Category: Military

Speed bump: USAF sets modest goals for new bomber-12/06/2007-Washington DC-Flight International

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Really and truly, if we look at how bombers used, it makes sense to keep the BUFF (B-52) in service for another 50 years.

Speed bump: USAF sets modest goals for new bomber

By Graham Warwick

The USAF wants a new bomber by 2018, but says available technology will limit it to subsonic and manned. Is it aiming too low?

After studying options ranging from unmanned aircraft to hypersonic weapons, the US Air Force has decided its next-generation bomber will be subsonic and manned. Given the budget and time­scale pressures it is not a surprising decision, but the USAF still faces financial and technical challenges if it is to field a new long-range strike aircraft by 2018.

By setting relatively modest requirements, the USAF appears to want to minimise the risk and cost to maximise the chances its next bomber will be delivered on time, within budget and in sufficient numbers. The service wants to avoid repeating its experience with the Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber, cut from 135 aircraft to 21 as requirements changed.

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After a 30 Year Absense, the Advancing Blade Helicopter Returns

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I remember reading about this in my teens.

Eventually they went with the V-22 Osprey.

This is definitely better helicopter technology than the V-22, which is more a VTOL aircraft than a helo.

It remains to be seen where this might fit in.

My guess would be for an A-10 replacement that would be under army control, as it is not fixed wing.

One interesting fact, the ABC concept is well out of patent, so if the demonstrator works, other vendors could reverse engineer this technology.

X2 marks the spot for radical rotor designs-12/06/2007-Flight International

Sikorsky’s X2 helicopter programme has a mixed R&D heritage, and could be the model for the next generation of rotorcraft designs.

Along with broadening the realm of vertical lift, first flight of Sikorsky’s internally funded X2 compound helicopter demonstrator in the fourth quarter this year will also spotlight what may become the best model for introducing new civil and military rotorcraft designs – do it yourself.


Sikorsky is hoping its X2 technologies will increase helicopter cruise speeds by nearly 100kt

The US government continues to invest in the basic and applied research that helps manufacturers create breakthrough aircraft. However, the prime focus for most funding has become results-oriented incremental component or operational efficiency improvements to aid the US military on the battlefield.

Though the X2 concept is the result of much of that government-funded R&D, the demonstrator itself is 100% Sikorsky funded, and features a frugality and simplicity that reflects who is paying the bill. The aircraft is being built from numerous off-the-shelf components scavenged from near and far to keep costs low so much so that Peter Grant, Sikorsky advanced programmes manager, affectionately refers to the two-seater as a “mongrel”. It uses dual rigid counter-rotating coaxial main rotors and a pusher propeller to reach cruise speeds of 250kt (462km/h), well beyond the 170kt maximum speed for conventional helicopters.

The X2 has a mixed heritage of government and industry R&D in rotor systems, propulsion, aerodynamics and controls technologies that will help it meet performance goals of high speed and “low” vibration – about the same vibration level as a traditional helicopter at its top speed of 140kt.

The X2’s chief predecessor, the XH-59A advancing blade concept (ABC) helicopter, was built by Sikorsky and funded by the US Army, NASA, Sikorsky and others. Two vehicles were built and readied in two years, starting in 1971, a time when the US government funded such experimental aircraft.

The goal was to test the premise that rigid counter-rotating main rotors, where the advancing blade on each side produces lift while both retreated blades are feathered, could be used reduce drag and tip velocities to allow for cruise speeds well above the norm for helicopters. During testing from 1973 to 1977, Sikorsky pilots reached 240kt with the help of two fuel-thirsty auxiliary turbojets.

Though it was successful, the flight-test programme proved that the concept was ahead of its time because the technologies needed to solve key issues – high vibration levels, tedious mechanical control mechanisms and inefficient power management – have only recently become available.

“We believe it now makes this configuration feasible for next generation helicopter flight,” says Grant.

The maturation was due in large part to government-funded research on military contracts, among them the Boeing-Sikorsky Comanche advanced light attack helicopter, cancelled by the US military in 2004, and its precursor, the Shadow programme, an S-76 with fly-by-wire (FBW) flight controls. Both provided the knowledge base for the X2’s flight controls.

The means to control vibrations came partly from the military-funded UH-60M Black Hawk upgrade programme. Coaxial rotor design expertise came partly from the Cypher programme, a vertical takeoff and landing unmanned air vehicle demonstrator that Sikorsky developed under a US Marine Corps contract.

