Category: Aviation

Picture Pr0n: X-47B Demonstrator Rolls Out

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Well, Northrop-Grumman has rolled out its first X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator in a rather splashy debut.

Not bad for a project that was on the death watch list just 6 months ago.


It’s actually rather large, with a, ” 62.1 ft, compared to 44.7 ft. for an F/A-18″ (the E/F models), and so looks to be close to the size of the canceled A-12 attack aircraft.


Here we can see the standard robust naval landing gear.


Here is a closeup of the inlet, which the N-G folks were fine with letting people take, which surprises me, because it’s kind of the “secret sauce”.

There is still a part of me that is surprised that the US Navy is considering a tailless anything after the debacle that was the F7U Cutlass (aka “Gutless” and “Ensign Eliminator”).

NG press release here.

Boeing Aircraft’s Pre-Christmas Sale

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Well, it certainly sounds like one of those pre-Christmas sales.

Boeing is offering to sell F/A-18 E/Fs to the US Navy and Marines for less than $50 million each, in order to help with the “fighter gap”, that the Navy is facing as its older aircraft face the end of life, and the F-35 is further delayed.

This is with the AESA radar, so it is a very good deal by today’s standards.

I never in my life thought that I’d be saying “F/A-18”, and “low cost” in the same breath.

Another Illustration of How Broken the Weapons Development System Is

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So, we have a fairly run of the mill article Aviation Week article about delays on integrating new weapons into the Eurofighter Typhoon. (paid subscription required)

It appears that there will now be a 2 year delay in qualifying the Meteor rocket-ramjet long range AAM for the platform:

Fielding of the rocket/ramjet-powered Meteor air-to-air missile on the Eurofighter Typhoon is being pushed back two years. The move is part of a wider rescoping of weapon-integration plans.

…

… It had intended to introduce the missile in 2013, although this date was in itself a shift from the previous in-service date (ISD) of 2012. The delay came to light following this cryptic comment from the Defense Ministry: “When the missile is integrated on Typhoon is being deferred until a time in keeping more with when the threat may materialize.”

The Meteor is a key element of the Typhoon’s air-to-air capability, providing the aircraft with a weapon with an engagement envelope, and no escape zone, substantially greater than the Raytheon AIM-120 Amraam family of weapons. The revised ISD is also understood to reflect a threshold for some of the Typhoon partners beyond which their present Amraam inventory would require refurbishment. France and Sweden are also Meteor partners; the weapon is intended for the Rafale and Gripen, respectively.

The translation into English here is that while the Typhoon is already flying, and that the Meteor is largely on schedule, at least its current schedule, it’s outrageously expensive to qualify the Meteor for as a weapon on the Typhoon, and since the most likely competitor, a rocket/ram jet upgrade of the Vympel R-77 (AA-12 Adder) is on the back burner, it’s simply unaffordable to take a system ready for deployment, and make sure that it can be used by a system in deployment.

This is nuts. It’slike saying that the cost of getting a new sound system for your car is $50,000.00.

Japanese Company Developing Regional Jet Engine

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Japanese aero engine manufactuer IHI is working on a a low fuel consumption turbofan (paid subscription required) to compete with US and European engines on future regional jets.

One of the interesting features of the engine, IHI calls it the Eco turbofan, mockup shown is how the fan wraps around its hub, so as to cover more of the frontal area of the engine, which is intended to improve efficiency.

In its initial form, it should put out around 9,000 lbs of thrust with a 7:1 bypass ratio.

The Twisted Part of the Dutch JSF Saga

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Basically, the Dutch government is disputing the amount of kickbacks that are supposed to accrue to it over JSF production.

This is not illegal, or necessarily corrupt, the money is going back to the taxpayer, not an individual politician, but as part of the industrial arrangement, the Dutch government gets profit sharing, hence my earlier comment about their being paid to buy the fighter, and they are now saying that the concerns manufacturing JSF components owe them about €300 million, so they are taking them to court.

In a real way, it’s yet another indicator of how screwed defense procurement has become. It’s like dope dealers fighting over their percentages.

Note to Self: If You Pay Someone to Buy Something, They Generally Buy It

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Which is why, to no one’s surprise, the Dutch have decided that the JSF best suits their needs.

