P-3 Orion’s SMIP Program Keeps on Rolling

Jan 15, 2020 04:56 UTC

Latest updates[?]: Japan has dispatched two P-3 maritime patrol aircraft to the Middle East from Naha Air Base on January 11. The aircraft will be used to patrol the Gulf of Aden, the northern Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. They are deployed at Djibouti. Defense Minister Taro Kono said at the base on the day: "In addition to antipiracy operations, you will engage in new missions. Peace and stability in the Middle East are extremely important for the international community. Do your duty with courage and pride." The MSDF aircraft were dispatched based on the "survey and research" provision stipulated in the Defense Ministry Establishment Law.

P-3 Orion, armed –
note Sidewinder

The P-3 Orion remains the USA’s main maritime patrol aircraft, and is also finding use in overland surveillance roles despite the fleet’s age. Earlier DID articles have noted the extra effort required to preserve the USA’s P-3C Orion maritime surveillance & patrol aircraft, along with radar and weapons upgrades to improve the fleet. Lockheed has even opened a new production line, to deal with planes whose wings that are so aged and worn that they need a full replacement.

The SMIP (Sustainment, Modification, and Installation Program) is intensive depot-level inspection and repair process that includes P-3 airframe and component inspection, identification of problems, and corrective maintenance. The idea is to ensure safe and reliable P-3 use, while trying to get more hours out of each airframe in order to sustain dwindling global fleets. More intensive “MIP” efforts may be launched once inspection results become clear, such as the USA’s P-3 recovery plan and full “ASLEP” re-winging efforts underway in Norway and Canada.

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P-8 Poseidon MMA: Long-Range Maritime Patrol, and More

Jan 13, 2020 04:58 UTC

Latest updates[?]: Boeing won a $42.3 million modification, which exercises an option for integrated logistics services and site activation support of P-8A aircraft for the Navy and the government of Australia. The P-8A Poseidon is an aircraft designed for long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, maritime surveillance and reconnaissance missions, capable of broad-area maritime and littoral operations. It is also effective at search and rescue missions. The US. fiscal 2020 defense budget has allocated major war-fighting investments worth $57.7 billion for aircraft. The financial plan also includes an investment plan of $1.5 billion for 6 P-8A Poseidon jets. Such proposed inclusions highlight BDS segment’s solid prospects, which in turn, are likely to boost the company’s profit margin. Work will take place in Washington, Oklahoma, and Australia. Estimated completion date is in September, 2021.

P-8A Poseidon

Maritime surveillance and patrol is becoming more and more important, but the USA’s P-3 Orion turboprop fleet is falling apart. The P-7 Long Range Air ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) Capable Aircraft program to create an improved P-3 began in 1988, but cost overruns, slow progress, and interest in opening the competition to commercial designs led to the P-7’s cancellation for default in 1990. The successor MMA program was begun in March 2000, and Boeing beat Lockheed’s “Orion 21” with a P-8 design based on their ubiquitous 737 passenger jet. US Navy squadrons finally began taking P-8A Poseidon deliveries in 2012, but the long delays haven’t done their existing P-3 fleet any favors.

Filling the P-3 Orion’s shoes is 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 wide global adoption 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?

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Super Hornet Fighter Family MYP-III: 2010-2018 Contracts

Jan 06, 2020 04:58 UTC

Latest updates[?]: DynCorp won a $21.9 million contract modification, which exercises an extension for organization, selected intermediate, limited depot level maintenance and logistics services in support of the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center's (NAWDC) F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft; the EA-18G Growler Airborne Electronic Attack Aircraft; the MH-60S Multi-Mission Knighthawk Helicopters; the F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft; and the E-2C Hawkeye Early Warning and Control Aircraft. The NAWDC provides service to aircrews, squadrons and air wings throughout the US Navy through flight training, academic instructional classes, and direct operational and intelligence support. The name was changed from NSAWC to NAWDC to align with the naming convention of the Navy's other Warfare Development Centers. Work will take place at NAWDC, Fallon, Nevada. Estimated completion date is in July 2020.

