaluation course to start in the “very, very early spring.”
The initial transition course, which will teach basic airmanship in the jet, will last 12 weeks: six weeks of academics followed by 120 hours of classes, 14 simulator flights and six real flights, Toth said.
“That’s what this first course is, it’s the fundamentals of the airplane and basic flying: take off, land, navigation, those sorts of things,” Toth said. “All of the advanced mission stuff comes as we grow and develop.”
One major change from previous types is that the academics are conducted electronically on laptoplike devices, said Marine Col. Arthur Tomassetti, vice commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing.
The pilots will initially have a limited flight envelope — 450 knots and 5 Gs — but that’s more than enough for the first group of aviators, Toth said.
“Even that 5 G limit is more than what we’d use on a given day,” he said.
Eglin’s F-35s will initially fly under visual flight rules; instrument flying will be introduced around the middle of next year. As more capabilities are released, the syllabus will be updated to accommodate new functions, Toth said.
Even the F-35B aircraft will operate in their conventional mode for now, deferring training for STOVL mode until the F-35B model receives its flight release for that regime, Tomassetti said.
“It should be pretty easy for us to just take those folks and cycle them through those training events that were deferred,” he said.
The focus right now is simply to build up a cadre of instructor pilots, Toth said. The training demand will grow rapidly in the near future.
Currently, the base has 35 pilots from three services who it must train to be F-35 instructor pilots, Tomassetti said. Already the Marines have about a dozen pilots at the base, he said. There about 17 Air Force pilots and six Navy pilots, Toth said.
For the Marine pilots transitioning from the AV-8B Harrier to the F-35B, the biggest change will be that instead of practicing takeoffs and landings, the majority of their time will be spent flying tactical training sorties, said Tomassetti, a veteran Harrier aviator and the original test pilot for the X-35B prototype. That would put the Marine STOVL force on the same footing as other tactical fighters.
But what will truly make the F-35 different from a macro perspective is that, as it becomes operational, the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps will have early opportunities to share expertise and concepts.
“The ability for our pilots to be in the squadron and have that cross-flow between the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force is extremely important,” Toth said. airforcetimes | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mar 1 Nov 2011 - 13:38 | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Jeu 3 Nov 2011 - 13:28 | |
| - Citation :
- U.S. Air Force modernization takes B-2 to North Pole
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. | Taking off from the flightline here Oct. 27, a B-2 Spirit travelled to the top of the world and back again on a mission to test the aircraft's hardware and software upgrades, endurance and performance at extremely high latitudes.
The more than 18-hour mission to the North Pole and back to Edwards AFB consisted of developmental and operational test points to prove that the B-2's software upgrade works well and is able to operate anywhere in the world.
Although the B-2 has been to the North Pole in simulated tests, this is the first time the aircraft has physically travelled there, making this a milestone in B-2 testing.
"A goal of the test force is to prevent a situation where an aircraft experiences an anomaly with a new system for the first time in an operational mission," said Lt. Col. Hans Miller, the 419th Flight Test Squadron commander. "This flight to the North Pole could reveal data and lessons that were not seen in a lab or simulated environment."
"This is the first time the B-2 has operated at this extreme of a latitude before and (I believe) the longest flight so far for this hardware and this software," said Maj. Michael Deaver, the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron's B-2 Extremely High Frequency Test director. "Being a global bomber, it may be required to operate at extreme latitudes, if not where the target is, but possibly for the flight path it'll take to get there."
The mission worked to verify that the software upgrades -- which include new communication and new navigation equipment -- still allows the B-2 to operate effectively anywhere in the world.
"The main objective of this mission is to look at how the software and hardware works over a long duration (of time)," said 1st Lt. Derek Moore, a 419th Flight Test Squadron test conductor. "We try to push the limits of the aircraft and come back and make sure that operationally it can still meet objectives."
The operational portion of this mission consisted of releasing four unguided BDU-38 bombs over the Precision Impact Range Area at Edwards AFB after more than 18 hours of flight. According to Deaver, one of the biggest objectives was to make sure that the aircraft knew where it was and that it could get to a weapons release point.
To get to that point, extensive coordination throughout the 419th FLTS, Bomber Combined Task Force and other Edwards AFB assets, as well as outside support including the Department of State, was necessary for a successful mission.
"Support from the Air Force Flight Test Center allowed us to use the Speckled Trout (412th Flight Test Squadron) as a resource, which served as an airborne control room and communication hub," said Jeremiah Farinella, a 419th FLTS test conductor and operations engineer. "That allowed us to troubleshoot some issues that we saw when we were airborne and provided us communication back to Edwards, which was essential to our success and allowed the pilots to stay focused on the mission."
Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., provided a KC-135 tanker aircraft for aerial refueling support. The tanker refueled the B-2 over Alberta, Canada, to ensure that the B-2 could complete the endurance portion of the mission to the North Pole and then back to Edwards, said Farinella.
The B-2 was further supported with fuel from a second KC-135 from Edwards AFB in the R-2508 Isabella Aerial Refueling Track, which helped ensure that the B-2 could complete the operational portion of the Polar mission.
