Archive for the 'Vehicles' Category
Mar 31, 2010, post by awatrobski
The Boeing Company has successfully completed the preliminary design of the U.S. Navy’s Free Electron Laser (FEL) weapon system, a key step toward building a FEL prototype for realistic tests at sea.
During the preliminary design review held March 9 to March 11 at a Boeing facility in Arlington, Va., the company presented its design to more than 30 U.S. government and National Laboratory representatives. This electric laser will operate by passing a beam of high-energy electrons through a series of powerful magnetic fields, generating an intense emission of laser light that can disable or destroy targets.
“The Free Electron Laser will use a ship’s electrical power to create, in effect, unlimited ammunition and provide the ultra-precise, speed-of-light capability required to defend U.S. naval forces against emerging threats, such as hyper-velocity cruise missiles,” informed Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. “The successful completion of this preliminary design review is an important milestone in developing a weapon system that will transform naval warfare.”
In April 2009, Boeing was awarded an Office of Naval Research contract valued at up to $163 million – with an initial task order of $6.9 million – to begin developing FEL. The Navy is expected to decide this summer whether to award additional task orders to Boeing to complete the FEL design and build and operate a laboratory demonstrator.
Boeing Missile Defense Systems’ Directed Energy Systems unit in Albuquerque and the Boeing Research & Technology group in Seattle support the FEL program. The company has partnered with U.S. Department of Energy laboratories, academia and industry partners to design the laser.
Boeing is developing laser systems for a variety of defense applications. Besides FEL, these systems include the Airborne Laser Test Bed, the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator, and Laser Avenger, among others.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world’s largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile producer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.
Mar 31, 2010, post by awatrobski
On a test flight over Maryland last week, the Pentagon’s F-35 jet fighter landed vertically for the first time — like a helicopter — as it was vaunted to do. But at just about the same time, its price tag was climbing in the other direction. A Swiss Army knife of the skies, it’s designed for vertical takeoff and landing to please the Marines and their smaller ships, while more conventional versions are slated to satisfy the demands of the Air Force and Navy. All of a sudden, however, the F-35 is in big trouble. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress that its recent cost and schedule snafus were “unacceptable.” And while the Pentagon is not about to kill the program, the rush to push the plane down the assembly line and into the skies highlights the nation’s continuing inability to pit its limited resources against real threats.
While the nation was preoccupied waging two wars, the F-35 was lurking in the background, devouring dollars like there was no tomorrow. New data suggest that the program — the most costly in Pentagon history after the even more expensive F-22 fighter, which Gates killed — has been out of control. “Affordability,” declared an internal Pentagon report critical of the F-35, “is no longer embraced as a core pillar.” A too-ambitious design lashed to a too-ambitious schedule has driven up costs so fast and so high that even the Pentagon — long practiced at ignoring such mismanagement — couldn’t stand it any longer.
It’s a strange predicament for the modest jet that was supposed to be the cheap end of the military’s high-low warplane mix of F-22s and F-35s. The Pentagon launched the F-35 Lightning II program a month after 9/11. Over the past eight years, the price-per-plane has doubled — from $69 million to as much as $135 million — even as none of the 2,443 on-order planes have been provided. The program’s cost has soared from $197 billion to as much as $329 billion. Plans to profit from prospective sales of more than 700 of the single-engine, single-seat fighters to eight allied nations are beginning to look like wishful thinking.
“In response to what I consider to be unacceptable delays and cost overruns over the past year, this department has taken a number of steps to fundamentally restructure this program,” Gates informed a House panel on Wednesday. “I have replaced the [F-35] program manager … while withholding more than $600 million … from the lead contractor” — that would be Lockheed Martin, the nation’s biggest defense firm, the same company that built the F-22.
Just last summer, Gates toured the huge Fort Worth, Texas, factory where the F-35 is coming to life and declared himself satisfied. “My impression is that most of the high-risk elements associated with this developmental program are largely behind us,” he informed. Cheaper F-35s rolling off the assembly line seemed to bolster the wisdom of Gates’ earlier decision to kill the F-22 fighter, because cheaper F-35s could fill any resulting gap.
