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F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: 2009-2010
18-Nov-2009 18:38 EST |
Related Stories: Alliances, Americas - USA, BAE, Britain/U.K., Contracts - Awards, Contracts - Modifications, Design Innovations, ECM, Electronics - General, Engines - Aircraft, Europe - Other, FOCUS Articles, Fighters & Attack, Finmeccanica, GE, Issues - International, Issues - Political, Lobbying, Lockheed Martin, Middle East - Israel, Northrop-Grumman, Official Reports, Other Corporation, Partnerships & Consortia, Policy - Procurement, R&D - Contracted, Radars, Rumours, Security & Secrecy, Sensors & Guidance, Testing & Evaluation, Transformation
F-35A: incoming…
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The F-35 Lightning II is a major multinational program which is intended to produce an “affordably stealthy” multi-role strike fighter that will have three variants: the F-35A conventional version for the US Air Force et. al.; the F-35B Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing for the US Marines, British Royal Navy, et. al.; and the F-35C conventional carrier-launched version for the US Navy. The aircraft is named after Lockheed’s famous WW2 P-38 Lightning, and the Mach 2, stacked-engine English Electric (now BAE) Lightning jet. System development partners included The USA & Britain (Tier 1), Italy and the Netherlands (Tier 2), and Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Turkey (Tier 3), with Singapore and Israel as “Security Cooperation Partners.” Now the challenge is agreeing on production phase membership and arrangements, to be followed by initial purchase commitments around 2008-2009.
This updated article has expanded to feature more detail regarding the $300 billion F-35 program, including other contracts as well as notable events. New material is highlighted by putting it in green type. Recent news include an investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram into JET’s conclusions regarding program delays, Lockheed Martin’s response, and a Rolls Royce contract for production LiftSystem engine modules…
EA-18G Program: The USA’s Electronic Growler
03-Nov-2009 14:07 EST |
Related Stories: Americas - USA, Boeing, Contracts - Awards, Contracts - Modifications, Delivery & Task Orders, ECM, FOCUS Articles, Force Structure, IT - Software & Integration, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Other Corporation, Raytheon, Specialty Aircraft
EA-6B Prowler
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With the retirement of the US Air Force’s long-range EF-111 Raven “Spark ‘Vark,” the aging 4-seat EA-6B Prowlers are now the USA’s sole remaining tactical aircraft type for radar jamming, communications jamming and information operations like signals interception [1]. They’ve been predictably busy as a result. In Iraq, they’ve been used for everything from escorting strike aircraft against heavily defended targets during the opening days of the war, to disrupting enemy IED attacks by jamming all radio signals in an area.
EA-18G at Pax
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All airframes have lifespan limits, however, and the EA-6B is no exception. The USA’s new electronic warfare aircraft is based on Boeing’s 2-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet multi-role fighter and has 90% commonality with its counterpart. That will give it decent self-defense capabilities as well as electronic attack potential. At present, however, the EA-18G is slated to be the only dedicated electronic warfare aircraft in the USA’s future force – and since the USA is the only western country with such aircraft, it would become the sole source of tactical jamming support for NATO air forces as a whole.
DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This article describes the aircraft and key systems, outlining the program, and keeping track of ongoing developments, contracts, et. al. that affect the program. New items will be highlighted via green type. The latest news involves the FY 2010 budget, and a parts contract…
Global Hawk UAV Prepares for Maritime Role (updated)
26-Oct-2009 10:40 EDT |
Related Stories: Americas - USA, Coastal & Littoral, Delivery & Task Orders, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Sensors - Aquatic, Testing & Evaluation, UAVs
RQ-4A Global Hawk
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Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV has established a dominant position in the High Altitude/ Long Endurance UAV market. While they aren’t cheap, they are uniquely capable. During Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the system flew only 5% of the US Air Force’s high altitude reconnaissance sorties, but accounted for more than 55% of the time-sensitive targeting imagery generated to support strike missions. The RQ-4 Global Hawk was also a leading contender in the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV competition, and eventually won.
The Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration Program aims to use the proven RQ-4 Global Hawk airframe as a test bed for operational concepts and technologies that will eventually find their way into BAMS, and contribute valuable operational concepts regarding UAVs in a maritime surveillance role.