"We had an incredible team that went with us, lessened our workload greatly, and contributed to the fact that we were able to get up there and back safely," said Maj. Andrew Murphy, a 419th FLTS B-2 experimental test pilot. "(The team) really lowered the risk of the mission for us."
Flight testing helps find problems early on so that they can be fixed before aircraft end up in the field, continued Murphy.
"The warfighter needs to know where they can and can't go," said Murphy. "Essentially, we've proven the fact that they can get up into those (high) latitudes safely and effectively. That previously was a question mark."
"The trained team of aircrew, engineers, technicians, (and) program managers from government and the contractor will take data from the flight to sustain the capability of the B-2 in all regions of the globe," said Miller.
"Given that we are developmental test, we have an early stake at finding deficiencies," said Cheryl Caluya, a 775th Test Squadron EHF project engineer. "We're making sure that the B-2 is still capable of what it could do yesterday."
At Edwards AFB, ensuring that the B-2 maintains its legacy capabilities contributes to the greater Air Force mission.
"It's a very good cross-check to ensure that we maintain global vigilance and can strike any target in the world at any time, providing overall global combat power," Farinella said. defpro | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Jeu 3 Nov 2011 - 16:30 | |
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- U.S. open to selling F-35 jet fighters to India
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/us-open-to-selling-f35-jet-fighters-to-india/885471.html _________________  "Les belles idées n'ont pas d'âge, elles ont seulement de l'avenir" | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Jeu 3 Nov 2011 - 16:33 | |
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- U.S. open to selling F-35 jet fighters to India
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/us-open-to-selling-f35-jet-fighters-to-india/885471.html F35 ou comment tuer l'industrie aéronautique de défense européenne  _________________ Sois généreux avec nous, Ô toi Dieu et donne nous la Victoire  | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Ven 4 Nov 2011 - 10:47 | |
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U.S. Air Force Officially Designates Aircraft Flying Battlefield Airborne Communications Node System
Northrop Grumman Also Receives $43 Million Contract Extension for Operations and Maintenance
| SAN DIEGO, Nov. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The two different aircraft platforms that fly the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system, developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC), have been officially designated by the U.S. Air Force as the E-11A and the EQ-4B.
The Bombardier Global Express BD-700 received the new E-11A designation, reflecting BACN's special electronic mission role. The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk RQ-4Bs modified to host the BACN system have been re-designated as EQ-4Bs.
On Sept. 21, the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $43 million, five-month contract extension to operate, support and maintain two E-11A aircraft and to operate and maintain the BACN payload.
BACN is a high-altitude, airborne communications gateway system that maintains operational communications support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The persistent connectivity BACN provides improves situational awareness and enables better coordination between forward-edge warfighters and commanders.
"This new designation of the manned and unmanned BACN aircraft reflects a unique aircraft mix that provides theater commanders complimentary capabilities to support the BACN missions," said Claude Hashem, vice president and general manager of the company's Network Communications Systems business at Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector. "The E-11A business jets provide rapid tactical deployment options, while the EQ-4B unmanned systems provide long endurance and unsurpassed persistence capabilities."
Since the system was first deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2008, BACN has flown more than 25,000 operational hours in over 2,500 missions and delivered a mission availability rate of 98 percent.
Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the development, fielding and maintenance of the BACN system. The company was awarded the first BACN contract in April 2005 by the Air Force Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
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www.northropgrumman.com - Citation :
U.S. Air Force To Upgrade 300 F-16s
The U.S. Air Force will upgrade between 300 and 350 F-16C Block 40 and 50 fighters with new avionics and increased airframe life, a three-star general said before Congress.
Testifying Nov. 2, Lt. Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, Air Force deputy chief for operations, plans and requirements, also said the service doesn't have enough trained UAV pilots, and that the U-2 isn't quite ready for retirement.
"You hear an announcement fairly quickly from the United States Air Force, we're going to [service life extension program (SLEP)] and avionics modernize probably in the vicinity 300 to 350 F-16s,".
That number could climb to 600 aircraft, Carlisle said, but it is not likely the Air Force will have to upgrade so many jets.
The modernized jets will be crucial to maintaining the Air National Guard (ANG) and Air Force Reserve fighter force. It will also help maintain the Air Force's dwindling arsenal of tactical fighters before the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) becomes operational.
Although the service doesn't yet know when the F-35 will become operational, the aircraft will likely miss the current projected date of 2016. The aircraft will likely become fully operational in 2018, Carlisle said, but the service is not naming an official date until the new master schedule is complete.
There is money in fiscal 2012 budget to develop a modernization program for the F-16, Carlisle said. The Air Force will start developing the avionics modernization plan soon, he said.
Maj. Gen. Jay Lindell, Air Force director of global power programs, said the airframe life of the F-16 would be increased from 8,000 to "at least" 10,000 hours. That would afford the Air Force eight more years of operations using the old aircraft, he said.
"We're looking at capability through the next decade, which would be through 2030," Lindell said.
Each plane would cost $9.4 million, he said, so the Air Force wants to get its money's worth.
The scope of the modernization plan for the F-16 fleet and the fielding of the stealthy new F-35 depends on the forthcoming integrated master schedule for the new jet, Carlisle said. The F-35 will be fielded to ANG units, starting with the Vermont ANG, he said.
