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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Lighterage from USS Seay
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Lighterage is about loading or unloading ships using lighters (barges) that can form a sort of ad-hoc ramp or shuttle from ships at anchor; they are often used when a port’s dockside is too shallow for the ship, or dockside berths are unavailable. These modules greatly expand landing options for well-equipped militaries, and may be versatile enough to be used in sea-based transfers as well. Even so, lighterage is one of those quiet enablers that rarely receives the attention it merits.

In August 2003, Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette, WI won a firm-fixed-price contract for the manufacture of the new Improved Navy Lighterage System, including both powered and non-powered modules. The total contract could rise to $404.8 million if all options are exercised. The systems will be delivered at Naval Amphibious Construction Battalion One in Coronado, CA; Naval Amphibious Construction Battalion Two in Little Creek, Norfolk, VA; the Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific; and Blount Island Command in Jacksonville, FL.

DID explains the new INLS ferries and lighterage, details the program’s contracts which are approaching $400 million, and discusses the systems uses and trials under a new concept called seabasing…

• INLS, Explained
• INLS in Use
• INLS: Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings and Sources
  
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B-52H, B-1B & B-2A
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GOOD NEWS: 2006 saw a convergence of opinion within the USAF that a new long-range strike platform was needed. This is understandable given the B-52H Stratofortress fleet’s age (40-50 years), the B-1B Lancer’s internal power and electronics issues, both of these platforms’ low survivability against advanced air defense systems, and the B-2A Spirit stealth bomber’s very small numbers [21, of which 7-12 are generally operational]. The unmanned J-UCAS program, however, was seen as having inadequate range and payload [Boeing X-45C: 1,400 mile radius with 8 GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs]. The USAF decided that it wasn’t a solution and pulled out, stalling American UCAV development until the Navy chose to go ahead with the carrier-based UCAS-D.

In September 2006, Inside Defense reported that the US Air Force was responding to ongoing Congressional pressure with a proposed $5 billion initial investment over the next few years. Their goal was to develop a next-generation long-range strike platform by 2018, with a fly-off before final platform selection. Now the potential contractors are beginning to align – but will the fly-off still take place?..

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Militaries around the world are moving to modernize and transform themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Our mission is to deliver a regular cross-section of relevant, on-target stories, news, and analysis that will help experts and interested laypeople alike stay up to speed on key military developments and issues. Stories are broken down by military category and presented as fast bullet points that orient you quickly, with accompanying links if you wish to pursue more in-depth treatments.

Some of This Month’s Targets of Opportunity Include: Aging aircraft; F-22; F-35; India’s big fighter contest; 2018 bomber; Next-gen gunships; Japan’s stealth aircraft; JCA – just confusing; Poseidon down under; Boeing’s invisibility man; Odd new satellite; unmanned fighters & swarms; Cell phones & Patriots; Huge IT contracts; DARPA’s Deep Green; Lots of MRAP; FCS spinouts; Fire Ball; Better body armor; Australia’s new fleet; Korea: us too!; Britain’s new carriers; US Navy’s new bills; Russia’s stealthy Stereguschiy; Remote firefighting; Coast Guard cutters; ADVENT of breakthrough jet engines; $1M wearable power prize; Sub-finding ‘shark’; UK’s Grand Challenge & flying saucers; Boeing’s new plane design; DARPA’s robot dog; New Russian nukes; Britain’s new maintenance concept works; Israel prepares; Counter-insurgency air needs; Export controls and their blowback; CSAR-X: rescue me!; And much, much more…

• Air & Space Sector
• C4SI Dimension
• Land Sector
• Maritime Sector
• R&D: Far Out Concepts
• Strategic Weapons & Missile Defense
• Supply & Support
• Policy & Doctrine

This briefing comes from a team that includes professional publications Defense Industry Daily and The Aviation Week Group, and covers events over the summer season. To contact us with story tips, email transformation, over @windsofchange dot net.

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NOT the bat-plane
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“USA’s B-2 Bombers Leading the Way in Contracting for Availability” described the new support arrangements for the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which has historically had availability rates that hovered around 50%. Since there are only 21 of these aircraft in existence, that simple logistics change is likely to have major consequences for American power projection capabilities.