Breakthrough…

The US Navy flies the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighters, and has begun operating the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare & strike aircraft. Many of these buys have been managed out of common multi-year procurement (MYP) contracts, which aim to reduce overall costs by offering longer-term production commitments, so contractors can negotiate better deals with their suppliers.

The MYP-II contract ran from 2005-2009, and was not renewed because the Pentagon intended to focus on the F-35 fighter program. When it became clear that the F-35 program was going to be late, and had serious program and budgetary issues, pressure built to abandon year-by-year contracting, and negotiate another multi-year deal for the current Super Hornet family. That deal is now final. This entry covers the program as a whole, with a focus on 2010-2015 Super Hornet family purchases. It has been updated to include all announced contracts and events connected with MYP-III, including engines and other separate “government-furnished equipment” that figures prominently in the final price.

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Iraq’s New Trainer-Fighters: FA-50 Bounces the Czech

Dec 02, 2019 04:54 UTC

Latest updates[?]: Jane’s reports that Iraq received its final Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) T-50IQ Fighting Eagle light fighter and trainer aircraft. This delivery of the 24th T-50IQ marks the end of the six-year procurement process that was launched in December 2013. The Iraq Air Force fields the twin-seat T-50IQ primarily as a lead-in fighter trainer for its 36 Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters. The aircraft can be armed with air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, machine guns and precision-guided bombs.

TA-50 drops tank

Iraq may be on track to become the first export customer for South Korea’s T-50 Golden Eagle family of supersonic jet trainers and lightweight fighters. But the KAI/Lockheed Martin plane ran into a familiar set of international competitors, plus one dark horse contender. In the end, the dark horse won. Iraq will begin flying Czech L-159s in 2013, and begin receiving the main body of the order in 2014.

Iraq’s basic trainer purchase was Hawker Beechcraft’s T-6 Texan II, but a jet trainer is required as an interim step between the T-6 and more advanced planes like the F-16s that Iraq is buying. DJ Elliott of ISF Order of Battle says that South Korea’s TA-50 was suggested in fall 2007 to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, by MNSTC-I’s Coalition Air Force Transition Team. Other contenders can also be equipped as light attack jets, albeit without the same loaded supersonic capabilities. Iraq evidently decided that was good enough.

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UAE Buys Saab’s Erieye AEW&C Aircraft

Nov 21, 2019 04:56 UTC

Latest updates[?]: At this year’s Dubai Airshow, the UAE surprisingly announced that it will acquire two more GlobalEye Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft and three Airbus A330 MRTT tankers. The Dubai Airshow started on November 17 and will continue through November 21. The United Arab Emirates' Air Force and Air Defense is reportedly in the closing stages of negotiations with Saab for an additional two GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft, as well as a further three Airbus A330 MRTT (multi-role tanker transport) aircraft. The procurement for the two GlobalEye aircraft is valued at $1 billion, and comes as Saab is moving ahead with the program for three aircraft on order for the UAEAFAD. The first two aircraft were ordered at the 2015 Dubai Airshow, with an order for a third being placed in early 2017. The first aircraft was rolled out in February 2018, undertaking its first flight in March 2018. Testing and evaluation continued throughout 2018 and 2019. Saab officials told Jane's that the certification flight testing has been concluded, with the aircraft currently under modification to final status.

Arabian/Persian Gulf

In November 2009, Saab announced a 1.5 billion SEK (about $220 million) contract from the United Arab Emirates for 2 of its Saab 340 regional turboprops, equipped with Erieye active-array radars that can scan large airspace volumes, and with related command and control systems. The Saab 340 AEW contract also includes ground equipment, initial spares, and support services.

The UAE is just the latest buyer of Saab’s Erieye system.

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E-2D Hawkeye: The Navy’s New AWACS

Nov 08, 2019 04:56 UTC

Latest updates[?]: The Naval Air Systems Command awarded Northrop Grumman a $32.5 million contract modification, which exercises the option for five aerial refueling retrofit kits, installations and technical data in support of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. The aircraft is the the latest version of the Hawkeye and features an entirely new avionics suite including the new AN/APY-9 radar, radio suite, mission computer, integrated satellite communications, flight management system, improved T56-A-427A engines and a glass cockpit. The first E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft with aerial refueling capability has joined the US Navy’s fleet at Naval Station Norfolk in September. In April this year, the US Navy awarded a contract modification worth $3.2 billion to Northrop Grumman to deliver 24 E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne surveillance aircraft. Work will take place in Florida, New York, California, Maryland as well as England and other locations. Estimated completion will be in March 2021.