With the upgrades, the F-16 could be serving for decades to come.
The Navy and Marine Corps are also working on extending the life of 150 of their F/A-18 Hornets, said Marine Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the U.S. Marine Corps' deputy commandant for aviation. The upgraded F/A-18s are slated to hold the sea services over until the F-35 becomes operational.
Pilots for UAVs
In his testimony, Carlisle said the Air Force doesn't have enough pilots for its growing fleet of drones. He said the service was on its sixth surge for providing Predator and Reaper combat air patrols (CAPs). But to attain the required 60 CAPs, the Air Force has had to press instructor pilots into active service and shut down its elite Weapons School course for the unmanned planes, he said.
"Our issue today is our ability to train our sensor operators and pilots," Carlisle said.
The Air Force will likely have to ratchet down the number of CAPs to reconstitute its ability to train and field new unmanned aircraft pilots, he said. The community has grown quickly; it is now the single largest group of aviators in the service.
Reconstituting the training force and rebuilding the expertise at the Weapons School will take about a year, Carlisle said. Once the Air Force can rebuild its schoolhouses, the Air Force can get back on track to fielding 65 CAPs as required by the forces deployed in combat.
No Retirement for U-2
Of the Air Force's U-2 spy planes, Carlisle said the Air Force won't be retiring them until a technical shortcoming with the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned aircraft is resolved.
Although the Air Force plans to replace the venerable U-2 with the new unmanned aircraft, the Global Hawk's sensors are still not capable of measuring up to the standards set by the five-decade old Dragon Lady.
"The Global Hawk, the RQ-4, will be the replacement," Carlisle said. "It is not there yet. The sensors suite is not there. It cannot match what the U-2 does."
There is a high-altitude transition team, but the U-2 will be maintained until the Global Hawk can match the older plane. With the sensors on the Block 40 Global Hawk, the unmanned plane will "start to get close to that," Carlisle said.
The U-2 will be around through 2014 and 2015, but the Global Hawk should be able to start matching its capabilities by then, he said. defensenews | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Dim 6 Nov 2011 - 18:12 | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mar 8 Nov 2011 - 15:09 | |
| - Citation :
- Lockheed Martin to Modernize 29 U.S. Air Force Early Warning Long-Range Surveillance Radars
AN/FPS-117 early warning long-range surveillance radar. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
18:01 GMT, November 7, 2011 SYRACUSE, N.Y. | The U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin $46.8 million in contract options to begin modernizing 29 long-range radars which provide advanced warning and air traffic control surveillance over North America's airspace.
Under initial options of the Essential Parts Replacement Program (EPRP) contract, Lockheed Martin will complete engineering planning and begin to upgrade 29 geographically disbursed AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radars. Expected follow-on contract options will replace and update all the radars' signal and data processors to current commercial technology standards, cost effectively extending their operational lives thru 2025.
These FPS-117 radars were originally installed by Lockheed Martin in the early 1980s as part of the Seek Igloo North Warning program. The company has provided several technology upgrades since then.
"Our open architecture approach to L-Band radars provides commonality in supporting and sustaining a fleet of more than 175 long-range radars operational around the world," said Frank Mekker, EPRP program manager for Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems & Sensors business. "Signal processing upgrades like EPRP are leveraged across this fleet, including the TPS-59, FPS-117, TPS-77, and even our Three Dimensional Expeditionary Long Range Radar (3DELRR), to provide significant lifecycle cost savings for our customers."
In recent years, Lockheed Martin has successfully completed similar radar modernizations at sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, Romania and Kuwait.
Under the EPRP contract, Lockheed Martin will modernize 15 radars in Alaska, 11 in Canada, and one each in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Utah, which are part of the Air Force's Atmospheric Early Warning System, by 2014. The contract also includes replacement of the radar site's secondary surveillance radar, used for air traffic control purposes. The EPRP acquisition is being led by the Ogden Air Logistics Center of the Air Force Material Command at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
The NATO-certified AN/FPS-117 radar is the world's most widely used three-dimensional, solid-state radar. Today, FPS-117 and TPS-77, a transportable version of the 117, radar systems are operational in 25 countries. Capable of operating completely unmanned, many have performed for years in remote, inhospitable areas and in a wide range of operational environments.
Lockheed Martin's FPS-117 L-band radar provides continuous high-quality surveillance on air targets at ranges out to 250 miles. The radar offers superior performance even in high clutter environments thanks to its solid-state design and L-band operation. The AN/FPS-117's advanced pencil beam architecture provides exceptional detection and tracking, as well as outstanding adaptability to changing environmental conditions.
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mar 15 Nov 2011 - 11:58 | |
| - Citation :
Boeing 30,000-Pound Bunker Buster Bomb Now Ready for Combat
(Bloomberg) -- The Air Force has taken delivery from Boeing Co. of a new 30,000-pound bomb capable of penetrating deeply buried targets.
The Air Force Global Strike Command started receiving the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed for the B-2 stealth bomber, in September with additional bombs expected last month, Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jack Miller said in a short statement to Bloomberg News.
The deliveries "will meet requirements for the current operational need," he said.
Command head Lieutenant General James Kowalski told the annual Air Force Association conference in September the command "completed integration" of the bunker-buster bomb with the B- 2, "giving the war-fighter increased capability against hardened and deeply buried targets."