Some of that testing took on a decidedly operational bent recently…
Continue reading…
P-8 Poseidon MMA: Long-Range Maritime Patrol, and More
25-Oct-2009 13:21 EDT |
Related Stories: Americas - Other, Americas - USA, Asia - India, Australia & S. Pacific, Boeing, Contracts - Awards, Contracts - Modifications, Delivery & Task Orders, Europe - Other, FOCUS Articles, GE, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Other Corporation, Partnerships & Consortia, Project Failures, Raytheon, Specialty Aircraft
P-8A Poseidon
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The P-8A emerged from the ashes of the P-7 Long Range Air ASW Capable Aircraft program that was begun in 1988. That program originally envisaged an improved P-3 Orion design, but cost overruns, slow progress, and interest in opening the competition to commercial designs led to cancellation for default in 1990. The successor MMA program was begun in March 2000, and Boeing beat Lockheed’s “Orion 21” for the contract with a design based on the ubiquitous 737 passenger jet.
This is DID’s FOCUS Article concerning the P-8A Poseidon Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, and it will be updated as events and contracts are announced. Filling the P-3 Orion’s shoes is certainly no easy task. What missions will the new P-8A Poseidon face? What do we know about the platform, the project team, and ongoing developments? Will the P-3’s level of global customer coverage give its successor a comparable level of export opportunities? Australia and India have already signed on, but has the larger market shifted in the interim?
In the latest news, Saudi Arabia is looking to add itself as an export customer…
AJACS Load: US Begins (Another) Next-Gen Tactical Transport Effort
22-Oct-2009 14:04 EDT |
Related Stories: Americas - USA, Contracts - Awards, Design Innovations, Lockheed Martin, Other Corporation, R&D - Contracted, Transformation, Transport & Utility
A400M: The real target?
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From “C-130J Acquisition Program Restructured”:
”[The C-130J Hercules] has since been deployed into theater by the USAF, where its vastly improved performance in “hot and high” environments has come in very handy. Unlike the pending Airbus A400M, however, the C-130J doesn’t solve the sub-survivable 20-ton armored vehicle limit that has stymied multiple US armored vehicle programs from the Stryker IAV to Future Combat Systems. As such, it represents an improvement that fails to address US tactical airlift’s key bottleneck limitation.”
Something called the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) may – or may not – represent a first step toward addressing that issue. It may also represent a US aerospace effort to avoid a looming future in which the Airbus A400M would be the only available tactical transport for survivable armored personnel carriers. With the light transport JCA made up of entirely foreign designs, the 20-ton transport market beginning to crowd, and the heavy-lift C-17 production line headed toward shutdown, the US aerospace industry risks a slip from a 1980-1990s position of market dominance in the military transport space to a position of fighting for its competitive life by 2020.
So where does ACAA fit in? How is it connected to the Composite Affordability Initiative, and the notional Advanced Joint Air Combat System (AJACS) program?
- From CAI to ACAA
- The AMC-X/ AJACS Program: Intent and Issues
- Contracts and Key Events
- Additional Readings & Sources
Continue reading…
Next-Stage C4ISR Bandwidth: The AEHF Satellite Program
21-Oct-2009 12:23 EDT |
Related Stories: Americas - Other, Americas - USA, Boeing, Britain/U.K., C4ISR, Contracts - Awards, Contracts - Modifications, Design Innovations, Electronics - General, Europe - Other, FOCUS Articles, IT - Cyber-Security, L3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Other Corporation, Project Management, R&D - Contracted, Raytheon, Satellites & Sensors, Transformation
AEHF concept
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DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This article offers a look at the AEHF system’s rationale and capabilities, while offering insight into some of the program’s problems, and an updated timeline covering over $5 billion worth of contracts since the program’s inception.
The USA’s new Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites will support twice as many tactical networks, while providing 10-12 times the capacity and 6 times higher data rate transfer than that of the current Milstar II satellites. With the cancellation of the higher-capacity TSAT program, AEHF will form the secure, hardened backbone of the Pentagon’s future Military Satellite Communications (MILSATCOM) architecture. Its companion Family of Advanced Beyond-line-of-sight Terminals (FAB-T) program will give the US military modern capabilities, and more flexibility on the receiving end. The program has international components, and partners include Britain, Canada, and the Netherlands.