Northrop Grumman’s E-2C Hawkeye is a carrier-capable “mini-AWACS” aircraft, designed to give long-range warning of incoming aerial threats. Secondary roles include strike command and control, land and maritime surveillance, search and rescue, communications relay, and even civil air traffic control during emergencies. E-2C Hawkeyes began replacing previous Hawkeye versions in 1973. They fly from USN and French carriers, from land bases in the militaries of Egypt, Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan; and in a drug interdiction role for the US Naval Reserve. Over 200 Hawkeyes have been produced.

The $17.5 billion E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program aims to build 75 new aircraft with significant radar, engine, and electronics upgrades in order to deal with a world of stealthier cruise missiles, saturation attacks, and a growing need for ground surveillance as well as aerial scans. It looks a lot like the last generation E-2C Hawkeye 2000 upgrade on the outside – but inside, and even outside to some extent, it’s a whole new aircraft.

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Taiwan’s Force Modernization: The American Side

Nov 04, 2019 04:52 UTC

Latest updates[?]: Taiwan will be upgrading the avionics of its C-130H fleet and it is likely that the Rockwell Collins Flight2 system will form the core of the upgrade. National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology will be the project manager and Air Asia plus Canada’s Cascade will be carrying out the upgrades. Taiwan’s Republic of China Air Force has purchased 20 C-130Hs from the United States Air Force. Flight2 is built on architecture compliant with Communications, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management Systems (CNS/ATM), supportable and sustainable to meet existing and future aviation mandate requirements.

Despite China’s ominous military buildup across the strait, key weapons sales of P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, Patriot PAC-3 missiles, and diesel-electric submarines to Taiwan had been sabotaged by Taiwanese politics for years – in some cases, since 1997. The KMT party’s flip-flops and determined stalling tactics eventually created a crisis in US-Taiwan relations, which finally soured to the point that the USA refused a Taiwanese request for F-16C/D aircraft.

That seems to have brought things to a head. Most of the budget and political issues were eventually sorted out, and after a long delay, some major elements of Taiwan’s requested modernization program appear to be moving forward: P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, UH-60M helicopters, Patriot missile upgrades; and requests for AH-64D attack helicopters, E-2 Hawkeye AWACS planes, minehunting ships, and missiles for defense against aircraft, ships, and tanks. These are must-have capabilities when facing a Chinese government that has vowed to take the country by force, and which is building an extensive submarine fleet, a large array of ballistic missiles, an upgraded fighter fleet, and a number of amphibious-capable divisions. Chinese pressure continues to stall some of Taiwan’s most important upgrades, including diesel-electric submarines, and new American fighter jets. Meanwhile, other purchases from abroad continue.

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The US Military’s King Air 350ER Aircraft: Quietly Effective

Oct 31, 2019 04:58 UTC

Latest updates[?]: L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace won a $30 million contract modification for contractor logistics support of the Air Force C-12 fleet. The Beechcraft C-12 Huron is based on the Super King and 1900 series platforms and serves with the United States military as a utility transport among other roles. The Beechcraft Super King Air civilian utility aircraft forms the basis of the US military's C-12 "Huron" military-minded hauler. The type was introduced in 1974 and maintains an active presence in the air fleets of the United States Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. Work will take place in Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, as well as other places in the US, Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Columbia, Egypt. Ghana, Hondura, Hungary, Nairobi, Kenya, Morocco, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, Norway sonf Japan. Estimated completion will be by December 31, 2020.

MC-12 arrives

Despite all of the high-tech fighter hours flown in theater, Hawker Beechcraft’s twin-propeller King Air 350 continues to gain traction as an affordable, long-endurance option for light cargo delivery in remote areas – and effective manned battlefield surveillance and attack. Iraq’s Air Force was the first to order them, and an initial 6-plane UC-12W order from the US Marines/Navy followed in July 2008.

Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pushed hard to improve ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) capabilities on the front lines, and one of those planned purchases involved about 30 King Air 350/ C-12 aircraft for the Army. These “MC-12s” have proven to be very useful as a component of the Army’s Task Force ODIN, which has combined the respective advantages of UAVs and manned aircraft to improve aerial surveillance and response over Iraq. ODIN is credited with a number of successes on the ground, and the concept is being exported to Afghanistan. Part of that process involves buying new, updated aircraft, and the US military continues to buy KA350 turboprops for use in different configurations.

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The USA’s E-6 Fleet: Take Charge, And Move Out!

Oct 30, 2019 04:56 UTC

Latest updates[?]: The US Navy awarded IAP Worldwide a $84.6 million contract modification, which exercises an option to provide logistics services in support of the E-6B aircraft and the requirement for parts industry management and support equipment maintenance for the E-6B aircraft. The Navy's E-6B Mercury is based on a Boeing 707 commercial plane. The aircraft is part of the Navy's "Take Charge and Move Out" community. The USA’s E-6 Mercury “survivable airborne communication system” airplanes support their Navy’s SSBN ballistic missile submarine force and overall strategic forces. Work will take place in Oklahoma, Nebraska, California and Maryland and is scheduled to be finished in November 2020.

E-6B TACAMO

The USA’s E-6 Mercury (aka. TACAMO, as in TAke Charge And Move Out) “survivable airborne communication system” airplanes support their Navy’s SSBN ballistic missile submarine force and overall strategic forces. With the advent of the new “Tactical Trident” converted Ohio Class special operations subs, their unique capabilities become even more useful. The E-6B version also has a secondary role as a “Looking Glass” Airborne National Command Post, and in recent years they have seen use as communications relay stations over the front lines of combat.

Delivery of the first production E-6 aircraft took place in August 1989, with delivery of the 16th and final airplane coming in May 1992. This is DID’s FOCUS Article concerning the E-6 system, which includes details concerning the capabilities and associated contracts. The latest contracts involve important fleet upgrades, as the Navy tries to drag the jet’s systems into the 21st century.

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US Carrier Pilots’ T-45 Training System

Oct 01, 2019 04:58 UTC

Latest updates[?]: L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace won a $180.4 million contract modification that exercises an option for organizational, intermediate, and depot level maintenance, logistics, and engineering support for Navy T-45 aircraft, aircraft systems, and related support equipment. Under the contract, L-3 will also deliver equipment, direct material, services and tools to maintain the flight, test and evaluation operations. The T-45C is a training aircraft for pilots who will eventually fly F/A-18 Hornet, the AV-8B Harrier II and other carrier-based aircraft. To meet the needs of the US Navy training mission and to ensure aircraft carrier compatibility, several modifications were incorporated into the T-45 Goshawk design, including: new twin nose-wheel with catapult launch T-bar; nose-wheel steering for maneuvering within the confines of the carrier deck; strengthened airframe and undercarriage for catapult launches; relocated speed brakes; provision of under-fuselage tailhook; revised avionics and modified cockpit layout for compatibility with front-line US Navy combat aircraft. Work will take place at the Naval Air Stations in Kingsville, Texas; Meridian, Mississippi; Pensacola, Florida; Patuxent River, Maryland. Estimated completion is in September 2020.

Do you feel lucky…?

The T-45 Training System includes T-45 Goshawk aircraft, advanced flight simulators, computer-assisted instructional programs, a computerized training integration system, and a contractor logistics support package. The integration of all 5 elements is designed to produce a superior pilot in less time and at lower cost than previous training systems.

The US Navy uses the Hawk-based T-45TS system to train its pilots for the transition from T-6A Texan II/ JPATS aircraft to modern jet fighters – and carrier landings. This is not a risk-free assignment, by any means. Nevertheless, it is a critical link in the naval aviation chain. This DID FOCUS article covers the T-45TS, and associated contracts to buy and maintain these systems, from 2006 to the end of FY 2014.

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