The bomb would be the U.S. military's largest conventional penetrator. It's six times bigger than the 5,000-pound bunker buster that the Air Force now uses to attack deeply buried nuclear, biological or chemical sites.
Chicago-based Boeing is manufacturing the bomb, which was successfully demonstrated in March 2007.
The Air Force in 2009 said Boeing might build as many as 16 of the munitions. Spokesman Miller today had no details on how many the Air Force plans to buy. Boeing in August received a $32 million contract that included eight munitions.... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/11/14/bloomberg_articlesLUO5DT0D9L35.DTL | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mar 22 Nov 2011 - 12:05 | |
| - Citation :
C-27J may be on chopping block
The Air Force wants to cut the C-27J cargo plane program to save money.
An internal Air Force recommendation to scrap the C-27J program in its yet-to-be-finalized 2013 budget draft has touched a nerve within the Army, which once ran the program, and the Air National Guard, which now operates the twin-turboprop planes.
In the coming weeks, the Deputy’s Management Action Group, or DMAG, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, will direct the Air Force to fund the 38-aircraft program of record or cancel it, according to two defense officials with knowledge of the plans. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal budget decisions.
The decision not to continue the program in 2013 is part of a Pentagon effort to cut more than $450 billion in planned spending over the next decade.
If the program is canceled, it is unclear what would happen to the aircraft now being flown in combat by the Air National Guard.
The C-27J program — dubbed the Joint Cargo Aircraft — is now run by the Air Force. The planes are flown by the Air National Guard to deliver critical supplies to troops on the battlefield as needed.
Historically, the Army has flown these missions with the C-23 Sherpa, a Reagan-era aircraft that is reaching the end of its service life. The Army selected the C-27J in 2007. The Pentagon’s original plan called for buying 78 aircraft — 54 for the Army, 24 for the Air Force.
But in 2009, the Defense Department shifted the program to the Air Force, which reduced the planned buy to 38 aircraft. At the time, the Air Force committed to flying the Army direct-support mission. Twenty-one aircraft have been purchased.
The shift was met with skepticism within the Army, where many officials voiced worry that the Air Force would kill the program, much like it did in the 1960s when it took over the Army’s fixed-wing C-7 Caribou program.
“The impact of this decision was bad and immediate,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting and Army Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright, then chair and vice chair of the National Guard Association of the United States, wrote in October 2009.
“Remote bases and outposts found themselves continually running short of supplies because the Air Force couldn’t or wouldn’t fly to the same locations that Army aviators routinely supported with the C-7,” they wrote. “Eventually, the Air Force returned the Caribous and their mission back to the Army.”
During the past three weeks, senior Air Force officials have been hinting at the pending C-27J program termination, defense and industry officials said.
During recent congressional testimony, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and Gen. Philip Breedlove, the air service’s vice chief, pledged to support the Army’s direct support mission with either C-27Js or C-130s, built by Lockheed Martin.
“If that mission is to be done with C-27s or C-130s is a decision that is still pending and is a part of this ongoing budget review,” Breedlove said at an Oct. 27 House Armed Services readiness subcommittee hearing. “But that will be worked out in the next few months.”
Breedlove would not specifically address the aircraft in question, but Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, said his service “is very committed to the C-27.”
“We feel it fills a gap,” he said.
Chiarelli also said the aircraft “provides a tremendous capability for homeland defense, and that is one of the things that was critical about the C-27 and its ability to get into airfields here in the United States that other aircraft can’t get into in the event of homeland defense kinds of missions.”
Schwartz said at a Nov. 2 House Armed Services Committee hearing that any decisions relating to the program’s future would be tied to the DoD-wide comprehensive review that will inform budget cuts across the next 10 years. airforcetimes | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mer 23 Nov 2011 - 16:22 | |
| - Citation :
-
Donley Vows To Protect F-35, KC-46, Bomber
| | 
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Air Force will fight to protect key programs and capabilities from the drastic defense budget cuts being prepared by the congressional “super committee.”
Although the scale of these cuts is yet to be revealed, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley outlined nine key areas where core missions and capabilities will be protected from wholesale reductions. Speaking at the Air Force Association Global Warfare Symposium here, Donley lists the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, KC-46A tanker and “long-range strike family of systems, including the new bomber,” as vital to the Air Force’s goals of sustaining ongoing modernization and future air superiority.
Other key areas include continued development of unmanned air systems and related “post-9/11 improvements,” maintenance of overseas forward presence, and modification of space systems for improved communications and missile warning. Donley also confirmed that maintaining the nuclear triad is a key target, as is continuing Air Force support of U.S. Special Forces Command.
Other priorities include protecting funding for improved cyberwarfare capability, maintaining an Air Force presence in every U.S. state and preserving the force’s “organic depot maintenance capability.”
Donley says “we will oppose reductions that will cause irreparable harm. A lot of work lies ahead before we get strategic clarity in the environment in which we live. But we’re looking 10 years out and although we face difficult choices, I’m confident we can protect key capabilities.”
The Air Force will inevitably be much smaller as a result of the cuts, no matter what, Donley says, but “first and foremost we will continue to support our military personnel and their families. But with 35 to 40 percent of the budget committed to personnel costs, everything needs to be on the table.”