Unfortunately, that was last year’s logic. Gates said on Wednesday that Pentagon officials had bamboozled him with “overly rosy forecasts” that were more thorn than flower. After burrowing into the F-35′s cost and schedule, President Obama’s Pentagon team — including Bush Administration holdover Gates — recently discovered deep-rooted problems. “Things are more complicated than people imagined they were going to be,” Ashton Carter, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, told reporters earlier this month. “You can’t control costs, you can’t control schedule if you’re being unrealistic about costs and schedule.”
The rush to build the F-35 has led to ever-changing blueprints, which has led to slowdowns on the production line, which has delayed flight testing. How bad is it? Last year, engineers expected to churn out 200 changes — a month! — to the F-35′s design, but actually generated about 500. Even after Gates’ restructuring, taxpayers could spend close to $60 billion on more than 300 F-35s before flight testing is finished, meaning costly modifications will be required.
“There was a lot of concurrency built in,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley recently acknowledged, using the military’s buzzword for the way the Pentagon builds weapons at the same time it drafts blueprints for them (just like the way you order work on your kitchen addition to begin when the architect is only halfway through her drawings). Carter has conceded that the overlap of design and manufacture on the F-35 is “unprecedented” and — even after Gates’ latest changes — “worrying.”
Yet even as lawmakers were fretting on Wednesday that the F-35′s troubles spelled risk to U.S. security, Gates urged them to keep cool. He stated he had expanded the development period by an additional 13 months and thrown in nearly $3 billion more for the testing program (which completed only 16 of 168 flights slated for 2009). He also slowed production of the plane. Gates insisted that while the program’s management had been poor, its technology was sound. “It will become,” he said, “the backbone of U.S. air combat for the next generation.”
But perhaps it is the strategic thinking underlying U.S. military spending that is the problem. Under current plans, the U.S. military will have 1,000 more warplanes than any other nation by 2020, as Gates himself told the House panel. When it comes to the most modern category of fighters, in 10 years the U.S. is expected to have 20 times more than the Chinese, and 15 times more than the Russians. And that doesn’t include the punch provided by the Pentagon’s fast-growing fleet of armed drones.
In a perversion of post–Cold War thinking, the $1 trillion push to build and fly the F-35 isn’t driven by huge fleets of hot new warplanes being built by — well, new perpetual bogeyman China or former perpetual bogeyman Russia. Rather, the haste is being driven by Pentagon concerns over looming shortages of F-16 and F-18 jet fighters. And what’s causing those shortages? Gates made it clear that the current planes must be retired in order to save money so the military can pay for the F-35. “The Air Force, in order to be able to afford the modernization, is going to have to retire some older aircraft,” he said. “That’s just a fact of life.” Others in the Pentagon call it a self-licking ice cream cone: the U.S is now in an arms race with itself.
Mar 30, 2010, post by awatrobski
The Hindu An F-16 performs at the Aero India 2009 show. The aircraft’s maker Lockheed Martin has assured India that the F-16s being offered to it would be better than the one provided to Pakistan.
American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin on Monday assured India that the F-16s being offered to it would be “much more advanced” than the fighters provided to Pakistan.
“I can assure you, the Super Viper is much more advanced in all aspects than the F-16s being given to Pakistan,” Lockheed Martin’s vice-president-Business Development (India) Orville Prins told a group of visiting Indian journalists here.
The assurance comes in the wake of reports that India was concerned over U.S. supplying a new set of F-16s to Pakistan, a decision which could be a crucial geopolitical factor when the Indian Air Force (IAF) decides on the $10 billion Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender, described as ‘mother of all deals’
“The F-16IN Super Viper will be more advanced than the F-16 Block 60 that were delivered to the UAE recently. The fighter jets being given to Pakistan by the U.S. government are F-16 Block 50/52 aircraft,” Mr. Prins informed here.