Solving specific problem areas through directed research, rather than funding whole demonstrator aircraft, continues to be the R&D focus for the US government. Its research is largely provided by the US Army and NASA for basic and applied research, and the Defence Advanced Research and Projects Agency (DARPA) for long-term, high-risk and potentially lucrative projects.

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X2 joint heavylift

Many key foundation technologies for Sikorsky’s JHL entrant, a much larger version of the X2, will be tested when the X2 demonstrator takes flight later this year. Included are active vibration control centralised around the transmission, a method designed to “short circuit vibrations at their origin”, says Grant. Sikorsky currently uses distributed active vibration damping systems for its production helicopters.

Once first flight is completed, Grant says his goal will be to get to high speed flight as quickly as possible. The company plans four phases of flight tests, beginning with hover and low-speed work later this year, followed by phases 2 to 4 throughout next year.

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RAF Reinstalls Cannons all Typhoons

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They decided that they needed the cannons in Afghanistan. A 500 lb bomb against a guy in a pickup near civilians will cause too much collateral damage.

They discovered this in Sierra Leone, with their Harriers, which had had the cannons pulled, and sometimes the target was just a guy on a bicycle.

It was a false economy in the first place.

Cannons will be operable on all UK RAF Eurofighter Typhoons

The 27mm Mauser cannons on all UK Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons will be operable, and will only require ammunition and loading equipment for them to work, contrary to our report last week (Flight International, 17-23 August). The UK Ministry of Defence says it will spend up to £6 million ($11 million) on support equipment, training and ammunition for those aircraft needed for a deployment where cannons were necessary. The timeframe for enabling pilots to use the cannon is two weeks, or similar to the time required for a force to deploy for UN missions or similar operations, says the MoD.

Originally, only the UK’s first 55 Eurofighters were to have guns fitted (Flight International, 9-15 May 2000). The decision to not enable those guns stemmed from the UK’s current air warfare doctrine, which specifies stand-off weapons. “The decision to retain operational flexibility was made in early 2003 after a detailed assessment of the costs of ballast compared with guns,” says the MoD. Ballast would have been needed to replace the gun mass as the aircraft’s flight-control system took into account the presence of the gun. An assessment into the use of ballast for the UK’s planned remaining 177 Eurofighters, carried out by UK Eurofighter partner company BAE Systems, concluded that guns, and not ballast, was the better option. The MoD estimates the decision will save £10 million a year by avoiding training and maintenance costs and ammunition supply.

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US Air Force seeks replacement for high-explosive cannon rounds-12/06/2007-Washington DC-Flightglobal.com

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Anyone out there know how frequent in-bore explosions for the PGU-28 A/B there are?

This round replaces the venerable M56 round, and is supposed to offer better ballistics, and a fuse that will detonate at lower velocities (hence higher ranges) than its predecessor.

It sounds like the fuse is just a bit too sensitive.

The PGU-27 (bottom) and M56.

US Air Force seeks replacement for high-explosive cannon rounds

By Stephen Trimble

High-explosive incendiary (HEI) rounds fired by most US Air Force fighters may soon be replaced in the inventory by inert 20mm bullets.

The General Dynamics PGU-28 A/B 20mm semi-armour piercing HEI round entered service during the last decade with the M61 cannon installed on the Boeing F-15, Lockheed Martin F-16 and Lockheed F-22. As of 2001, the USAF and US Navy had stockpiled 8 million PGU-28 rounds, each of which features a pyrotechnic fuze and a pyrophoric explosive.

But the USAF is now seeking a replacement round, launching a market survey on 1 June to identify potential sources for a “non-fuzed, non-explosive round with PGU-28/B [aerodynamic] performance”, an acquisition notice says. The market survey is being conducted by the Joint Munitions and Lethality acquisition centre at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey.

The current stockpile of PGU-28/B rounds “limits mission effectiveness,” the notice adds. Concerns about the safety of the HEI round have surfaced involving in-bore explosions. An upgraded version of the PGU-28/B has satisfied the navy’s Boeing F/A-18 community, but not the air force.

Unlike the F-18, the air force’s fighters have cannons mounted directly beside the cockpit, making in-bore explosions an injury risk for the pilot.

Anticipating the requirement long in advance, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has licensed manufacturing rights in the USA for a round designed by Germany’s Rheinmetall.