The Air Force, meanwhile, has chosen to drop Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 from the Light Air Support (LAS) competition, in which it was vying with Embraer’s Super Tucano. The service informed the company in a letter.
“The letter provides no basis for the exclusion,” the company said in a statement. “We are both confounded and troubled by this decision, as we have been working closely with the Air Force for two years and . . . have invested more than $100 million preparing to meet the Air Force’s specific requirements.” The company has requested a debriefing from the Air Force.
“The Air Force continues to be in close contact with all offerors of the LAS competition,” service spokesperson Jennifer Cassidy tells Aviation Week. “Due to the ongoing source selection, we cannot comment on the status of any of the proposals. We anticipate awarding the contract [in] late November/early December. We will have more information once all offerors have been debriefed following contract award.”
Boeing Concept
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aviationweek | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mer 30 Nov 2011 - 12:13 | |
| Drone Pilots: The Future Of Aerial Warfare- Spoiler:
 Enlarge Ethan Miller/Getty Images Unmanned aerial vehicles, like this Predator (shown here in 2009 during training at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev.), make up the fastest growing segment of the U.S. Air Force.  Ethan Miller/Getty Images Unmanned aerial vehicles, like this Predator (shown here in 2009 during training at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev.), make up the fastest growing segment of the U.S. Air Force. text size [url=https://far-maroc.forumpro.fr/javascript: void();]A[/url] [url=https://far-maroc.forumpro.fr/javascript: void();]A[/url] [url=https://far-maroc.forumpro.fr/javascript: void();]A[/url] November 29, 2011 To understand how important remotely piloted aircraft are to the U.S. military, consider this: The U.S. Air Force says this year it will train more drone pilots than fighter and bomber pilots combined. And that's changing the nature of aerial warfare — and the pilots who wage it. Steve, a lieutenant colonel, grew up wanting to be in the Air Force. And that meant one thing: wanting to be a pilot. To him, flying is physical: the pull of gravity, the sounds inside the cockpit. "You hear those things, you feel those things, and you react to them as you need to," he says. Steve joined the Air Force in 1997 and started out flying F-15s. But he quickly started to see signs that his world was changing. When he was given a chance to fly drones, he took it. Now, he is at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico helping the Air Force build a different kind of pilot. The biggest training center of its kind in the United States, Holloman has become the primary training ground for pilots who fly unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. There, pilots learn to fly the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper, two of the military's most important weapons systems. These remotely controlled planes can hover in the air 24 hours at a time, collecting intelligence or carrying out a strike in Afghanistan.  Enlarge Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images One of the reasons for the shift to unmanned aircraft has been fighter jet budget cuts. Here, a pilot climbs into a U.S. F-16 at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on Nov. 1.  Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images One of the reasons for the shift to unmanned aircraft has been fighter jet budget cuts. Here, a pilot climbs into a U.S. F-16 at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on Nov. 1. But the pilots are thousands of miles away, sitting in front of a bank of computer screens. And that distance, which is the strength of the program, has also created unique challenges. Training For Remote WarfareThe student pilots at Holloman begin their training in simulator bays — small rooms jam-packed with computer processors and monitors. It's there that they first get their hands on the remote controls. At their workstations, the student pilot sits on the left, the sensor operator — the person who monitors the aircraft and weapons systems — on the right. An instructor loads in images of Afghanistan and gives the assignment: The pilots, sitting in New Mexico, are to fly a drone over Afghanistan, providing an escort for Humvees. "They're going to scan the route ... that they're supposed to travel on and see if there's any threats to that convoy," an instructor named Matt explains. Matt, like Steve and every other instructor and student at Holloman Air Force Base, are identified only by rank and first name to help protect their identity because of the "sensitive nature" of the remotely piloted aircraft mission, the Air Force says. The training program at Holloman started in 2009. Slowly, service members started volunteering to fly the Predator drone. There are two big reasons for the shift. The first was the Sept. 11 attacks: America's borderless war on al-Qaida catapulted drone technology onto the front lines. The second reason has been budget cuts: Air Force fighter pilots started to see their squadrons disappear. That's what happened to another lieutenant colonel named Mike. Until a year ago, he was an F-15 pilot. Now, he's also an instructor at Holloman. "I felt with the F-15 drawdown that that community was closing up, and there'd be more opportunity but also a chance to be part of the fastest growing part of the Air Force," Mike says.  Enlarge Ethan Miller/Getty Images Mechanics prepare an MQ-9 Reaper for a training flight, Aug. 8, 2007, at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev.  Ethan Miller/Getty Images Mechanics prepare an MQ-9 Reaper for a training flight, Aug. 8, 2007, at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev. Now, the challenge for Mike, Steve and other instructors at Holloman is to convince students that when they're operating drones, they are flying real airplanes. A Cultural Divide