You’d have to be an idiot to not know that it was a done deal. After as Bill Sweetman notes, the Dutch were using PowerPoint slides lifted directly from Lockheed-Martin as a part of their evaluation.

The good Mr. Sweetman also notes that there were numerous errors int he comparison, and they all cut in favor of the JSF.

When one looks at the industrial offsets to Holland, it’s pretty clear that there is more money flowing in than flowing out.

As such, it would have been insane to expect any other result.

A160T Hummingbird Drone Achieves New Milestone

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Boeing has announced that it’s Hummingbird drone has has successfully changed the final drive ratio of its transmission in flight, which will allow two rotor speed settings, one being about ½ of the other.

It turns out that slower rotational speeds work better at hover and low speeds, but limit forward speed, because of retreating blade stall, and most helos therefore operate as a compromise. (The A160T set its record in slow rotor mode).

All in all, this program is moving along at a blindingly fast pace, with US special forces already making purchases of the diminutive helicopter.

Boeing’s PR is here.

Dassault Goes Hard Sell on Indian MMRCA Program

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One of the most hotly contested fighter procurement programs in the world right now is the Indian Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program, which is intended to replace India’s aging MiG-21s, and Dassault is very aggressively pursuing this.

Basically, Dassault has stated that it has gotten clearance from the French government for near total technology transfer.

Additionally unlike all of the other western competitors, its US content is near zero, and so is not subject to the US export restrictions.

To refresh your memory (more here), the competitors are competitors are the MiG-35 (a Mig-29 derivative), Gripen, Rafale, Typhoon, F-16 and F-18E, and my analysis in my earlier posts stands, I think that the Gripen, F-16, F-18E, and Eurofighter are all too tied up in US export restrictions, that the Eurofighter and Rafale are too expensive, which leaves the MiG-35.

I think that the Gripen’s low cost over its lifetime, it’s about ½ the size of most of the competitors may give it an outside chance, but my money is still on the MiG.

The Indians have been using Russian equipment for about half a century, and the low purchase price and familiarity will mean a lot here.

Why Japan May Not Buy the JSF

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It is increasingly looking like it will be impossible for Japan to have their own final assembly site for the F-35 JSF. (paid subscription required)

Japan has been manufacturing front line fighters locally since 191956, when it started taking deliveries of the Japanese assembled F-86 Sabers, and while aircraft in service have been foreign designs (F-4EJ, F-15J), or derivatives of foreign designs (The F-2 derivative of the F-16), this is a capability that the Japanese government and military see as important (otherwise they would not have flushed all that money down the toilet on the F-2 in the 1990s).

In addition to the F-35, the competitors for Japan’s next fighter requirement are the improved F-15FX and the F/A-18E/F from Boeing, or the Typhoon from Eurofighter:

Japan’s F-X fighter competition results will determine next year whether the national industry can sustain its tradition of domestic production of fast jets or instead be forced to accept a suspension and the risk of losing skills.

….

One Japanese official who has recently moved from the Defense Ministry to industry says that his former colleagues are inclined toward the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning to fill the F-X fighter requirement, but industry is lobbying for the Boeing F-15FX or F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Simply put, the F-35 already has too many hard and fast contracts on work share for there to be any realistic opportunity for Japanese industry to participate.

What’s more, though this article does not discuss this, the aircraft is very tightly integrated, and so it becomes very difficult to involve local industry in upgrades.

There is the possibility that Japan could go it’s own way,with either something like their ADT-X stealth demonstrator, but the expense here would be enormous, particularly since the manufacturer would be prohibited from exporting the aircraft by the Japanese constitution.

Brazil to Buy Hind Helos

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This actually makes a lot of sense for them.

They are dealing primarily with things like dope dealers and insurgents, and purchase of 12 Mi-35M attack helicopters gets them an aircraft that is competent in attack, but also has the ability to carry 8 troops or a 4 of litters in a medevac situation, and so are more flexible.

They are also likely a lot cheaper, than the competition, the Eurocopter Tiger, and the Agusta-Westland Mangusta.

Israel Tests Black Hawk Gunship

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It looks like Israel is looking at an armed variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk demonstrator.

