Category: Defense Procurement

F-15 Silent Eagle Video Pr0n

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More defense contractor puffery, but it appears that some countries have expressed a significant interest in the Silent Eagel low observability program, most notably South Korea.

Of interest is the fact that Boeing has some real concerns about the US Government export license process being used to sabotage their sales process:

As for the F-15SE versus F-35 on frontal stealth, Jones says what Boeing is looking for is an assurance from the U.S. government that all competitors will be set at the same level of RCS reduction. Let the battle begin.

The translation here is that they are concerned that the JSF will be allowed for export at levels of stealth that the F-15SE would not be, because the USAF has no interest in the program, and doesn’t want it competing with the F-35.

VH-71 Presidential Helicopter Contract Officially Terminated

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This is not surprising, it’s just that it’s now official.

In a way, it’s a microcosm of problems in military contracting. Had the specifications remained as they were at the start of the program, the helos would now be in service for less than was spent not buying them.

Unfortunately, Bush and His Evil Minions™ decided to gold plate it, adding plush carpeting, a bathroom, a kitchen (!), videoconferencing gear, for a helo that would take the president on short (less than one hour) hops to a secure location or Air Force 1.

Japan Continues Moves Back Toward Militarism

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They have been ramping up their defense spending, continue to be tin-eared toward considerations of their atrocities in Asia in WWII, have a growing, and increasingly violent, militarist movement, a move toward a first strike “defensive” posture, and now they are looking to rescind their ban on exporting weapons (paid subscription required), which would mean growth for their defense industry, and it was the juxtaposition of the weapon making industrial conglomerates and politics that to a large degree pushed their militarism in the 1930s.

Creating a More Target Rich Environment

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Russia is sending sending 50 armored vehicles to the Palestinian Authority.

I’m sure that the thinking is that this will better allow the PA to fight Hamas, but considering the PLO’s long history of ineptitude in anything remotely near conventional military conflicts, this just means that Hamas will have bigger targets to shoot at.

In the event of things getting hot with Hamas, they will last 2 days, against the IDF, less than 2 hours.

F136 Engine Will Harm JSF Program

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So says JSF program office chief General David Heinz, who notes that it will drain resources away from low rate production, but just a few days later, he says that he favors a second source engine and radar:

“I believe that part of the debate that has to occur — and is occurring – is, is there an operational risk that we are accepting by having just a single engine manufacturer?” Heinz asked. “I simply think that we focus too much of the discussion about the cost and not the operational risk.”

The 1st story is from June 1, the 3rd, so what changed in 24 hours?

My guess is that he someone talked to him about industrial base issues, or perhaps someone talked to him about not telling Congress what to do.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Chinese Pilots to Train on Brazilian Carrier

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I think that this implies that the Chinese intend to move very aggressively towards creating an aircraft carrier capability.

It’s an opportunity for them to hone their skills, and tap the expertise of the Brazilian, along with the rapidly progressing refit of the Varyag, you can see pictures at the link, implies to me that the Chinese intend to have an training carrier air wing in a pretty near term operating from the never completely Admiral Kuznetsov-class carrier.

USAF May Lose Oversight of Tanker Purchase

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The Pentagon is looking at whether the USAF or the Pentagon will run the next competition between the 767 and A330 for the KC-X tanker.

If they go with the Pentagon, this is a a major change from earlier procedures.

It appears that some people are concerned that the USAF is incapable of doing this properly, after the first deal was shot down because of corruption, and the 2nd deal was successfully challenged to the GAO.

I can’t imagine why.

Damn! This Crap Never Dies, Does It?

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2 of the significant cancellations of the budget proposed by SecDef Gates were the USAF’s Transformational Satellite (TSAT), and the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS), but like the slasher flick villain, they’re back.

The USAF is now looking for funding of a “technology demonstrator” which would mirror TSAT’s capabilities, with an obvious eye towards reviving the program, and Army Chief of Staff General George Casey is saying that the FCS has not been killed, prime contractor Boeing still touting fictitious milestones being passed, and a senior acquisition officer saying that it would be split into 3 parts.

So, we’ll services coming after this again, and again, even though the gear and tech from the FCS that was supposed to enter service in 2011 has now been delayed.

The Iron Triangle at its finest.

Israel May Drop JSF

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So, we now have a report that Israel may order the semi-stealthy “Silent Eagle” if it does not get technical data on the computer for the F-35 JSF.

The claim is that they need to be able to repair the systems under combat conditions, but the counter claim by the US that they will have sufficient spares to swap them out seems to be convincing to me, so I think that there may be other issues.

First is the price. With an order of 75 aircraft, and a price of up to $20 billion, the cost of the aircraft is $266 million each (!), and that is simply not affordable.

Heck, the good old USA can’t afford more F-22s at a mere (!) 185 million each.

More significant, however, is that without this access, the Israelis will be unable to qualify their own systems on the aircraft.

This means that they cannot configure their own weapons, or their own avionics in such a system, means that, for example, they could not make adjustments to the AESA radar in order to jam some new sensor that was fielded, or install a dedicated jamming system on the aircraft.

I think that idea that they would be at the mercy of Lockheed-Martin for timely software upgrades to counter a new weapons system that the Russians or Chinese ship to the Syrians scares the hell out of the IAF.

