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June 2011 Archives

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Great job by the Japan Security Watch to spot this photo last week. The photo was released on 23 June by Japan's Ministry of Defense. Japan's MoD claims it spotted the unmanned aerial vehicle flying around a Chinese naval ship on exercises near Okinawa. It's not clearly apparent from the photo that the UAV belongs to the vessel underneath, but the MoD press release makes that link. It's also not apparent which UAV is involved. To my eyes, it doesn't seem to resemble known Chinese UAVs in this size class, such as perhaps the ASN-209 and ASN-802. It's possible this photo shows an all-new UAV now in Chinese naval service. 



General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) showed a new marketing video of the Predator C Avenger unmanned combat air system (UCAS) at the 2011 Paris Air Show. The video presents the Avenger as 'attrition tolerant' alternative to the Lockheed Martin F-22. GA-ASI has developed Avenger by itself to offer a jet-powered, stealthy UCAS to the US Navy and US Air Force, among other potential customers. 
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A commercial customer could be announced within 12 months for a new heavy freighter version of a hybrid airship in development for the US Army, Northrop Grumman said.

The commercial market appears to be evolving rapidly even as a Northrop/Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) team is still assembling the first long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) ordered by the army a year ago.

"This week we have begun parts of the inflating process," said Alan Metzger, vice president and integrated product team leader for LEMV and airship programmes. Nineteen sections that comprise the structure of the balloon will be inflated over a period of several weeks, he added.

The army could buy as many as three of the optionally manned hybrid airships, which rely on both buoyancy and aerodynamic forces to achieve lift.

An undisclosed customer within the army intends to demonstrate that the LEMV can perch at 20,000ft over a three-week period with a 1,133kg (2,500lb) payload that includes four high-definition electro-optical/infrared sensors, a signals interceptor, radar and three communications relay antennas, Northrop said.

If the LEMV is successful, it could replace the equivalent of up to 25 fixed-wing, medium altitude surveillance platforms, Northrop added.

The same vehicle with a few modifications is already being offered to the commercial freighter market.

The cargo version can be designed to carry up to 18,143kg for 1,000nm. Required design changes include a new freight floor added to a payload bay, and enlarged fuel/freight module and hover pads added t the landing skids, Metzger said.

Northrop's interest in the commercial market is moving forward after its chief competitor - the Lockheed Martin SkyTug - teamed with a Canadian start-up to produce a hybrid airship for the commercial cargo market. Meanwhile, the US Air Force has also signed a $82 million contract with MAV6 to develop a surveillance airship with one week endurance.

"Lots of people have ideas, and they're all good ideas," Metzger said. "What we have is a vehicle." 

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Embraer has confirmed plans to launch a stretch version of the KC-390 for the civil cargo market that company officials predict will generate between 200-250 orders over a 10-year period starting in 2018.

The Brazilian manufacturer revealed the plan at the Paris Air Show only a day after Kawasaki announced ongoing studies to convert a baseline C-2 military transport into a commercial freighter.

The KC-390 is being developed for $1.3 billion by the Brazilian Air Force to receive military certification in 2016. A stretched model could be available as early as 2018 for the commercial transport market, which includes Brazil's Correios postal service - the original launch customer for an earlier version of the KC-390.

The civil version would have to be modified with two plugs added to the 33.91m (111.3ft) length of the KC-390's fuselage, Orlando Neto, vice president of sales for Embraer Defence and Security, said in an interview.

One plug would be added forward of the wing to accommodate a side door for cargo. Another plug would be inserted into the fuselage aft of the wing to create more internal space, Neto said.

The existing wings and engines of the KC-390 are sized to accommodate the stretched version for the cargo market, he added. The KC-390 also features an avionics system - the Rockwell Collins ProLine Fusion - design to receive Part 25 civil certification in 2015.

Embraer's commercial plans for the KC-390 over-shadowed the lack of further announcements about the airlifter's supply chain.

Despite recently entering a year-long joint definition phase, Embraer has yet to finalise agreements with the engine supplier for the KC-390. Both the CFM International CFM56 and the International Aero Engines V2500 have been considered for the order.