This article has been updated with a recent contract for Boeing to provide engineering development models for the FAB-T, and a $50+ million order from Canada…
US Military Gearing up on Guam
18-Oct-2009 17:29 EDT |
Related Stories: Americas - USA, Australia & S. Pacific, Force Structure, Industry & Trends, Issues - Political, Spotlight articles
Guam
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DID has covered a number of base improvement efforts and other contracts related to the USA’s pacific territory of Guam, including construction of an RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV complex for the Pacific Rim, and extensive base improvements/ expansion for Guam’s airfield, harbor, et. al. DID will use this post to shine a spotlight on contracts related to that territory from the beginning of FY 2007 onward. Military.com offers a broader article detailing the build up; it’s useful as a frame for activities to date, and also a a context reference for our ongoing coverage (hyperlink below added to enhance context):
“The 2006 agreement between the United States and Japan to shift 8,000 U.S. Marines from bases in Japan to the island of Guam by 2014 is likely to have more far-reaching implications than just a change of address for some units of the Marine Corps’ III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF). The move is accelerating the return to prominence of Guam in the U.S. defense posture and fostering a higher level of cooperation among the U.S. armed forces in the Pacific region….
Congress authorized $193 million in military construction funds for Guam in the fiscal year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, a $31 million increase over 2006 funding. “Guam is likely to see between $400 million and $1 billion in military construction in military construction each year for a period of six to 10 years,” [Guam’s representative in Congress, Madeleine Z. Bordallo] said.”
Our latest update involves a raft of infrastructure projects dating back to May 2009 – and a GAO report covering the local labor requirements associated with the build-up…
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$73.9M to Raytheon for USAF DCGS Net-Centric Enterprise Services
08-Oct-2009 14:37 EDT |
Related Stories: Contracts - Awards
DCGS Laptop
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Raytheon in Garland, TX received a $73.9 million contract (F19628-03-D-0015, P00061) to provide net-centric enterprise services, open enterprise service-based architecture, web-based and client-based tools for the US Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) Block 10.2.
DCGS is a distributed worldwide network that began as a move to create common ground stations to receive information from aircraft like the U-2 and Global Hawk…
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DARPA’s Vulture: What Goes Up, Needn’t Come Down
30-Sep-2009 13:30 EDT |
Related Stories: Americas - USA, BAE, Britain/U.K., Contracts - Awards, DARPA, Design Innovations, Materials Innovations, New Systems Tech, Other Corporation, R&D - Contracted, Transformation, UAVs
Boeing’s concept
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In April 2008, 3 teams received Phase 1 contracts to begin developing develop a radical new aircraft, under a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program known as “Vulture.” DARPA’s goals for Vulture are not trivial: 5 years on station with a 450kg/ 1,000lb payload, 5kW of onboard power, and sufficient loiter speed to stay on station for 99% of the time against winds encountered at 60,000-90,000 feet.
So, what’s the significance of a platform like that, who is competing, and what is happening now? Well, Phase 1 is done, and a $155 million Phase 2 is being prepared.
- The Potential, and the Process
- The Designers & The Designs
- Contracts and Related Events [updated]
- Additional Readings
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AGS: NATO’s Battlefield Eye In The Sky
27-Sep-2009 14:02 EDT |
Related Stories: Alliances, Americas - Other, Americas - USA, Budgets, C4ISR, Contracts - Awards, EADS, Europe - France, Europe - Other, General Dynamics, Interoperability, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Official Reports, Other Corporation, Partnerships & Consortia, R&D - Contracted, Radars, Raytheon, Specialty Aircraft, Thales, Transformation, UAVs
Not anymore.
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Northrop Grumman’s E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS) uses a powerful ground-looking Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mounted on a Boeing 707-300 airframe, in order to give American commanders outstanding battlefield surveillance and communications relay capabilities. The Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system aimed to create a similar capability as a pooled NATO asset, based on a mix of smaller Airbus A321 airframes and RQ-4B Gobal Hawk UAVs, coupled with ground stations. In the end, however, the program was slashed by deleting its manned aircraft and advanced radar entirely.
This will become DID’s FOCUS Article covering the AGS program, from its platforms to its program structure to its procurements. The most recent item is the signing of the AGS Programme Memorandum of Understanding (PMOU)...
- The Need for AGS
- NATO AGS: Program & History
- NATO AGS: Platforms & Technologies
- NATO AGS: Contracts and Key Events
- Additional Readings & Sources
Continue reading…