From the photo, it appears that they would be carrying an chain gun and a targeting turret, along with a fair number of ATGWs, something on the order of 16 Hellfire class missles, though, given that this is an Israeli developed project, Rafael’s Spike, or some variant thereof, would likely be the actual weapon deployed.

It’s kind of a return to the old UH-1 gunships developed in Vietnam.

Very Angry Swedes

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The Norwegian decision to purchase the F-35 JSF should come as no surprise, but the folks at SAAB are hopping mad at the suggestion that the F-35 will be less expensive to own and operate.

This is not surprising. The Gripen, even the heaver Gripen NG, is half the weight of the JSF, and cost and operating costs vary pretty directly with size.

What appears to have happened is that the Norwegians compared the purchase price of the Gripen that included, “included initial training, initial spares and all mission planning and support systems,” to unit flyaway costs for the American fighter, and even then, the cost quoted is about $20 million a pop less than what is bandied about in the media.

Bill Sweetman, talking to his sources, suggests that the Norwegians were concerned about the cost to them if the Gripen turned out to be a market failure.

If only 100 or so were sold, and that is a real possibility, or worse, that SAAB is taken down by the financial crisis, than upgrades throughout its life cycle would be very expensive, while there will be thousands of JSF’s produced, as there are already thousands of JSF’s on order by around a dozen nations, and the program is backed by the “full faith and credit of the United States”.

Their strong language appears to be all about mollifying left wing parties in the government.

SAAB’s full rebuttal is here (PDF), here are their bullet points:

  • claims that Gripen does not meet the Norwegian air force’s demand rests on simulations containing incomplete or non-existent capacity information
  • the alleged life cycle cost does not rest on experience of the Gripen system but hasbeen calculated by applying own assumptions and models of calculations.
  • conditions underpinning the calculation are in parts radically altered and based on internal Norwegian assumptions.

Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing Aid Demonstrated

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The folks at Quinetiq have demonstrated a landing aid for SRVL on the HMS Illustrious.

The idea behind shipborne rolling vertical landing is that an F-35 can return to deck in forward flight, with some of the lift coming from the wings, and some from the lift fan, which would allow for greater “bring” back in terms of weapons loads, and less wear and tear on the engine:

For the latest trial, a demonstration visual landing aid dubbed a “Bedford array” was installed in the port catwalk adjacent to Illustrious’s flight deck. Taking inputs from inertial references to stabilise against deck motions, this is combined with a ship-referenced velocity vector in a helmet-mounted display to enable a pilot to fly an accurate approach to the deck on a constant glidepath. A second lighting array was rigged on the carrier’s flight deck, and was used during a parallel evaluation of its visual acuity.

Me, I’m dubious.

The idea of making a rolling landing on an aircraft carrier with a 60,000 lb aircraft without an arrester hook seems to me to be a dicey proposition.

The Costs of Ending F-22 Production

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Well, it appears that there some significant costs to canceling the F-22 at just 4 more aircraft, (paid subscription required) instead of the full 20.

If the US government does not buy the remaining 16, Lockheed could be due $147 million in cancellation fees.

Let’s see….16 additional aircraft, costing somewhere between $138 million (Air Force figures) and $300 million (critics figure), instead of paying a penalty of $147 million.

If you canceled the program, and put garlic in its mouth, and a stake through its heart, and burnt it, and took half that money and bought advanced F-16s with EASA radar, like we are selling to…well, anyone who wants one…You could have 20 F-16s.

Get out the garlic, rosewood, and torches.

Australian MRTT Tanker Delayed

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This is actually fairly significant news, as it is Australia’s A-330 MRTT tanker is the airframe that won the US tanker competition. Stephen Trimble hhas the official reasons for the delay:

  1. the mutual decision by EADS and RAAF to take the aircraft to the Paris air show;
  2. the RAAF directed changes to the MRTT configuration following contract award which has served to extend the development and testing program (including modifications to the refueling and avionics systems);
  3. the RAAF has requested additional flight testing to ensure a more robust mission system when delivered.

If these are the all the reasons, then it really has no bearing on the viability of the airframe for the tanker competition, but I tend to be cynical on such things, so my guess is that EADS was finding it difficult to meet the schedule.

Additionally, Australia’s currency has generally been falling, which may create budget pressures that might lead them to defer purchases.

See also here.