Neto confirmed that discussions are concluded between the company and the Brazilian air force over the engine supplier. The discussions are now between the company and the suppliers, although declined to clarify if one of the companies had already been ruled out.

But the discussions are also not expected to drag on indefinitely. Neto added that Embraer has a firm schedule for completing the negotiations, and a contract award is possible within a few weeks. 

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The news conference was billed as an order announcement, but the customer came to lobby the top leadership of the F-35 programme in full view of the press.

Rear Adm Arne Røksund, a career submariner and now head of Norway's defence policy, made a plea for the F-35 joint programme office to integrate the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile (JSM) even as he confirmed Norway's decision to buy four F-35 training jets for delivery in 2016.

The missile is one of Norway's top priorities for a successful industrial participation programme as part of its commitment to buy dozens more F-35s starting in 2018, he said.

Røksund's remarks were directed to journalists attending the F-35 press briefing, but it was clear that his message was intended for F-35 deputy programme executive Maj Gen C.D. Moore seated nearby.

Moore duly responded that the programme is currently assessing all potential candidates for integration as part of the Block IV software upgrade scheduled for delivery in 2019. Norway's JSM is one of the candidates under review, with a final decision next year, Moore added.

That timing happens to correspond with a pending decision by Norway's parliament to make to commit to buying at least 48 F-35s. Norway's military intends to buy as many as 56, Røksund said, but that depends on final costs.

Norway has budgeted about $865 million to buy the first four F-35As, but "there is uncertainty on top of that number", Røksund said.

As Norway's four aircraft on order will serve as trainers, Lockheed will deliver the jets to Eglin AFB, Florida. Before further F-35s begin arriving in Norway after 2019, Lockheed will add a braking parachute to slow the jets on icy runways. 

Shiv Aroor at LiveFist has new details showing actual dimensions of the Multi-Role Transport Aircraft, the joint Ilyushin-Hindustan cargo project. It is yet another twin-jet powered tactical airlifter, joining an increasingly crowded field already including the Mitsubishi C-2 and the Embraer KC-390. The MRTA, singled-out during the Paris Air Show press conference of Mikhail Pogosyan (president of Ilyushin parent United Aircraft Corporation) as a key long-term project, appears to be slightly smaller than the KC-390 based on these dimensions. 

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Raytheon is qualifying Norway's NAAMO as a second source for the rocket motor of the AIM-120 AMRAAM after experiencing "some difficulties" with supplier ATK. 

Anybody remember the Great Engine War? 

Pratt & Whitney's early struggles with the F100 powering the F-15 and F-16 prompted the US Air Force to launch the General Electric F110. It's an example that has been invoked by supporters of the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136. The key difference is that the Pratt & Whitney F135 has not faced struggles F-35 while in operational service, which remains at least seven years away.







Notes from a Raytheon interview on Day 1 at the Paris Air Show:

Next Generation Jammer

This is the US Navy's programme to replace the aging ALQ-99 jammer pod for the EA-6B and EA-18G. Building a new jammer is a tricky job. Just ask the US Air Force. After dropping the mission by retiring the EF-111 Ravens in 1997, the USAF attempted to catch up with the B-52 stand-off jammer system (SOJS) after 2002. That programme was cancelled in 2006 after estimated development costs spiralled from $1 billion to $7 billion. An attempt to revive a scaled-down, $1 billion version called the Core Component Jammer (CCJ) also was dropped two years ago. Now, the navy is working with several contractors to develop the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ). Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has to get its acquisition strategy right.

The key question at the moment is how many pods would be required to perform an expanded jamming mission spanning from radars to communications emitters, said Travis Slocumb, vice president of strategy and business development for Raytheon. It takes as many as nine different pods for the ALQ-99 to cover the entire spectrum of threats. Ideally, the NGJ could cover the same ground with a single pod. 

That's attractive because a single pod covers only 120 degrees of the compass, so three pods would still be required for each jamming platform to provide 360 degree coverage. The alternative is to split the high-band jamming signals into a separate pod, but that means that the EA-18G would need to carry five pods on every mission, Slocumb said. The navy seems to prefer the single-pod solution, he added, but that means accepting more risk during the development phase. Risk is not a popular word in the Pentagon right now, which isn't making the navy's decision any easier.

Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI)

The US Air Force, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what to do with the GMTI mission currently performed by the E-8C Joint STARS and RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40. Alternatives include upgrading the Joint STARS radar, buying a GMTI spin-off of the Boeing P-8A, or perhaps use a smaller aircraft like a business jet. Raytheon products are available for all three options, allowing the company a unique perspective into the ongoing debate. 

According to Tim Carey, Raytheon's vice president for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, the key, non-budgetary issue in the air force's debate is a single metric called "minimum detectable velocity". How fast does the target have to be traveling to be detected by the radar? The physics are already known. One approach is to use a long array with a low-frequency signal, such as the E-8C or the P-8A. The other approach is to use a short array with a high-frequency signal, he said. The latter is the basis for the Raytheon airborne stand-off radar (ASTOR), which the UK operates as the Sentinel R1. The answer will determine whether the USAF decides to buy a larger or smaller aircraft, or simply upgrade the aircraft they have already. 

But the other question is not answerable by Carey, presumably because the answer intrudes on classified details. That is, can existing GMTI radar technology detect something moving as slowly as a human on foot? If it can, can the radar also identify whether the moving object is a bipod or a quadruped. The issue is the difference between finding a team of insurgents advancing toward a special operations team -- or a herd of sheep. 
Coming to a home entertainment system near you in 2013, the straight-to-DVD flick "Planes" apparently portrays the story of an AirTractor (or Thrush!)-like turboprop trying to compete with jet-powered fighters on carrier decks. Like all good art, the trailer shown below inspires many questions, such as: Is that really a V-tailed EA-6B in the background? Why do you need a catapult to launch an AirTractor? How can a B-2 zip around like that without compromising its structural integrity? And, perhaps most disturbingly of all, why am I questioning the contextual purity of a cartoon? 



The F-35 enters the Paris Air Show on a high note. Perhaps like Canada committing to buy 65 F-35As on the eve of the Farnborough show last year, Lockheed Martin served up a whopper of a press release a few days ahead of the show. Here are some highlights:

  • A finally complete fleet of 13 flight test aircraft has flown more sorties through 15 June than all of last year. That's not unexpected after the test fleet population has roughly doubled since 12 months ago, but it's a major accomplishment. If trends continue, the fleet should have no trouble easily surpassing the 872-sortie goal set by the programme for this year. 
  • The F-35A variant's AF-1 has come within M0.07 of its top speed of M1.6, and AF-7 has remained airborne for 4.1h. 
  • At least 17 F-35s, including the retired AA-1 test aircraft and four early production jets, have been flown and delivered. 

All of that is not to suggest the F-35 has resolved all concerns. Lockheed has not provided an update on mean time between failure rates, which were last year were a 1.8h for the F-35A and about 24 minutes for the F-35B, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thermal loads for mission systems aircraft AF-3 and BF-4 have not jet been tested in the heat of the California and Maryland summer. House appropriators, meanwhile, have proposing removing $75.7 million from next year's budget, which would have launched development of Block IV software. With Block III software already four years behind schedule, there's no need to start working on Block IV.
Then again it is possible that the J-20's sister is really a mock-up. These pictures suggest a mock-up exists in Chengdu. If they are not a mock-up, the Chinese aerospace industry may be overdue for a brush-up on modern final assembly procedures.

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Two questions to ponder this morning:

1. How do thieves walk away from an Israeli air force base with about 15 tons worth of retired jet engines for Boeing F-15s and Lockheed Martin F-16s?

2. What other value -- besides making a quick buck on scrap metal, which is Israel's possibly dubious theory -- can these thieves seek for themselves with eight copies of one of the world's most advanced, super-sonic jet engines?

See below:

Fighter-jet engines 'stolen from Israeli base'




For a special breakfast treat, Boeing drove us deep into the desert along Arizona's Beeline Highway. A few hundred yards off the road, we stopped in the brush and waited for our private airshow to start. Soon enough, a Boeing-owned AH-6i demonstrator and a US Army AH-64 Apache crew formed up and showed us their stuff. It was a great way to start the last day of our week-long tour. Thanks to Carole Thompson-Sutton at Boeing for arranging the show!
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The US Army's electronic warfare office has a Facebook page. Yes, I'm still absorbing that sentence myself. 

