Category: Defense

F-15 Silent Eagle Updates

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It appears that the program executive officer for the JSF, General David Heinz, of the is unamused by Boeing’s marketing of the upgraded aircraft, which notes that it, “as all the stealth that has been approved for export by the U.S. government,” which implies that the export variants of the JSF will be less stealthy than than the version fielded by US forces.

I think that the general misses the point, it was not a shot at the JSF, but rather a shot at elements in the Pentagon who might want to restrict its export in order to further boost the F-35.

In the meantime, it does appear that Boeing is looking to minimize its exposure in the development process, as it’s aggressively looking for development partners, while it leaves the start of aircraft development on pause, pending a review of the “business case.”

They don’t want to invest in a product that no one will buy, and so they are slipping the flight test dates by 6 months.

Brazil to Buy French Assistance on Nuke Boat

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It’s a part of a $12 billion purchase by Brazil

Brazil on Dec. 23 signed contracts worth $12 billion to buy 50 military transport helicopters and five submarines from France.

The submarine deal involves the purchase of four conventionally powered Scorpene submarines, and the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine to be built with French cooperation.

It’s unclear to me what “French Cooperation” means, though it appears that the nuclear reactor would be a wholly Brazilian endeavor.

DARPA Looks at Riverine Submersible

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I think that what they want is extremely ambitious, and may be very difficult to achieve.

They are looking at the vehicle being able to semi-autonomously deploy in the treacherous waters of, “rivers, inlets, harbors and other shallow waters,” burrow in the mud, and conduct surveillance.

It would need to navigate its way quietly through the frequently murkey, with turbulent currents and things like sandbars to further complicate things.

Additionally they want to be able to sleep for an extended time.

I don’t think that this is going to happen, but the the pictures are wicked cool:

Interesting Take on Guided 70mm Rocket

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The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), which incorporates a laser seeker guidance system.

There is an interesting twist to the guidance package, the APKWS mounts a fixed laser seeker on each wing, as opposed to the traditional gimballed laser seeker in the nose.

It’s certainly mechanically simpler. My guess would be that the deltas between the 4 seekers are used to get a precise aim point with the processor.

It’s called the Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker (DASALS) a good example of using computing power to make a simpler and cheaper device.

Note for the metrically disinclined 70mm= 2.75-inch rocket.

BTW, here is some video pr0n of the system (4m 16s):

Solid Fuel Ramjet HARM

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Well, it’s beginning to look like the west is finally catching up to the former Soviet Union in solid fuel ramjet technology, with the British working on their Meteor, and the US looking at adding the technology to the HARM anti-radiation missile (it homes in on SAM radars).

Note that the Soviets had fielded the SA-6 “Gainful” with this technology starting in the late 1960s, and had been sufficiently confident in the technology that it was extensively exported to Egypt and Syria in time for the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

The picture is of a test launch of a missile with an AGM-88E HARM guidance system and a integral rocket ramjet (IRR) propulsion system launched at White Sands in August.

What is in advance of the system deployed by the Soviets in the late 1960s is that the booster does not have a separate nozzle, and the thrust can be throttled, which would allow the missile to loiter in the area waiting for an emitter to switch on.

IAF Adds Electro-Optical Target ID to Patriot SAM

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The Israelis Air Force is integrating a sytstem that they call Sniper to their Patriot SAM batteries.*

The rules of engagement that the IDF uses requires positive visual engagement, something, no doubt, that the RAF Tornado crew shot down during the invasion of Iraq would have appreciated, and this system allows for a positive ID out to the maximum range of the missile.

*Unlike most other services where SAMS are assigned to the army, typically a part of artillery, the Israelis give their air force ownership of their SAMs, on the theory that they have a better idea of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys flying around.