Alongside its new maintenance arrangements, the US government is also implementing aircraft upgrades to these rare and expensive systems…

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B-1B Lancer
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The AN/ALQ-161A Defensive Avionics System on the B-1B bomber is supposed to identify, acquire, and defeat enemy radars and missiles. It was to be a very sophisticated jamming system, with 360-degree receive and jamming coverage plus a Tail Warning Function (TWF) to check six. The Electronic Counter-Measures (ECM) system would sort threats by priority and react against them automatically, even recognizing when it might be dangerous to use ECM and limiting its jamming to specific directions for the minimum required time. The system had very serious technical problems during its development, however, resulting in 2 full-scale recovery programs, over $1 billion invested in fixes, and an acknowledgment that the ALQ-161 would never really meet its original performance specifications. The system was fielded in the mid-1980s in the Mod 0 hardware configuration, and several software modifications have improved system performance since then – most recently in the very successful B-1B Block C upgrades.

Of course, software and hardware are symbiotes. A series of recent contracts indicate that the AN/ALQ-161’s hardware may also be headed for some improvements:

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Making a comeback?
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The Russian Ministry of Defense plans to replace nearly half of the Russian Army’s hardware by 2015, according to Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Ivanov said military spending over the next 8 years was planned at $189 billion, and that official Russian military spending had quadrupled from 2001 to reach $31 billion this year.

Ivanov said weapons purchases would include “17 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 4 military spacecraft with the same number of launch rockets for them,” as well as new bombers, ships, and other heavy equipment. The ICBMs are believed to be the new SS-27 Topol-M, and other plans reportedly include 50 new bombers, 31 ships of varying sizes, and fully re-arming 40 tank, 97 infantry and 50 parachute battalions. Some outside observers doubt Russia’s ability to fulfill these plans, however, given a closed military procurement system, that’s very resistant to scrutiny, in a country with a record of corruption. See Defense-Aerospace: “Russia to Spend $189bn on Weapons by 2015” | “Russia’s Defense Minister Unveils Plans to Overhaul Military.”

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All together now…
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Over the past 18 months, DID has spent a fair bit of time covering Britain’s defense procurement reforms, in particular its practice of “contracting for availability” rather than spare parts or maintenance hours on a number of its key platforms. The ATTAC contract covering the UK’s Tornado strike/interceptor fleet is simply the most recent example of many, but their approach of starting at a smaller level and expanding the scope once performance is proven and trust built has become standard procedure in this field.

Across the pond, the USA is significantly behind Britain in this area. Fortunately, they have not ignored the model entirely. A recent $200 million contract to maintain their B-2 Spirit stealth bomber fleet demonstrates that some progress is being made….

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RU-38 Twin Condor
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DID Recon posts will be used on occasion in order to cover a slew of news via a rapid-fire set of bullet points. Since folks have asked, we use the picture of Sikorsky-Schweizer’s RU-38 dedicated reconaissance aircraft (with its unique silencing features) solely as a thematic element.

• British Comedian 2, International Arms Dealers 0

• US re-election races could affect Navy shipbuilding.

• Future naval vessels to use more commercial standards.

• Crazy Uncle Sam’s discount Navy ship sale! (Come visit our show room)

• US Department of Homeland Security cites IT security progress, hopes to pass Inspector General review this time.

• Northrop-Grumman wins $357-750 million for US Homeland Security biometrics. They’ve held this contract since 1999. I’ve seen their equipment, and can understand the improved performance statistics.

• US Army hands CACI 3 contracts for about $50 million under $19.25 billion S3 (Strategic Services Sourcing) program.

• Northrop Grumman proposes B-2A bomber as testbed for new US bomber technologies.

• Boeing: Small diameter bomb can be placed in a B-52’s internal rotary launchers.

• Eurofighter pitched to Denmark as F-16 replacement.

• MetalStorm raises $30.5 million, has its recoilless guns test-fired from a UAV. Good thing they didn’t take China’s $100 million offer.

• M1 Abrams, Stryker vehicle supplementals lift General Dynamics shares.
  
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“Aurora” concept
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“Area 51” in Nevada, USA has been the stuff of myth and legend. Known world-wide as the birthplace and testing ground of famous planes like the U-2 Dragon Lady, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, and other “black program” aircraft, it has also been the subject of wilder UFO rumours and speculation.

In the October 2006 issue of Popular Science, noted “black project” researcher Bill Sweetman pieces together “The Top-Secret Warplanes of Area 51.” It covers some of the projects he believes to be underway there, based on patent filings, budget holes, and unfilled niches in the USA’s arsenal. DID would caution readers that all of this is speculation; holes in the US arsenal could be real due to neglect or priorities, patent filings et. al. may well pertain to active programs and research related to the WALRUS, J-UCAS, HAA/ISIS and other less well-known but nonetheless public programs, etc. With that said, his article makes for interesting and entertaining reading. Sweetman’s most surprising conclusion? That the Mach 5-6 Aurora wave-rider aircraft (see extensive GlobalSecurity.org project & budget analysis) may be on again as a $9 billion program, possibly with global strike as well as reconnaissance capabilities.

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