The Facebook page also reveals that the army has fielded a new electronic attack weapon. Here's a photo caption posted on 18 April: 

"C-12 early flight of the Army's CEASAR EW capability. CEASAR is designed to conduct electronic warfare from above the battlefield. CEASAR will give the Army an organic beyond line of sight electronic attack capability designed specifically to address the concerns of the land forces.

I've written about the Raytheon CEASAR (communications electronic attack with surveillance and reconnaissance) pod before. It repackages the USQ-113 communications jammer aboard the Boeing EA-18G into a pod. A year and a half ago, I reported the army was interested in buying "a few" for the MQ-1C Gray Eagle (formerly, Sky Warrior). 

Perhaps the MQ-1C plans are still being pursued, but it's clear CEASAR also has found a home on the manned turboprop fleet. It shows that electronic attack is increasingly becoming just another weapon, like a rocket, missile or strafing cannon, that can be employed from the air in support of ground troops. 

The Facebook page of the official US Air Force museum may have "committed news" this morning. 

The National Museum of the US Air Force publishes a daily historical factoid. Today's perhaps adds a new wrinkle to the official history of the Kosovo air war 12 years ago. See below:

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The shoot-down of one F-117 has been always been acknowledged by the USAF, but I do not remember an official acknowledgement that a second aircraft was damaged on the same day (although I have heard the rumours).


[UPDATE: The picture is now confirmed as fake. No wonder then it evoked the F-35 so convincingly.]

Deino, a reliable poster of authentic imagery of the latest Chinese military aircraft on Secret Projects, has posted this image today. It's clearly not the Chengdu J-20. It is also a rare two-seat stealth fighter, which have fizzled since the A-12 Avenger and F-22B concepts were dropped. Deino has titled the image the JH-XX, perhaps implying a stealthy version of the Xian JH-7 fighter-bomber. It's difficult to tell much about the overall design. It seems to replicate the forward fuselage chine and forward-swept, diverterless inlet of another stealth fighter -- the Lockheed Martin F-35. Hmmm ...  

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A-12 Avenger, the aborted McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics product and scourge of the legal system, sits on display inside the Prologue Room of Boeing's defence headquarters in St. Louis. As you may have gathered, yesterday's stop on the Boeing pre-Paris Air Show media tour was the home of an aerospace company once owned by James S. McDonnell. I've been whisked through the Prologue Room several times over the years, but this is the first time I've ever spotted the A-12 model. 

That wasn't the only surprise aircraft concept glimpsed during this media tour. 

As I tweeted yesterday, I saw a digital image of A new single-engine, two-seat jet with YF-23-like shallow V-tails in the grey-on-white paint scheme of Air Education Training Command. But Boeing repeatedly assured me the image is not THE new aircraft concept for Boeing's secret T-X trainer proposal. The image was the icon representing the flight path of a simulated aircraft on the screen of the control operator's station for Boeing's next generation simulator -- the 20/40 visual-acuity constant resolution visual system (CRVS). It appeared to be the standard icon used for the CRVS. No photography was allowed inside the facility, alas, and Boeing declined to release a picture of the digital icon. It's a pity. Even if it wasn't the company's basis for a clean-sheet T-X proposal, it was a great-looking little aircraft! 
Apologies for the fuzziness. There's nothing wrong with you computer screen. Boeing presented the videos in 3D, but it's still impressive -- albeit, slightly eye-crossing -- in normal view.

Dan Seal, program manager of Boeing's immersive development environment, briefs reporters on 7 June in St. Louis about the company's new tools for designing the next generation of air dominance fighters.



Lt Col Romin Dasmalchi, former commanding officer of VMM-266, briefs reporters in Philadelphia on 6 June about the operation in which an MV-22 from his squadron rescued the crew of a Boeing F-15E that crashed in Libya.
A special feature posted on the PAF Falcons web site provides a fascinating transcript of a one-on-one interview with an anonymous, although apparently very senior, Pakistani Air Force F-16 pilot. It reminds me of YouTube Terry's infamous indiscretions

The Pakistani pilot manages to embarrass the pride of the Royal Air Force, candidly describe Israeli air-to-air prowess and explain how the US keeps the F-16 Block 52's secrets away from the Pakistanis and -- by extension -- the Chinese.

