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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 1245.PDF
Tomcat Sparrows get chaff on their taih Tomcats get chaff units BY MARTIN STREETLY The US Government has au thorised the purchase of a sufficient number of Bofors Electronics BOL chaff dispens ers to equip 100 US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat inter ceptors. BOL is designed for installa tion in the rear of missile- launch racks, with each unit carrying 160 Chemring-devel- oped chaff packages. According to sources close to the programme, the F-14 instal lation is to feature two BOL units mounted in the rear of two of the aircraft's four LAU-7 Sparrow launchers. The Navy is expected to order as many as 1.5 million examples of the specialised payload units from Chemring to support the move. The system as a whole is believed already to have com pleted F-14 operational evalua tion successfully. In addition, a full requirement specification has been requested for a BOL installation in the Navy's F-18 Hornets. It is thought the Navy is seeking a mid-1990s in- service date. • P&W and GE in engine competition In what may be the last of the annual US Air Force fighter engine selection contests, Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and General Electric (GE) are to share pro duction of powerplants pur chased in fiscal year 1992. Engines are required for just 48 F-16s but P&W is claiming that the Air Force's choice is evidence that it regards both engines as equally desirable. Previous competitions left GE's F110 powering about 80% of USAF F-16s and more than 70% of all F-16s built. P&W's F100 powers all F-15s. Both engine manufacturers are now offering their uprated F100-229 and Fl 10-129 engines respec tively. Although the size of the air craft purchase means that the engine orders are small, the extra production helps P&W bridge the gap between F100 work and the ramp-up of F119 production for the F-22 Lock heed/Boeing/General Dynamics Advanced Tactical Fighter. GE is to provide FllOs for Japan's indigenously developed F-16-derived Mitsubishi FS-X and says that it has delivered or has on order more than 1,700 engines from the F110 family. Bids pending for HS-X "Japan's Air Staff Office (ASO) I is expected to issue requests Tor proposals for the HS-X search-and-rescue aircraft within the next few weeks. The ASO has already cleared the way for starting the HS-X competition by issuing a request for proposals for the Air Self- Defence Force's transport/tanker trainer, the TC-X. The two programmes will be contested mainly by the same four aircraft —: the British Aero space 125-800, Cessna Citation V, Learjet 31 and Beechjet 400. All contenders for the TC-X competition will have to re spond by 31 May. Selection of the winner is expected by early July with final Defence Agency approval in August. The ASO wants to purchase nine aircraft, virtually off the shelf from the winning manufacturer, through funding from the current five- year defence budget. It is not yet clear to what extent the selection of the TC-X will influence the HS-X procure ment, but commonality of type is known to be an important factor for the Japanese. The Japan Defence Agency has already selected the BAe 125-800 for its FC-X flight- inspection aircraft, putting it in a good position for the new competitions. The last of the four program mes scheduled to purchase off- the-shelf business jets is the U-X liaison aircraft. A final se lection for this type is sched uled for the middle of 1992. Expected candidates include the Canadair Challenger, the Falcon 900 and Gulfstream IV. • Improved Tomahawk flies The first flight has been made of a Tomahawk sea- launched cruise missile BGM- 109D variant with Block III system improvements. The BGM-109D is the submuni- tions-dispensing variant of the cruise missile. The Tomahawk was fired from the Spruance-class de stroyer USS Merrill at the Pa cific Missile Test Center, Cali fornia. Following launch from an armoured box launcher, the missile carried out a number of Block Ill-upgrade manoeuvres, dispensed submunition bomblets at three different tar gets, and then carried out a terminal dive on to a prese lected target. The Tomahawk Block III up grades, developed by McDon nell Douglas Missile Systems, include the addition of a global positioning system (GPS) re ceiver and antenna, an upgrade of the digital scene-matching area correlator (DSMAC-IIA), time-of-arrival control, and a new payload section. The GPS supplements the current terrain contour-match ing system as an alternative means for missile navigation. DSMAC-IIA provides additional computing power, thus impro ving operational flexibility and terminal accuracy. A Williams International F402 turbofan engine provides a 19% increase in thrust and a 2% decrease in fuel consump tion. Although not part of the Block III upgrade development programme, the engine will be included in all future Toma hawk Block III missiles. McDonnell Douglas says: "The Block III upgrade will provide a significant increase in range and greater accuracy to the conventional land-attack variants of the Tomahawk cruise missile family", and adds: "These Block III changes can be fully remanufactured to all Tomahawk conventional land- attack variants". A Block Ill-upgraded BGM- 109, of the type which normally carries a single high-explosive warhead, carried out a success ful fully guided test flight on 13 February. The missile was launched from a permanent site on San Nicholas Island, off the coast of southern California, to the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California. D FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15 - 21 May, 1991 21
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