The Penetrator with Enhanced Lateral Effect (PELE) round would provide a tungsten casing that would be shattered on impact by a plastic slug. The effect is a blast of shrapnel spreading outward, or laterally, from the impact area.

The 20mm PELE round for the M61 cannon was designed with the air-to-air role of the fighter as the main focus. However, its utility in strafing runs against ground targets – an increasingly important mission for the USAF – has never been tested, says Rodney Ward, a business development director for ATK Ammunition Systems.

In 2004, ATK received a USAF contract to test the air-to-air effectiveness of the PELE round, Ward says. An operational test and evaluation phase is ongoing and should be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

The market survey is an indication that the air force will seek alternatives to the PELE round to replace the PGU-28/B. Ward says the programme reflects a major change in combat capability for the air force, rather than just a straightforward replacement for a round already in the inventory.

“This is a whole new capability,” he says. “They [will] have a round that is effectively inert that has a lot of blast effect.”

Here is the scoop on on PELE.

Penetrator with Enhanced Lateral Effect (PELE)

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PELE technology makes it possible to produce fully inert projectiles. The new technology modifies the projectile performance characteristics,significantly enhancing the accuracy of tank and artillery fire, while substantially reducing the risk of collateral damage. Non-explosive PELE ammunition consists of a high-density casing containing a core made of low-density, low-compressibility material. Upon impact with the target, the low-density material inside the shell is compressed to such an extent that the casing bursts, generating numerous fragments that are propelled in the direction of fire. This way, the round’s lethal impact is restricted to a defined space or limited area, reducing the likelihood of collateral damage. PELE and ALP make it possible to manufacture warheads containing little or no explosive. Moreover, existing ammunition can be inexpensively retrofitted with PELE and ALP technology. Both technologies can be integrated in full- and sub-caliber rounds, and fired from current and future weapon systems.

Pictures: First Australian Airbus A330 MRTT air-to-air refuelling tanker rolled out-12/06/2007-London-Flightglobal.com

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This is significant in terms of the Boeing EADS competition for tankers, because both now both companies have their tankers flying, and either in deployment (Boeing), or months from deployment (EADS) with a foreign military.

Pictures: First Australian Airbus A330 MRTT air-to-air refuelling tanker rolled out

By Barbara Cockburn

The first of five Airbus A330 multi role tanker transports (MRTT) ordered by the Royal Australian Air Force has been rolled out of the hangar at the conversion centre of EADS Casa in Getafe near Madrid.”

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Warplane nose art Done in by PC RAF

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Another grand tradition lost.

PC brigade ban pin-ups on RAF jets – in case they offend women and Muslims

In killer heels and little else, they have a definite deadly charm.

But the risque images of women that have decorated warplanes since the First World War have been scrubbed out.

The Ministry of Defence has decreed they could offend the RAF’s female personnel.

Officials admitted they had no record of any complaints from the 5,400 women in the RAF.

But commanders are erring firmly on the side of caution and “nose art”, as it is known, has been consigned to the history books.

Harrier jump jet bombers currently launching daily airstrikes against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan have been scrubbed clean to comply with the orders.

Critics said the MoD should be focusing on more important issues – such as the quality and quantity of equipment available to British forces sent off to war.

Nose art first appeared on warplanes during the First World War and enjoyed a golden age during the Second World War when thousands of American fighters and bombers were decorated with pictures of glamorous women.

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We’re F&^%ing Up Afghanistan

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This is why Iraq is so dangerous. There are places in the world that need those resources.

U.S. Troops Kill 7 Afghan Police

U.S. Troops Kill 7 Afghan Police
Tuesday, Jun. 12, 2007 By AP
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(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Afghan police mistakenly thought U.S. troops on a nighttime mission were Taliban fighters and opened fire on them, prompting U.S. forces to return fire and call in attack aircraft, killing seven Afghan police, officials said Tuesday.

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops, meanwhile, killed more than 24 suspected Taliban fighters during an eight-hour battle in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said.

President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman labeled the shooting at a remote police checkpoint in the eastern province of Nangarhar ‘a tragic incident’ caused by a lack of communication.

‘The police forces were not aware of the coalition’s operation,’ said spokesman Karim Rahimi. ‘The police checkpoint in the area thought that they were the enemy, so police opened fire on the coalition, and then the coalition thought that the enemies were firing on them, so they returned fire back.’

The commander at the post, Esanullah, who goes by one name, said U.S. gunfire and helicopter rockets killed seven policemen and wounded four.