OK, This is Mind-Bogglingly Stupid

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If you’ve been following the saga of the delays of the EADS A400M military transport program, it’s clear that the main thing holding up the testing of the aircraft is problems with its massive (10,000+ hp) turboprop engines.

It has now been revealed that this holdup is primarily the result of a bookkeeping error:

Although the A400M program has generally been running late, the pacing item since last year has been the engine – and the principal problem was a failure by Europrop International (EPI), the consortium behind the TP400-D6 engine, to recognize, until little more than a year ago, that the software in the full authority digital engine control (Fadec) did not meet European civil aviation standards.

EPI was basically working to military standards, in which Fadec software is considered to be validated by testing. Civil authorities additionally require a tightly disciplined software development process, in which every change, from the first line of the first version, is documented and traceable. Once the problem surfaced, there was nothing to be done but to go back and start again.

While I generally find system engineering, where you have some anal-retentive bloke going over the specs with a microscope, to be a pain in the ass, I acknowledge that they are needed now and again, but there don’t appear to have been any on this project.

Army Now Looking at FCS Replacement

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And externally, at least, it will look an awful lot like the canceled FCS manned ground vehicle family of vehicles. (FCS-MGV)

After all, if you are looking for something smaller and lighter than existing systems, you still have a box on treads.

That being said, there are some lessons learned here, and hopefully they will be fixed:

  • There was too much focus on commonality among vehicles. If you want a tank(ette) version, there is no reason to put it on the same wheelbase as an infantry combat vehicle or command vehicle. The M8 Armored Gun System, which I saw up close in my time at BAE systems,* was much smaller and lighter, and had a lower height, and hence better concealment. Going with a completely common platform costs more than you save.
  • Abandon the lead system integrator (LSI) concept of program development. This contracting concept has failed EVERY time it has been used, and there are already bills out there to ban the practice. It gives lunatics (defense contractors) the keys to the asylum.
  • A better understanding on what the program is for. On the FCS-MGV, for example GD was responsible for propulsion and suspension, and BAE Systems was responsible for the track, not because of any special technical abilities of the respective companies, but because of a deliberate policy to spread the money around evenly.
  • Implement technologies that are more mature.

*Full disclosure, I worked on the Future Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, FRMV, “wrecker” variant of the FCS-MGV† from 2003-2006 at United Defense (later BAE Systems after the Carlyle Group sold me to buy Dunkin Donuts).
†Future Combat Systems-Manned Ground Vehicle. These are the ones that are the tanks and APCs. As opposed to the various unnmanned vehicles, networking technologies, etc. that form the full FCS along with the MGVs.‡
‡Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.

Israel Has Maintenance Access Issue with F-35

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Israel has just been denied access to the computer systems of the F-35 JSF that would be required to maintain the aircraft.

Israel maintains that they need they need access to these systems, because in a wartime scenario, that they would need to repair the systems in real time, while the US maintains that there will be spares that can be replaced under those circumstances.

So Israel is now making noises about looking at the F-15 Silent Eagle upgrade as an alternative to the JSF, which I think is just blowing smoke.

I also think that both sides are talking around the real issues, the first being sticker shock, with a reporter $20 billion for 75 aircraft giving a $266 million price tag, but the second one, and perhaps the one that the Israelis are more concerned with, is the ability to independently integrate their own weapons and their own systems into the aircraft.

There is also the concern, at least amongst those of us who watched the recent Battlestar Galactica series, that there may be an “off” switch somewhere in those millions of lines of code.

Denmark Delays Fighter Purchase

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It looks like their decision on an F-16 replacement has been pushed to the fall, to allow the formulation of a new National Defense Strategy (basically a budget white paper).

The competitors are the JSF, F/A-18, Gripen, and my guess is there are a number of reasons here, that they want more time to get firmer cost figures on the JSF, which seems to get more expensive daily, and see if they can afford it, and they see the the delay to extract price concessions.

I think that a lot of countries, like Denmark, which were likely JSF buyers, are looking at the numbers, and getting sticker shock.

Gripen NG Going With Swash Plate AESA Radar

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While there are a number of advantages to AESA radars, including reliability, flexibility, range, and low signature, there are also disadvantages, most notably cost, weight, and look angle.

An AESA radar will typically offer inferior performance at significant angles off boresight, and a narrower field of view.

It appears that SAAB is following Eurofighter’s lead, and will offer a swashplate AESA radar for Gripen NG (see picture), in partnership with Radar supplier Selex, offering a “scan angle of up to 100°” (off boresite).

This should address one of the concerns of potential customers, though there is still the whole “chicken-egg” thing, where the customer does not want to be the only foreign customer for the system, or support and upgrades become prohibitively expensive.

SAAB’s brochure is here. (PDF)

Russia: Turkey Seeks To Buy Air Defense System – Defense News

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About 7 months ago, I noted that Turkey was looking to buy Russian SAM Systems.

We have another report , and this adds the S-400 (NATO Code Name SA-21 Growler) to the list.

It is arguably the most capable SAM system in the world with a range in excess of 400 km, and a sophisticated control system that may allow for some anti-stealth capabilities through sensor fusion and data processing, along a significant anti-missile capabilities, which might very well provide coverage from something fired from Iran.

What is interesting here is that the story is not that the manufacturer is saying that Turkey wants the system, not that a contract has been inked, and the system has yet to be exported, and I am not sure that if I were Russian authorities, I would want a NATO ally, who would be very likely to pass along data on this system to the US, to get their mitts on this.