However, the official said he would not discuss anything more about the company’s dealings with Pakistan, except the fact that it was not the firm that was selling anything to any country, but was just partnering with the U.S. Air Force.
“We don’t sell, the U.S. government does. We only support the U.S. government’s decisions,” he said when queried about the U.S. military support to Pakistan in the form of a set of 18 new F-16 fighters.
In fact, Mr. Prins tried to defend the military sale of his company’s fighter jets to Pakistan despite India’s protest, saying it was not just Lockheed Martin that was supplying to Islamabad, but all the six contenders in the MMRCA race were, either directly or indirectly.
Other bidders in the MMRCA deal were U.S.’ Boeing, French D’Assault, Swedish Gripen, European consortium EADS, and Russian MiG.
The programme to deliver 18 F-16s to Pakistan, named as ‘Peace Drive I’, will raise the total number of F-16s ordered by Pakistan to 54.
The ‘Peace Drive I’ order is for 12 F-16Cs and six F-16Ds, all powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine and these would be delivered by end of 2010.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had received its first F-16 in the Block 15 F-16A/B configuration in 1982, but it has been operating Lockheed Martin aircraft since 1963, when it received C-130B transport aircraft.
Block 50/52 is the eighth major modification block of the F-16. The Block 50/52 improvements — more powerful engine, colour cockpit displays, new electronic warfare suite, advanced weapons and sensors – are the direct result of combat experience.
The Block 60 F-16, supplied to UAE recently, has a host of new systems that keep the fighter on the leading edge of technology.
Conformal fuel tanks significantly extend the aircraft’s range with new, more advanced flight controls and radar detection capabilities, all-new avionics giving the pilots more sensor data and improved situational awareness.
The F-16IN Super Viper, on the other hand, will share fifth generation technologies that are currently available on the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor, both Lockheed Martin products.
“The Super Viper could be described as the ultimate fourth generation fighter, tailored exclusively to meet or exceed all of India’s MMRCA requirements,” Mr. Prins informed.
The Super Viper would have Northrop Grumman’s APG-80 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, the only operational AESA in the international market today.
“This revolutionary all-weather, precision targeting sensor has been exported by the United States government and is defending a sovereign nation today; no other MMRCA competitor can make that claim,” he informed.
The APG-80 AESA radar would provide outstanding situational awareness and detection; ultrahigh-resolution synthetic aperture radar mapping, fully interleaved modes of operations with automatic terrain following; and air-to-air tracking of multiple targets.
The F-16IN would be powered by the highest thrust engine in the competition, the General Electric F110-132A, with 32,000-pound thrust and incorporates latest technology, including full authority digital engine control, for maximum fuel efficiency and performance.
Mar 30, 2010, post by awatrobski
Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed confidence Wednesday that the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is on track and informed he does not expect more cost increases or schedule delays for the stealthy jets.
“There are no guarantees in any of this, but based on everything that I’ve seen, I have confidence that the range of cost estimates and timing that is being described and presented to me today will in fact be executed,” Gates told the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
Gates said his confidence stems from a thorough review of the program by Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter, as well as the decision to rely on the independent Joint Estimating Team’s assessment of the F-35 rather than the program office’s estimates on cost and schedule.
“Part of the problem we have faced on this program are overly rosy forecasts by the program office itself,” Gates informed.
In recent months, the Defense Department has restructured its development and procurement of the F-35, the largest weapons system program on the Pentagon’s books. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps plan to buy more than 2,400 of the fighters.
The restructuring was prompted by soaring costs, which grew from $50 million average procurement cost per plane in fiscal 2002 to between $79 million and $95 million, in constant dollars, today. Adjusted for inflation, the average procurement cost is projected at between $93 million and $112 million.
The cost increase means the F-35 has breached the 1982 Nunn-McCurdy cost-control law, triggering a congressional review and forcing the Pentagon to prove the program is critical to national security to protect the Lockheed Martin Corp. fighter program from termination.