After the student pilots have mastered the simulator, they move on to ground control stations out on the tarmac. From these metal rectangular storage containers, the student pilots control Predators and Reapers out on test runs. A shift can go for hours, until another team comes to relieve them. Further out on the flight line sits one of the test planes, the MQ-9 Reaper. Training can be the only time drone pilots actually see the planes they'll fly, says Steve, the instructor. "You normally just walk out to the container and you sit down and you fly, but you don't actually see this, and you're physically dislocated from where it's at," he says. Until recently, most drone operators were regular Air Force pilots. Now, the service is reaching out to people who've never even flown before. And that has caused friction within the Air Force as it tries to redefine what it means to be a pilot. "There's a cultural divide," says Kelly, a 46-year-old Air Force reservist from Texas who is now a student at Holloman. Kelly grew up wanting to be a fighter pilot, but his vision is not good enough for that job. But he can fly drones. And he says that irks fighter pilots who see themselves at the top of the Air Force pyramid. "Part of it is an ego ... I hate to say an ego trip, but it is," he says. The Air Force has been working to bridge the divide between these two groups of fliers. First off, drone operators are called pilots, and they wear the same green flight suits as fighter pilots, even though they never get in a plane. Their operating stations look like dashboards in a cockpit. But all of that has made tensions worse. Aaron is another Holloman student. He used to fix military communications equipment; now he's training to operate drones. "There's still a lot of animosity. You see people in a conventional aircrew that wonder why we get to wear the flight suits even though we don't leave the ground, why do we need flight physicals, why do we get incentive pay — stuff like that," he says. Distance Between Pilot And PlaneSteve and Mike, the former fighter pilots turned drone instructors, say the Air Force is going through a cultural change. It all goes back to the distance drones create — between the pilot and his plane. It's something Steve is still trying to make sense of for himself. "That distance and that separation is there that prevents you from feeling that piece of the airplane, or maybe being as one with the airplane. But what it also does is take the risk out of you flying the airplane, so you don't have to worry about being shot down," he says. So the very thing that protects these pilots — not being in the cockpit — is what makes them wonder if they're really pilots. Outside, an F-22 flies overhead — a plane with a fighter pilot in the cockpit. Fighter jets do fly out of Holloman. It helps remind new pilots like Kelly how they are supposed to think of themselves when they're flying a drone. "I felt like I was actually flying an airplane. I mean, I actually am flying an airplane," he says. At least that's what he has to tell himself each time he sits at a computer, operating a plane thousands of miles away that he has never seen.
www.npr.org/2011 | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Jeu 1 Déc 2011 - 11:51 | |
| - Citation :
Boeing Receives $20 Million Contract to Upgrade F-15C Trainers
Published November 29, 2011 | By Rob Vogelaar
Cutting-edge visual system will provide 360 degrees of immersive training
ST. LOUIS, Nov. 29, 2011 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] received a $20 million contract in September from the U.S. Air Force to upgrade the visual systems in the F-15C Mission Training Centers. Twelve MTCs, located at Langley Air Force Base, Va., Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom, and Kadena Air Base, Japan, will be upgraded with Boeing’s Constant Resolution Visual System (CRVS).
CRVS is the centerpiece of a complete training suite that provides 360 degrees of immersive training, with a significantly lower cost than previous visual systems. By using standard, off-the-shelf projectors, the system is able to take advantage of the rapidly improving technology emerging in the commercial marketplace.
“A key feature of the CRVS is the ability to train with the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System and night vision goggles, both of which will be used in the F-15C MTC,” said Mark McGraw, Boeing vice president for Training Systems & Services.
The Boeing CRVS reduces total system life cycle cost by minimizing the number of projectors by one-third to one-half the number of projectors used in competing systems. The system is compatible with a full array of fast jet and rotary wing cockpits.
“CRVS is unique because it is the only system to provide constant resolution throughout the field of view,” added McGraw. “It eliminates a key problem with other systems, where the visibility of targets varies depending on where the pilot looks. Our design provides increased performance, yet is simple in concept.”
Installation of the F-15C visual systems will begin in October 2012 and will be completed by January 2013, allowing training to start by the end of that month.
Source: Boeing
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Ven 2 Déc 2011 - 13:56 | |
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Lun 5 Déc 2011 - 10:31 | |
| - Citation :
Elbit Systems wins $38.5 mln U.S. Air Force contract
Dec 4 (Reuters) - Israeli defence electronics firm Elbit Systems said on Sunday its U.S. subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, won a five-year contract worth up to $38.5 million from the Defense Logistics Agency-Ogden.
The contract is for the upgrade of U.S. Air Force F-16 head-up displays (HUD), Elbit Systems said.
The wide angle conventional HUD takes critical flight and mission data that is normally displayed inside the cockpit on an instrument panel and projects that information on a transparent surface directly in front of the pilot, allowing for eyes out of the cockpit and improved situational awareness.
The new design has fewer components, reducing power consumption and extending the average time between failures.
"For the F-16 HUD, we partnered with the U.S. Air Force to develop a solution which significantly reduces life cycle cost," Elbit Systems of America President and CEO Raanan Horowitz said. "This is especially important considering the budget pressures faced these days by the U.S. military."
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mar 6 Déc 2011 - 10:55 | |
| - Citation :
Northrop Grumman to Provide Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulator for the U.S. Air Force E-3 AWACS
| BUFFALO, N.Y., Dec. 5, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract to provide a Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulator (CEESIM) system to support maintenance of the U.S. Air Force E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) Electronic Support Measures Operational Computer Program software.