On the RAF Typhoon:

On one occasion - in one of the international Anatolian Eagles - PAF pilots were pitted against RAF Typhoons, a formidable aircraft. There were three set-ups and in all three, we shot down the Typhoons. The RAF pilots were shocked.

Q: Any particular reason for your success?

A: NATO pilots are not that proficient in close-in air-to-air combat. They are trained for BVR engagements and their tactics are based on BVR engagements. These were close-in air combat exercises and we had the upper hand because close-in air combat is drilled into every PAF pilot and this is something we are very good at.

On the Israelis:

Q: What are the Isrealis afraid of?

A: What they fear most is that we might learn about their tactics, especially BVR countermeasure tactics, which they have mastered.

Q: I heard a rumour that the TuAF once gave PAF pilots the opportunity to fly with and against the Israelis in A. TuAF F-16s pretending to be Turkish pilots - even letting them sit in the Turkish-Israeli ACMI de-briefs?
No comments.

On US concerns about the Chinese:

To recall an interesting little story: soon after the first F-16s were delivered to Pakistan in the mid-80s, the PLAAF Chief visited Sargodha. The Americans were there as well. As a gesture of courtesy, the PAF showed the PLAAF Chief one of the F-16s and let him sit in the cockpit. Some US technicians were there looking on. As soon as the PLAAF Chief sat in the F-16 cockpit, the first thing he did was to start measuring the HUD with his fingers, you know, when you extend your little finger and thumb to measure something? This worried the Americans.

On US export control practices: 

They have ways of keeping an eye on the Block 52s without being personally present. The main concern is the transfer of cutting-edge technology - the avionics and radar, the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) the Sniper pod. They have put digital seals all the sensitive technologies, which can only be opened via a code, which only they know. If there is a malfunction or these parts need to be serviced, they will be taken out of the Block 52s and shipped back to the US for repairs/servicing. If we try to pry open these systems without the codes, inbuilt alarms will be relayed to the Americans, which will be a breach of the contract.

Q: Will the Americans be able to track the locations of the Block 52s through some sort of tracking devices hidden inside the aircraft?

A: If there are tracking devices then they will be inside the sealed systems, like the avionics suites or the sniper pods because we will not have the ability to look inside. If their Predator and Reaper drones are transmitting their GPS locations via satellite so can a Block 52 F-16.

Even though Turkey produces the F-16, there are some components that are manufactured in the US and only come to Turkey for the final assembly. In one incident, a Turkish Block 50 crashed and the pilot was killed. They salvaged the wreckage and laid it out in hanger and started putting together the pieces to find out the cause. They found a piece of sealed equipment which had cracked open and inside they found some device that looked like a bug. Upon inquiry, it turned out to be a tracking device.
New video has surfaced on YouTube that reportedly shows the crash of an Iranian air force Il-76MD airborne warning and control system (AWACS) in September 2009. According to the ASN database, the Il-76 flight crew had reported an engine fire, but on final approach the AWACS radar dome detached sheared off the tail. The video is captured by the boom operator of a Iranian 707 tanker, with an F-4 in trail. (The title on the YouTube video is inaccurate.)

My employer Flightglobal and FLIR Systems has teamed up to provide live video streaming of the Paris Air Show flying display. The video stream is courtesy of two high-definition FLIR cameras. One will be perched atop Flightglobal's chalet on the flight line, and the other is aboard a FLIR PC-12 turborprop for air-to-air footage. Simply click on Flightglobal's live-streaming site when the flying displays begin on 19 June, and enjoy the show. Below are highlights from last year's color and infrared video of the Farnborough flight display, including the unforgettable images of the Lockheed Martin F-22 in IR.

This is what it looks like when a Dassault Mirage 2000 intercepts an A320 after the airline apparently suffers an on-board communications glitch. Note the 2-minute mark where you see the Mirage pilot snapping photos of the A320. Spotters are everywhere these days, I tell you! Tip: If you don't like Kings of Leon, you may want to reduce the volume.