To address the problems, Gates added 13 months to the development phase of the program, a move that delayed the initial operational use date for the Navy by more than a year and the Air Force by more than two years.
He also has fired the two-star officer who was its program manager and has nominated a three-star officer, Vice Adm. David Venlet, to replace him. And he withheld $614 million in award fees from Lockheed Martin.
“I think we got their attention,” Gates informed Wednesday.
During the hearing, Gates said the problems with the F-35 are not unusual in a major acquisition program, citing similar troubles early on with the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor fighter jet and the C-17 cargo transporter. He also emphasized that most problems have been managerial and not technical.
“It is important to remember that the F-35′s cost- and schedule-related issues — and I regard them as serious, to be sure — are problems primarily related to program administration and management, not the technology or capability of the aircraft,” Gates informed. “The Joint Strike Fighter will do everything the military services need it to do, and will become the backbone of U.S. air combat for the next generation.”
Mar 23, 2010, post by awatrobski
The flying debut of Russia’s answer to the F-22 Raptor isn’t wowing Air Force leaders.
Dubbed the T-50 or PAK-FA, the fifth-generation stealth fighter jet made its maiden flight Jan. 29 — 47 minutes over eastern Russia — and has flown at least twice since then. The twin-engine jet will replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker, both fourth-generation front-line fighters.
The first operational T-50s should be provided in 2015, the same year the Air Force expects its first F-35 Lightning II. Also a fifth-generation fighter, the F-35 has a single supersonic engine and stealth capabilities.
“I didn’t see anything … that would cause me to rethink plans for the F-22 or F-35,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told reporters Feb. 18 at the Air Force Association’s winter conference, held in Orlando, Fla.
“Russia has a robust [aircraft industry],” Donley informed. “This is not a surprise in that context.”
The PAK-FA resembles the F-22 — distinctive tilted rear tail fins and all — and has many of the same high-tech features, including digital avionics, a phased-array radar and communications equipment to link the fighter to command and control centers, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
The Air Force ordered the last of its 187 F-22s in 2009. Russia has not had a new fighter in nearly 20 years; the Indian air force is also sponsoring development of a version of the T-50.
“It looks like a plane we’ve seen before,” Gen. Roger Brady, the air boss for NATO and commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said at the conference.
Gen. Gary North, commander of Pacific Air Forces, made clear his impression of the fighter: “I guess the greatest flattery is how much they copy you.”
Still, the four-stars wonder whether the T-50 will live up to its fifth-generation billing.
“I don’t know if it’s really a fifth-generation aircraft,” Brady said. “What I do know is that it’s very clear that they’re working on a fifth-generation technology.”
For Brady, Russia’s push on the development front signals that the U.S. cannot settle for the status quo.
“The key is, we must continue to do fifth-generation and sixth-generation research and put money against it because other people clearly are,” Brady said.
North added that the Pentagon must ensure fourth-generation jets such as the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18 are continually upgraded.
“If we’re not going to buy more, what we’ve got to have is the very best that our sons and daughters go out to fight with,” he said.
In tandem with the T-50 project, Russia is developing a long-range bomber.
“We won’t limit ourselves to just one new model,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said March 1. “We must start work on a prospective long-range aircraft, our new strategic bomber.”
Feb 24, 2010, post by awatrobski
Russia has begun flying a stealthy fifth-generation fighter to rival the U.S. F-22, but Western analysts question whether Sukhoi can develop and provide the aircraft by 2015 as promised.
Sukhoi’s T-50, which made its 47-min. first flight on Jan. 29 from the KnAAPO facility in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, is the prototype of the PAK FA “future front-line aircraft,” the first new-generation fighter for the Russian air force since the Su-27 Flanker entered service in 1984. India plans to co-fund development and co-produce the new aircraft.
The aircraft is clearly shaped for stealth, with the chined forward fuselage, planform edge alignment, internal weapons bays and small vertical tails. The T-50 shows resemblances to the F-22 Raptor, but also reflects its Su-27 heritage in the wide “centroplane” that blends the fuselage and wing.
