F-5E Aggressors
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In the 1980s movie Top Gun, the revolutionary “MiG-28s” operated by the enemy air force were actually F-5E Tiger IIs, derived from a family of fighters whose design concept dates back to the mid 1950s. The F-5 family of aircraft were produced in large numbers, as they were an extremely popular export item; many are still operated by countries around the world. They are also routinely flown by American “aggressor” squadrons in training exercises, because they simulate the small, low-cross-section, and hence hard to spot enemies that gave American pilots trouble in Vietnam.

Aug 25/08: Sikorsky Support Services, Inc. in Stratford, CT received a $10.5 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-01-C-0109) that began in 2001, in return for another year of organizational, selected intermediate, and limited depot-level maintenance for 44 F-5 aircraft operated by the USA’s adversary squadrons based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West, FL (40%); NAS Fallon, NV (30%); and Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, AZ (30%).

Maintenance may be marginally easier this year, thanks to a smart NAVAIR program involving the F-5’s internal batteries. Work is expected to be completed in December 2008, and contract funds in the amount of $3 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year on Sept 30/08. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD manages this contract.

AN/ALR-67 V3
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DID has covered Australia’s ALR 2002 attempt to develop its own radar warning receiver & protection suite for its aircraft, including the RAAF’s F/A-18 Hornets. That failed, forcing Australia to turn to the global standard for Hornets and Super Hornets: Raytheon’s AN/ALR-67(v)3. Canada also has a CF-18 Hornet upgrade program underway, as the current CF-18 fleet is expected to serve until at least 2017. As attacks from Pakistan rise, the government is also looking hard at sending its Hornets into harm’s way in Afghanistan.

Raytheon’s AN/ALR-67v3 is a radar warning receiver that provides visual and audio alerts to F/A-18 aircrew when it detects ground-based, ship-based, or airborne radar emitters. It’s designed to provide accurate identification, azimuth displays, and threat levels for hostile and friendly emitters. It has become the modern standard for F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft, and has been incorporated into a number of earlier model Hornets flown around the world.

Canada has now added itself to that list…

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Chilean A-37
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The A-37 Dragonfly was developed from the T-37 Tweet trainer as a counter-insurgency support aircraft, whereupon it was sent to Vietnam and became only aircraft to undergo operational testing in actual combat. The jet’s slow speed, excellent maneuverability when performing close air support, maintainability on the ground, and ability to carry its own weight in ordnance made it a popular and effective choice on the front lines. Several Latin American air forces still fly the A-37, and now Pakistan and Peru have expressed interest in the A-37Bs used by South Korea’s Black Eagles aerobatic flight team since 1994. The A-37Bs will be replaced shortly by South Korea’s own supersonic T-50s.

In January 2008, KOIS reported that Peru’s air force chief of staff had asked about Korea’s A-37Bs during his October 2007 meeting with Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) commissioner Lee Sun-hi. Peru already operates the A-37B with Grupo Aereo 7 at Piura, near its northern border with Ecuador. Its air force is a mix of Russian and Western types, but budget issues and low readiness are often cited as problems with the fleet.

A-37, USAF Museum
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Pakistan requested engine parts, and possibly aircraft, via a diplomatic channel in May 2007. The Pakistani Air Force does not operate A-37s in an attack role, though its ongoing civil war may make that option attractive. It does operate T-37 Tweet trainers at its Academy in Risalpur, however; they are scheduled for withdrawal once the K-8 Karakorum (aka. Hongdu JL-8) arrives in sufficient numbers, but until then they will need to be maintained.

UPDATE: The USA approved the sale of 20 T-37s to Pakistan in August 2008, in return for the cost of shipping them.

Tejas LCA
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India’s fighter strength has been declining in recent years, as the MiG-21s that form the largest component of its fleet are lost in crashes, or retired due to age and wear. Some MiG-21s are being modernized to MiG-21bis ‘Bison’ configuration, while other current fighter types are undergoing modernization programs in order to maintain the fighter force until replacements can arrive. On which note, an ongoing tender has Russian, French, American, Swedish and European manufacturers dueling for a multi-billion dollar, 126+ plane light-medium fighter sale.