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Bush Diplomacy Leaves Debris in Its Wake

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The program is splitting Europe because it is poorly conceived and dishonestly presented.

Again, I refer you to my post on the patent system to provide some perspective on the level of performance of this administration

NATO Struggles With Missile Defense(Subscription Required)

Russian pressure heightens missile defense concerns within NATO

Printed headline: Out of Sync

NATO nations are growing increasingly divided over how to move forward plans to establish European missile defenses, with unease exacerbated by concern over Russia’s strategic objectives.

Officials at NATO Headquarters in Brussels say the U.S. plan to station a radar site and 10 interceptor missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland, using bilateral agreements, is throwing NATO’s own approach off balance. NATO worries are being aggravated by what one official describes as ‘well-orchestrated Russian pressure on all chess boards simultaneously, ranging from the CFE [Conventional Armed Forces in Europe] treaty to energy, Estonia, Kosovo, NATO expansion and missile defense.’ Moscow’s latest gambit is the offer of a joint missile defense system to be sited in Azerbaijan.

The crux of the problem is that the U.S. system is designed to provide protection for the continental U.S., and will only give some European coverage, through the proposed Polish and Czech sites. The NATO missile defense architecture would protect all of Europe. Command and control also remains an area of contention.

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Let’s be clear. This is directed at Russia, Iran is just a pretext here.

That’s why Putin’s proposal of locating the radar in Azerbaijan made the Bushies look like fools.

It’s better to protect Europe, and does not threaten the Russians, which is the real objective of the US, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot??

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Ummm…Are these guys on the payroll of Leno’s or Letterman’s gag writers, or what?

I saw the Get Smart movie the Nude Bomb, and the script writers for that miscarriage of spy spoofage were more credible than the DoD.

cbs5.com – Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A ‘Gay Bomb’

Hank Plante
Reporting

(CBS 5) BERKELEY A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called “Gay Bomb.”

Edward Hammond, of Berkeley’s Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force’s Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, “One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior.”

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

“The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soliders to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another,” Hammond said after reviwing the documents.

“The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay,” explained Hammond.

The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994.

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Your tax dollars at work.

F/A-18E/F To Get New Air Combat Sensor

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I think that this is a reaction to something that was perceived as lacking with current US fighter sensor suites.

F/A-18E/F To Get New Air Combat Sensor (Subscription Required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/04/2007, page 30

Andy Nativi
St. Louis

Enhanced electronic warfare systems drive U.S. Navy to improve F/A-18E/F sensor suite

Printed headline: Bug Eyes

The U.S. Navy wants to upgrade its F/A-18E/Fs with an infrared search-and-track system out of concern that increasingly sophisticated electronic jamming systems could thwart the fighter’s radar system, leaving pilots “blinded” in air-to-air combat.

While the Russians have had these for decades, and they are part of the standard fit on both the Typhoon and Rafale, I believe that there have been only two combat aircraft so equipped in the US inventory, the F-106, and the F-14.

This is a recognition of the fact that our potential adversaries are aware of this.

Although the service has been upgrading the fighter’s radar, and the latest version (the APG-79 with active electronically scanned array) should have enhanced ability to nullify hostile jamming, Navy officials are worried about the proliferation of X-band electronic countermeasures systems, which could degrade radar performance. In particular, China’s expansive spending on electronic warfare equipment is being carefully monitored. The service fears this build-up could compromise their own freedom to operate in the Pacific.

Boeing would modify an external fuel tank to fit the F/A-18E/F with a centerline-mounted IRST. Lockheed Martin would provide the critical optics.Credit: BOEING CONCEPTS>

More than China, see below.

The addition of an infrared search-and-track system (IRST)–already standard on many Russian and western European fighters–would provide “spectral diversity” to the Navy. ……

As I’ve said, we are late to this game.


Boeing would modify an external fuel tank to fit the F/A-18E/F with a centerline-mounted IRST. Lockheed Martin would provide the critical optics.Credit: BOEING CONCEPTS

F/A-18 prime contractor Boeing has chosen Lockheed Martin to provide the sensor. A first prototype is set to be tested on a Super Hornet early next year through a company-funded risk reduction and capabilities demo effort. Enhanced versions of the AAS-42 electronics and optical units used on the F-14 (already available on South Korea’s F-15K) will be repackaged in a modified 480-gal. fuel tank. The equipment will also feature an off-the-shelf thermal control unit.