This Ties into My Ballistic “Carrier Killer” Post

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Basically, we have an enthusiastiac endorsement of an unmanned combat air vehicle launched from carrier decks:

Imagine a Navy strike plane launching off the catapult as its carrier begins steaming out of its San Diego naval base. The jet refuels over Hawaii, then again over Guam; it gets updated targeting data from its mother ship 6,000 miles away and launches its strike on an enemy nuclear missile silo in East Asia — all in one sortie.

Sound impossible?

And, oh, it could turn around and land on another carrier in the Red Sea after taking some surveillance photos of a suspected terrorist training camp in Pakistan and beaming them down to commanders in Bagram.

That’s just the half of what a naval unmanned combat drone could potentially do, says a new report from a respected Washington, D.C.-based defense think tank. Why land on the carrier in the Red Sea? Why not tank over the Med, fly up to the Arctic and beam back radio transmissions from an ongoing Russian war game, then fly back to its mother carrier now a few hundred miles from its home port?

Given the increasing effectiveness of conventional submarines and anti-ship missiles, this is one way to ensure that a carrier is able to provide support from relative safety.

Of course, you could do the same thing if you launched that drown from an airfield in San Diego, and it could do the same thing, and not buy the carrier at all.

Neat Tech: FCS Edition

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In this case, this is actually a potentially useful military technology, specifically what is called the Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) system.

These are a family of disposable/deployable sensor ranging in size from something a bit smaller than a shoe box to about the size of a cigarette pack:

The UGS come in two forms, the Tactical UGS and the Urban UGS. Tactical have four different versions, including the ISR node, which contains magnetic, seismic, and acoustic sensors; the Gateway node which is a communications relay system; an Electro-optics node with an EO camera for the day and an infrared camera for night; and a Radiological/Nuclear node. The Tactical UGS are about a foot long and several inches wide (exact specs are classified), and are typically partially buried so they aggressor units can’t see them while passing by. Urban UGS are smaller, and are placed on walls inside buildings to monitor rooms already cleared by soldiers. The two UGS send data back to the Gateway, which then processes the information and send its out through the FCS communications system.

The basic objective of the technology is to create a networked picture of the battlefield.

Situational awarness is frequently the most important part of winning a battle, but when one considers that any foreseeable conflict in the immediate future will be a counterinsurgency operation, where US forces would be operating at an information disadvantage that will not be helped by this sort of technology.

Was BAE’s Purchase of United Defense the Beginning of a Trend?

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When I was working at United Defense*, the Carlyle Group sold it to the UK firm BAE, and used the proceeds to buy Dunkin Donuts.

BAE paid a significant premium in order to buy UD, because they saw it as an entry point into the US defense market.

Well, Finmeccanica has now purchased the defense electronics firm DRS Technologiesat a 32% premium for what appears to be much the same reason.

I believe that we will see more of this, particularly with the dollar weak, as the US now spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined.

Additionally, we will see many more of the joint ventures of the type that EADS and Northrop Grumman have entered into for the tanker competition.

*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.

Gripen Demo Rollout

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Well, SAAB has rolled out its Gripen demo, with more thrust*, more fuel, and more carrying capacity, see here and here.

There should be a meaningful (i.e. carrying a meaningful air-to-air load) supercruise, in addition to the greater payload and range in the strike configuration.

Additionally there are some developments in parallel in avionics, most notably an AESA radar.

Here you can see how the landing gear has been moved outboard to the win root to allow for more internal fuel and a second pylon on the fuselage.

Also here:

In addition to being the best value of the current generation of fighters, I also think that it’s just plain cool:


*Cheaper engine too. The RM-12, a GE F404 derivative is actually more expensive than the roughly 25% more powerful GE F414.

B-2s Back in Air

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B-2 Bombers are flying again after their “safety pause” (let’s not call it a grounding).

Also, according to Aviation Week, while grounded, orders went out for an undisclosed component to be inspected, which is believed to be a part of the flight control system.

It could be an air data sensor, or an actuator, or something in the stabilization augmentation system, or pretty much any sensor or actuator in the flight controls, but my guess (and my record on this sucks just as badly as everything else) is something in the fuel system associated with center of gravity management.