The contract was awarded by Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA). Northrop Grumman will deliver the CEESIM to Tinker Air Force Base Avionics Integration Support Facility (AISF), located in Oklahoma City, Okla.
The CEESIM provides navigation and pulse data generated from customized scenarios. It enables ASIF software engineers to model a real-world environment and to test software changes by injecting pulses into the avionics hardware.
"The flexibility of the AWACS CEESIM system allows for adaptation to a wide variety of both system-under-test and existing laboratory external control interfaces," said Joe Downie, president of Northrop Grumman's Amherst Systems business unit. "This flexibility provides a cost-effective transition from the existing simulator to a state-of-the-art, supportable, modern simulator capability, in support of fifth-generation electronic warfare systems."
The AWACS CEESIM system will replace an Advanced Multiple Environment Simulator (AMES) system that has been operating at Tinker Air Force Base for 14 years. The CEESIM replacement unit allows automatic conversion of legacy AMES emitter files to CEESIM emitter files for seamless reuse of AISF threat data and test scenarios. The simulator also demonstrates the CEESIM versatility allowing for direct stimulation using radio frequency, intermediate frequency and digital outputs.
DMEA is a Department of Defense applied engineering facility charged with keeping microelectronics components in our military systems operational and technologically current. DMEA works in cooperation with both defense prime contractors and the commercial semiconductor industry to ensure that the full range of military systems, developed over 40 years, are supportable and operationally ready to perform their mission.
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Mer 7 Déc 2011 - 12:24 | |
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- USAF committed to replace AMRAAM and HARM with new missile
Twenty years after entering service, the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM is still one of the most feared weapons in air warfare, yet it may also be among the most endangered.
China and Russia are developing new air-to-air missiles with possibly longer ranges, adding to the overall threat posed since 2010 by the appearance of the Sukhoi T-50 and Chengdu J-20 prototype stealth fighters.
Moreover, a new generation of surface-to-air missile systems are extending their reach, making a strike by fighters armed with anti-radiation missiles - the 27-year-old Raytheon AGM-88 HARM - an ever more perilous mission for the air crews.
 ©Raytheon
Twenty years ago the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM entered service. It's still one of the most feared weapons in air warfare, and perhaps the most endangered
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The US Air Force has already decided that the AIM-120 and the AGM-88 must be replaced with a new weapon - now called the next-generation missile (NGM). "Doing nothing is not a viable option," according to Air Combat Command, which submitted written responses to questions by Flight International. "The operational risks would be unacceptable."
But the cost of the new acquisition programme will not come cheap. The AIM-120 alone has cost US taxpayers more than $20.4 billion. In 2008, the Charles Rivers Associates consultancy estimated that the cost to develop and produce a next-generation air-to-air missile would be at least $15 billion.
Air-to-air combat also may seem to be an unlikely area to attract investment funding. In the first nine months of this year, the USAF released 3,836 weapons on targets in Afghanistan. None of them were AIM-120s or AGM-88s. Raytheon has delivered more than 16,000 AIM-120s to the USAF and US Navy since 1991, but fewer than a dozen have been fired in anger in more than two decades.
BUDGET CUTS
The Department of Defense, meanwhile, is facing budget cuts of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. It may not be enough to justify investing in new capabilities on their merits alone. To launch a new programme, it may be necessary to take money away from other accounts.
Also not helping the USAF's case for the NGM is the absence of any public support from the USN. In the late-1970s the two services partnered to develop the "launch and leave" missile that became the AIM-120, but have chosen to take separate paths on a replacement.
While the USAF pursues a single new weapon to replace the AIM-120 and AGM-88, the USN has devoted its resources to developing the Alliant Techsystems (ATK) AGM-88E AARGM for the air-to-ground mission and buying more AIM-120s for the air-to-air mission.
The USAF also is constrained from making its best case for the NGM in public. Most capabilities of air-to-air missiles, including their precise speed and range, are considered secret. USAF officials declined requests for interviews for this article, but the ACC, which is developing the requirements for the NGM, agreed to answer questions in writing.
MEET THE ADVANCES
The ACC did not deny the near-absence of air combat over the past two decades, but the officials argued this is irrelevant.
"Lack of recent [air-to-air] engagements does not equate to a lack of an advanced [air-to-air] threat," the ACC said. "Continued advances in threat aircraft, sensors, jamming, and Air Defense technologies require advances in US weapons. For the foreseeable future, the US must continue to meet those advances in order to assure air superiority."
Two of the "advances" the USAF may meet some day are the Chinese PL-21 and the Russian RVV-BD air-to-air missiles, said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Both countries do not trail far behind the radar-guided capability of the AIM-120 missile. Russia has fielded the RVV-AE, or R-77 missile, and China has kept pace with the PL-12. With the emergence of the possibly ramjet powered PL-21 and rocket-powered RVV-BD missiles, China and Russia appear poised to meet or even surpass the range and performance of the AIM-120D.
"The US was way, way ahead in fighter design," said Rebecca Grant, director of the Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies, the independent research organisation founded by the US's Air Force Association.
"But the gap in missile design was never as big, There are good, non-US missile makers out there."