The fact that the South Koreans requested it for the F-15K implies that they are concerned about this very issue with North Korea.

My guess is that someone had done some analysis, and determined that if you put out a lot of power without a lot of sophistication, you can muddy the radar picture.

Boeing opted for a podded solution to save money. “Originally, we considered integrating the IRST into the aircraft fuselage, on the upper nose, or on the gunbay doors, but these solutions required significant structural, electrical and cooling system modifications and, in both cases, called for relocating existing antennas,” says Chris D. Wedewer, Boeing’s F/A-18E/F IRST program manager. “We also investigated the possibility of putting an IRST pod on the right fuselage station, opposite the fuselage-mounted Raytheon [Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared] targeting pod, but this option came with too many operational limitations in terms of field of view,” in particular when weapons are being carried, he adds.

Those limitations drove the decision to place the sensor on the centerline weapon station, traditionally the spot for the fuel tank. Since a fuel tank has already been cleared for that station, using such a device to house the IRST was seen as the next logical step. The IRST will also function as a fuel tank, with a part of a pod still able to accommodate 330 gal., Wedewer notes.

It is a fairly neat package for what I think is perceived as an immediate need.

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Bandar, aka Bandar Bush, Saudi Prince ‘Received Arms Cash’

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It should be noted that he is so close to the Bush family that he’s called “Bandar Bush”.

BBC NEWS | Business | Saudi prince ‘received arms cash’: “A Saudi prince who negotiated a £40bn arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia received secret payments for over a decade, a BBC probe has found.

The UK’s biggest arms dealer, BAE Systems, paid hundreds of millions of pounds to the ex-Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

The payments were made with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Defence.

Prince Bandar would not comment on the investigation and BAE Systems said it acted lawfully at all times.

The MoD said information about the Al Yamamah deal was confidential.

Sir Raymond Lygo, a former chief executive of BAE, told the BBC’s World Business Report that there had been ‘nothing untoward’ about the arms deal.

‘I was the one who won the contract,’ he said. ‘I don’t know anything about him (the prince) at all. I would have remembered that name.’

When asked about the secret payments, Sir Lygo said that it was not going on when the deal was signed.

‘I would have known if it was going on at the time. I was not aware of it, so as far as I am concerned it was not occuring.

‘Yes, we paid agents. Nothing illegal about that. It was absolutely in accordance with the law at the time… there was nothing untoward about the deal whatsoever.”

Private plane

The investigation found that up to £120m a year was sent by BAE Systems from the UK into two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington.

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£120m/year. At current exchange rates, that’s about $240 million.

High priced agent. He’s getting more a year than A-Rod, whose agent gets even less than that.

Israeli Phased Array AEW Aircraft

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This is significant, because we will be seeing many smaller nations acquiring C3I capabilities that rival those of the USAF and USN on much smaller platforms.

We are seeing technological developments equivalent to those that have occurred in computing, which allow for weapons design and development without having a building full of vacuum tubes.

Israel gets second AEW Gulfstream-29/05/2007-Flight International

The Israeli air force’s second of four Gulfstream G550 business jets to be modified for use as an airborne early warning aircraft has arrived at Ben-Gurion international airport in Tel Aviv following a mid-May ferry flight from Savannah, Georgia via Edinburgh, Scotland.

Israel Aerospace Industries’ Elta Systems subsidiary will now install a Phalcon-derivative conformal AEW array, with the aircraft to join a first example (right) now in flight test. The Israeli air force’s future AEW fleet will join its three G550s already configured for signals intelligence duties, with these being prepared for operational service. Singapore also recently confirmed its selection of four G550-based AEW aircraft, with these to be in service by 2010.

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High Altitued Torpedo Mod Tested

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My guess is that because they are going from a prop (P-3) to a turbofan (Boeing 737 Derivative), they want to spend less time in low altitude, where turbofans are less efficient.

Lockheed backs LongShot for P-3 enhancement-05/06/2007-Washington DC-Flight International
By Graham Warwick Launch of a torpedo from high altitude using a wing kit has been demonstrated by the US Navy as it develops requirements for the capability, which is expected to extend the life of its anti-submarine warfare aircraft. Lockheed Martin’s high-altitude ASW weapons concept (HAAWC) was demonstrated on 24 May with the release of a Mk54 torpedo equipped with the company’s LongShot wing kit from the weapons bay of a US Navy Lockheed P-3 over the AUTEC test range in the Bahamas.
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