This still leaves India without a low-end solution to the twin problems besetting its overall fleet: numbers, and age. The MiG-21bis program adds years of life to those airframes, but that extended lifespan is still quite finite; by 2020, it is very unlikely that any MiG-21s will remain in service. As for the MMRCA program, it may replace some of India’s mid-range fighters – but that still leaves replacement of the MiG-21 fleet unfulfilled. In this environment, the status of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project matters a great deal to the Indian Air Force’s future prospects, as their level of confidence in its longer-term success will affect their immediate buys. The choices made in the LCA’s design will also affect the lightweight fighter’s export potential, which in turn feeds back into the overall program’s costs and viability for India over its lifetime.

The latest additions to this article include a whirlwind of developments around the indigenous Kaveri engine. As some predicted, the project’s performance failures have finally killed Kaveri as a fighter engine. A foreign partnership to produce a replacement has reportedly been selected, and other vendors are reportedly canvassed to provide interim engines. Meanwhile, Kaveri engines may find an unexpected use within India’s military…

• LCA Tejas: India’s Lightweight Fighter, or Just a Lightweight?
• The Kaveri Engine: Keystone, or Killer? [updated]
• Updates and Events [updated]
• Appendix A: DID Analysis & Op/Ed (2006)
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Start with this…

“ROVER” is an unimpressive piece of equipment. Mostly, it looks like a ruggedized laptop with antennas. But SpaceWar.com quotes Lt. Col. Gregory E. Harbin, of the 609th Combat Operations Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, SC, who says ”...the ROVER is bringing a phenomenal capability to our people on the ground.” ROVER is the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver, which receives camera images from nearby aircraft and UAVs (somewhat like Israel’s wrist-mounted V-RAMBO), then integrates them with other US positioning and targeting software.

Staff Sgt. Justin Cry, a Shaw Joint Tactical Air Controller (JTAC), has a job that’s an art form at the best of times. Describing features from the ground to a pilot looking down while flying at high speed is no easy task. According to a Dec 16/05 USAF article, he used the system in Iraq and in New Orleans, and says simply: “I can circle an area on my screen, drawing arrows for emphasis, and what I’m drawing appears on (the pilots’) screens as well.”

ROVER continues to evolve, and is becoming an unheralded but critical piece of equipment in America’s arsenal. This is DID’s FOCUS Article covering the system and its ongoing developments – the latest of which is a contract for next-generation ROVER III data links.

• From X-Box to ROVER
• ROVER: Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Amazon patrol
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After a public bidding process, Embraer and the Chilean Air Force (FACH) signed a contract for 12 EMB 314 Super Tucano advanced turboprop trainers and light attack aircraft. The Embraer proposal chosen by the FACh includes a broad Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) package, and an advanced Training and Operation Support System (TOSS) with 3 sub-systems: navigation and attack Mission Planning Station (MPS), Mission Debriefing Station (MDS), and Flight Simulator (FS).

The aircraft will be used for tactical training in close support and light strike roles. The aircraft can also be adapted to perform those roles themselves, and can accept clip-on pods like LITENING that turn them into surveillance aircraft with precision strike capabilities. The first Super Tucano should be delivered to the FACh in the second half of 2009. Price was not disclosed, and the ILS/TOSS add-ons make calculation difficult. As a point of comparison, however, Colombia paid $235 million for 25 aircraft in 2005.

Chile becomes the Super Tucano’s 3rd customer, after Brazil and Colombia. Its predecessor the EMB 312 Tucano has been ordered by 13 countries, and a UK-built S.312 variant is in service with 3 more.