To be fair, the USAF has not been idle either. Even as it developed the AIM-120D, the USAF has been funding technology development projects for a next-generation missile.
It is clear the USAF wants a weapon with an even longer range than the AIM-120. At the same time, the NGM must fit inside the internal weapons bay of the F-22 and Lockheed F-35. Since both weapons bays were sized to support the AIM-120, the NGM has a difficult design challenge: more range without more payload volume.
This requirement may be the key driver for a series of demonstration contracts awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory since 2008. Their goal is to combine or scale down other components inside an air-to-air missile, which possibly allows the NGM designers to add space for more fuel to achieve the extra range.
The seeker integrated target endgame (SITES) contract combines the missile's radar and the fuze into a single device. Additionally, if the SITES radar is transformed into a conformal array, Barrie suggests, more internal fuel volume could be added.
The multi-role responsive ordnance kill mechanism (MR ROKM) is seeking to invent a directional warhead.
Instead of scattering shrapnel in all directions, this warhead would channel the damage in a single direction.
This technology also may create more room for fuel by allowing the missile designer to install a smaller - but more lethal - warhead. Finally, the AFRL also has awarded the dual-role air-dominance missile technology (DRADM-T) contract, which is developing a new propulsion system.
Propulsion is one of the critical questions that the USAF must decide upon. The NGM may be the first air-to-air missile in the USAF inventory to be partly ramjet powered - like the MBDA Meteor.
Contracts awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offers the key evidence. The triple-target terminator (T3) programme is developing a ramjet-powered missile, and the technology is designed to transfer directly into the NGM programme, according to the ACC.
PEAK ENERGY STATE
Compared with a solid rocket booster, a ramjet offers some key advantages, Barrie said. The rocket motor has a higher overall speed, but its energy drops off rapidly near the end of its range. The ramjet, however, may be slightly slower, but it maintains its peak energy state for a longer period, Barrie said.
With Raytheon already established in the air-to-air missile business, the USAF invested heavily to strengthen Boeing as a challenger. Boeing received all three AFRL contracts - SITES, MR ROKM and DRADM-T. DARPA has also handed Boeing and Raytheon separate demonstration contracts to launch the T3 programme.
Meanwhile, a Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman team also plans to compete for the contract, having invested internal research and development funding to keep pace with Boeing and Raytheon. The ACC also confirmed that MBDA would be allowed to compete as a prime contractor.
But first the USAF has to clarify the acquisition plan for the NGM programme. Two years ago, USAF budget-justification documents submitted to Congress laid out a concise schedule for the programme, which was then named the joint dual-role air dominance missile. A required analysis of alternatives would begin next September.
The first technology-development contracts would be awarded in 2014, which would allow the first NGM missiles to enter operational service around 2020.
But something has happened to muddle the USAF's planning for NGM. Recently, when the ACC was asked to provide an up-to-date acquisition schedule for the new missile, the command tersely responded: "Undetermined at this time."
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| | Sujet: Re: US Air Force - USAF Jeu 8 Déc 2011 - 10:48 | |
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Lockheed Martin Delivers Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance System to U.S. Air Force
Palletized Shelter Configured For C-130J Supports Signals Intelligence Collecting
DENVER, December 7th, 2011 -- An airborne signals intelligence system configured specifically for the newest C-130J aircraft has been delivered to the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]. The system, which is part of the Senior Scout program that enables C-130 aircraft to be used for tactical signals intelligence and reconnaissance, will undergo acceptance testing in December.
Senior Scout is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system built into a trailer-like container that can be rolled on and off C-130 aircraft. This ISR suite of equipment rapidly configures standard C-130 aircraft for tactical signals intelligence, providing capabilities that exploit, geo-locate and report communications intelligence and signals of interest to air and ground component commanders.
“We are honored to continue providing the Air Force with a modern, capable signals intelligence system,” said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems for Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. “The latest shelter configuration advances the Senior Scout capability for the next generation of C-130J aircraft.”
In addition to undergoing system upgrades, the latest Senior Scout shelter was enhanced to be structurally compatible with the newest C-130J aircraft. System interfaces were updated, and the shelter was equipped with the latest technology enhancements and improvements for maintenance access. The shelter also defines the design that will be used to upgrade the three legacy shelters over the next 24 months to ensure the entire Senior Scout fleet is C-130J compatible.
For more than 20 years Lockheed Martin has provided system development and operational support to the U.S. Air Force for roll-on palletized ISR monitoring shelters. The first Senior Scout system was fielded and was used in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Palletized shelters that can be rolled on and off cargo aircraft are an element of Lockheed Martin’s Dragon family of ISR configurations. Dragon Shield™ offers a flexible roll-on/roll-off mission suite for customers who need a platform that can perform multiple missions (airlift and ISR). All configurations within the DRAGON series incorporate a modular "plug and play" architecture for the cost-effective, rapid introduction of new capabilities and sustainment.
Headquartered in Bethesda, MD., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. The Corporation's 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.
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Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres
The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) a $24 million contract for Paveway II laser-guided bomb components, the majority share of the Air Force’s laser-guided bomb buy for overseas contingency operations. The contract was competitively awarded because Raytheon offered the government the lowest price system that met all requirements.