Sukhoi informs “the T-50 will demonstrate unprecedented small cross section in the radar, optical and infrared range owing to composites and innovative technologies applied in the fuselage, aerodynamics of the aircraft and decreased engine signature.”
U.S. analysts are impressed, but not yet panicked by the T-50. “Don’t go overboard and call it the Raptorski,” informs a Washington-based official. “It is essentially a Flanker in the shape of a fifth-generation fighter at this point. It still needs supercruise engines, advanced radar and a lot more work before military planners can start saying how it’s going to compete with the F-22 or even the F-35.”
Work on the T-50 began in the early 2000s, and the fighter is somewhere between a technology demonstrator and a development aircraft. How much effort is needed to finalize the production aircraft is not clear. Sukhoi’s Su-27 was substantially redesigned from the T-10 prototype, which first flew in 1977; but despite some rough edges, the T-50 looks closer to a finished product.
The YF-22 prototype first flew in September 1990, and the first development aircraft in September 1997, but the F-22 was not declared operational until December 2005—a longer cycle time than proposed for the PAK FA. And there are only three prototypes: the T-50-0 static-test article; T-50-1, now flying; and T-50-2, which will be used for ground testing. The two YF-22s were followed by nine development F-22s.
Feb 24, 2010, post by awatrobski
Egypt is set to manufacture its first fighter and drone “in cooperation with a foreign side”, official MENA news agency reported on Saturday, according to Xinhua.
“Talks and negotiations are underway about a project to produce Egypt’s first fighter and drone plane,” MENA quoted Lt. General Hamdy Waheba, Chairman of Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), Egypt’s state-owned company specialized in producing civilian goods as well as military products.
The official did not name the foreign party which will take a hand at the process.
“Local production of the aircraft will meet the demand of the Egyptian Armed Forces, as it will be sold at a very competitive price,” Waheba informed.
The AOI was established in 1975 with the aim of building an advanced technology industrial base.
Egypt is one the major Arab countries dependent on importing military fighters from the United States and Russia.
Feb 24, 2010, post by awatrobski
Politics could yet derail French industry aspirations to upgrade Pakistan’s JF-17 fighter aircraft, even as the two sides near conclusion of a deal for the program.
While the project is supported by the administration of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, reactions in New Delhi and Washington will also influence its fate . The U.S. is concerned about technology leakage to China, and India is already a lucrative market for French industry. Enthusiasm for the JF-17 upgrade could be tempered if there were signals that this might jeopardize business in India.
The Pakistan air force wants to develop a “Westernized” version of its Chinese-made JF-17, fitted with European avionics, fire-control radar and weapons systems. The upgraded aircraft is intended not only for domestic service, but also for export.
A team led by ATE—a Paris-based company specializing in integrating systems and weapons onto military aircraft airframes of different origin—is tipped to develop and market the upgraded version of the JF-17 Thunder. The aircraft was crafted by China in cooperation with Pakistan.
Other partners, according to sources close to the deal, include Thales, Sagem and missile-manufacturer MBDA. Among the losing bidders, they inform, are Astrac, a Thales-Sagem joint venture also specialized in retrofits, and Finmeccanica. The winning team would not comment on the selection, which has not been officially announced.
Industry executives say the project has strong backing from the French government, which has adopted a more focused and muscular arms trade policy under the Sarkozy administration .
Pakistan has a large fleet of French Mirage III and V fighters which the JF 17 is supposed to replace. However, the deal must still run a gauntlet of threats before it can become reality, and how long this will take is anybody’s guess.
Cash-strapped Pakistan may have trouble funding the deal, and it could also face pressure from its Chinese partners—who want to supply the aircraft with domestic systems and weapons—and the U.S., which is already supplying F-16s to the Pakistani air force.