CF-18: which way?
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The Hornet is the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet’s predecessor, and the first models were introduced in the late 1970s as a spinoff of the USAF’s lightweight fighter competition. While the General Dynamics F-16 won, Northrop’s YF-17 eventually evolved into the McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet.

The F/A-18 Hornet is currently flown by the US Marine Corps as their front-line fighter, by the US Navy as a second-tier fighter behind its F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, and by 7 international customers: Australia, Canada, Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain, and Switzerland. The USA’s aircraft were expected to have a service life of 20 years, but that was based on 100 carrier landings per year. The US Navy and Marines have been rather busy during the Hornets’ service life, and so the planes are wearing out faster.

This is forcing the USA to take a number of steps and issue a series of contracts in order to keep their Hornets airworthy, replacing center barrel sections, re-opening production lines, and more. Some of these efforts will also be offered to allied air forces, who have their own programs and services to call upon. The latest additions involves a multinational contract…

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RAF Eurofighter
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Back in 2005, DID reported that talks were underway for a Saudi purchase of Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 2 advanced air superiority and strike aircraft from Britain’s BAE Systems – with an important (albeit denied) set of conditions on the Saudi side.

December 2005 saw confirmation that Saudi Arabia had ordered Eurofighter Typhoons, but the 72-plane deal started sinking into the tar sands shortly thereafter. Investigations from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office swirled around a GBP 43 billion oil-for-planes deal from the 1980s called Al-Yamamah (see Appendix A); in return, the Saudis played some hardball of their own. The investigation was eventually called off at the highest levels of government, and after a period of uncertainty, a contract was finally signed on Sept 11/07. Ironies aside, the price was a bit lower than many expected; even so, it comes with support arrangements that are likely to push the final value quite a bit higher.

This DID Spotlight article covers the Saudi Eurofighter deal, its associated controversies, and related developments. The latest additions include a decision that permanently shelves the Serious Fraud Office investigation, followed by rumors that the Saudis may buy a second set of Eurofighters, and a take another serious problem off of Britain’s hands…

• Typhoons Incoming: Updates and Contracts (i.e. “Continue reading…”) [updated]
• The Long Road to the Deal
• Analysis: Effects on the Eurofighter’s Export Prospects
• Appendix A: From Al-Yamamah to Project Salaam
• Appendix B: Saudi Arabia: Dependence & Deployment Options (December 2006)
  
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F-35A AA-1
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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). 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. As a result of reader feedback, we’ll make the new material more visible by putting it in green type. Recent news includes over $1 billion released for the program, first flight of the F-35B, initial deliveries from foreign subcontractors, and a milestone for the GE/RR F136 engine…

• The F-35 Family of Aircraft (i.e. “Continue reading…”)
• F-35 Program: Production Timelines & Structure
• F-35 Program: Events & Developments FY 2007-08 [updated]
• F-35 Program: System Development & Production Contracts FY 2006-08 [updated]
• F-35 Program: Ancillary and Sub-contracts [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Testing, testing…
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Perhaps you’ve had this experience with your car. A warning light goes on intermittently, or another system doesn’t seem to operate reliably. The car goes in to the mechanic, where it may or may not display any symptoms. Repeat as required. Eventually, the dreaded diagnosis is given: electrical issues. The problem may or may not be consequential. The fix will be uncertain. The experience will be maddening.

For a military pilot and their maintenance crew, electrical issues are inherently more serious – but no less maddening. Few of us can afford to pay a mechanic for 24 hours of work in order to diagnose an electrical fault, but militaries often do so. Now consider the long-term effects on wiring from the constant airframe vibrations produced by high-energy turbines, and the buffeting produced by travel at several hundred miles per hour. Especially in a machine that may be 30 years old or more, while still possessing some of its original wiring.

As military aircraft fleets continue to age, wiring diagnosis and product improvements will be critical. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is beginning to introduce production innovations involving self-diagnostic wiring, but what about existing aircraft without a full wiring refit? Enter a US NAVAIR project, and a product made by Eclypse International…

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