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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 2438.PDF
DEFENCE PROCUREMENT CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / PARIS Sweden eyes role in French UCAV FMV and DGA talk co-operation while project's prime contractor Dassault looks to other potential European partners FMV says no investment figures have been decided, but French sources say Sweden could invest bet ween €60 million and €80 million. Funding of the project could be approved before Sweden's next four- year procurement plan is decided in December 2004. "One is not depen dent on the other," says FMV. Saab is also involved in the talks. Dassault Aviation, prime contrac tor for the project, is holding "exp loratory" talks with Sweden, Russia and other European nations. "The interest shown in this unmanned combat air vehicle project proves that we are building the founda tions of a new type of European defence industry co-operation based on each other's industrial skills and risk sharing in research and development," Dassault says. An industry source says this new type of co-operation "does resem ble a little what Lockheed Martin is doing for development of the Joint Strike Fighter". DIAGNOSIS ARIE EGOZI / TEL AVIV Israeli air force prescribes T-HUMS for UAV fleet The Israeli air force plans to equip large unmanned air vehi cles with a total health and usage monitoring system (T-HUMS) that uses vibration analysis. The aim is to min imise crashes and the loss of advanced, high-cost payloads. T-HUMS is being fitted to the airforce's Boeing Apache anti tank helicopters with its Sikorsky CH-63s to follow. The system, developed by Israeli company RSL, moni tors vibrations of critical engine parts and detects develop ing malfunctions at an early stage. Engine in-flight shutdown is the main cause of UAV failures. The Mini T-HUMS is capable of providing early warning before a failure occurs, alerting the operator to recall the UAV before engine shutdown, or providing post-landing advice that a degradation has occurred. POWERPLANTS GUY NORRIS / HARTFORD P&W works with Boeing and USAF to improve C-17 engine reliability AVI Describe unmanne - srin rh to min- 3oein - 5 to follow, lpan ' ; C-1 The C-17's engines have suffered during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan Sweden's procurement agency, FMV, is talking to its French counterpart, the DGA, on possible participation in the €300 million ($350 million) full-scale unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator project launched by French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie at the Paris air show in June. Under discussion is how the pro ject fits into the six-nation European Technology Acquisition Programme (ETAP). The demonstrator was launched outside ETAP after the UK and other ETAP members suggested areas of future European technology projects could be subcontracted to US industry. An industry source adds: "All we do in ETAP is talk. Nothing concrete is emerging." • Cubic Defense Appli cations, Northrop Grumman, NovaSol and Qinetiq have received US Special Operations Command contracts to develop a covert identification and track ing system. Small tags will activate when interrogated and modulate the reflected laser beam, providing two-way data exchange faster than 10Okbits/s at ranges greater than 10km (5.4nm) for an airborne interroga tor. • Lockheed Martin is to develop a single-warhead version of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System under a $119 mil lion US Army contract. There will be 26 flight tests of the initial con figuration, and 39 flight tests of a follow-on configuration providing further enhancements. • L-3 Communications' Randtron Antenna Systems division is to develop the next-generation elec tronically scanned radar antenna for the US Navy's E-2C Advan ced Hawkeye under a $65 million Northrop Grumman contract. • SEOS has received an order from OGMA for a three-channel projected display to upgrade the Portuguese airforce's Dassault/ Dornier Alpha Jet simulator. Pratt & Whitney, Boeing and the US Air Force are working to improve the reliability of the F117-100 turbo- fan powering the C-17 airlifter fol lowing a rise in unscheduled removals and unsatisfactory durabil ity in the wake of the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. Almost 550 F117 engines, the military version of the PW2000 that powers the Boeing 757, have been delivered to Boeing for the C-17 production line, with 490 in opera tion. Since entering service in 1991, the F117 fleet has passed the 2 mil lion engine flight hour milestone, but "they are taking a bit of a hit as far as time-on-wing performance is concerned", says P&W F117 pro gramme director Steve Peery. The rise in removals is linked to the increased tempo of operations in the harsh environments of Afghanistan and the Middle East, where blade, vane and sealing ero sion is a severe problem, he adds. "We are aiming for a 10-20% improvement, and we believe it is achievable," says Peery. Durability is being tackled through production and maintenance improvements, particularly through the use of an advanced diagnostic engine man agement system - jointly developed by Boeing and P&W. Using diagnos tic data downloaded from the Fl 17's full authority digital engine control units, P&W is increasing use of pre dictive maintenance techniques to offset the worst problems before they occur. P&W's average fleet time-on-wing target is between four and five years, although it admits this depends on where the C-17s are based and the type of operation. The focus is now on improving air seals and clearance control sys tems to "counter performance ero sion in austere conditions". Longer- term improvements being studied include improved erosion-resistant coatings for the high-pressure com pressor and limiting use of the thrust-reverser in the landing roll out. The F117 differs from the civil PW2000 in using core-thrust rever ses, which can be deployed in flight for tactical descent and approaches. To date, the USAF has ordered 180 C-17s and 800 F117 engines. 18 28 OCTOBER-3 NOVEMBER 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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