Feb 23, 2010, post by awatrobski
Cobham (LSE: COB) has been awarded a contract worth up to US$25 million to produce advanced components and assemblies for the main rotor blades of the US Marine Corps’ CH-53K Heavy Lift Replacement Helicopter. The company was selected by the projects prime-contractor, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, a United Technologies Corp (NYSE:UTX) subsidiary.
Cobham’s Antenna Systems unit will produce all leading and trailing edge details and precisely locate and bond the details onto the main rotor blade spar. “This is an anchor program for our business with Sikorsky, and establishes Cobham’s composites business as a supplier to three United Technologies Corporation subsidiaries”, Cobham Antenna Systems VP, Fred Cahill stated.
The work will initially be done at the company’s San Diego facility, then the project will transition to full-scale production at the company’s new composite produce facility in Suffolk, Virginia.
In addition to its communication and navigation systems, Cobham Antenna Systems also produces high performance composite products for the aerospace industry, including components for US and UK military aircraft, ships and vehicles.
Feb 23, 2010, post by awatrobski
Aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia and Richard Scofield, responsible for bringing the F-117 stealth fighter to reality, will kick off Aerospace Industry & Association Day, Tuesday, March 23 at WESTEC 2010, an event organized by The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).
The two keynote addresses highlight a full day of activities designed to bring manufacturing engineers at aerospace/defense companies up to speed on technology advancements and give them a preview of industry trends as the U.S. economy moves out of recession.
In addition to the speeches, a special section of the convention center will be devoted to exhibits of production equipment for the aerospace/defense industry, identified with floor markers. Literature highlighting aerospace/defense exhibitors will be available near the entrance.
In his morning keynote, Scofield, a retired U.S. Air Force Lt. General, will offer insight and advice on positioning a manufacturing company for future aerospace supply chains.
He will draw upon more than 45 years of hands-on experience in operational flying, flight testing, weapons system acquisition management and commercial business management in preparing his remarks.
Not only did Scofield, as program director, bring the F-117 stealth fighter into fruition, he also brought the B-2 advanced technology bomber to reality. He is currently senior adviser of Air Force ManTech and a Science & Technology and Research & Development programs adviser for Air Force Research Lab.
Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group Corporation, will discuss current market conditions and provide an analysis of where the commercial jet, business jet and military segments are headed throughout the coming years and will forecast the 2010 aerospace global industry at a plated luncheon for manufacturing engineers. Attendees will receive a SME Aerospace & Defense Yearbook. (Luncheon cost: $30)
He has served as an aerospace industry consultant managing projects in the commercial and military aircraft fields, and analyzes broader defense and aerospace trends for Teal Group.
The definitive West Coast event for manufacturing professionals, WESTEC 2010, will run March 23 — 25, 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Attendees at WESTEC 2010 will be able to see demonstrations of the latest technologies, watch free show floor presentations and hear three keynote addresses and a panel discussion addressing the wind energy supply chain and prospects in aerospace/defense and renewable energy. More than 400 exhibitors are expected.
WESTEC 2010 will also feature free sessions on: The future of renewable energy and the wind industry by Matt Garran, supply chain manager, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)
Lean Manufacturing is Green Manufacturing,” by Isidro Izzy” Galicia, president and CEO, Incito Consulting Group
Staying Ahead in a Global Market-U.S. Tax Incentives,” by Randy Eickhoff, president, Acena Consulting, LLC
Health Insurance Programs for Machine Shops,” by Michael Dochterman, Valley Insurance Services
Engineers can also opt in for technical sessions on advanced materials, machining, metalworking fluids, non-traditional machining processes, tooling or mold-making and metrology.
About SME:
Founded in 1932, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers is the premier source for manufacturing knowledge, education and networking. Through its many programs, events and activities, SME connects manufacturing practitioners to each other, to the latest technology and the most up-to-date processes spanning all manufacturing industries and disciplines, plus the key areas of aerospace and defense, medical device, motor vehicles, including motorsports, oil and gas and alternative energy. A 501(c)3 organization, SME has members around the world and is supported by a network of technical communities and chapters worldwide.
