Tanker Decision is Urgent

So how long can the KC-135 fleet last in service? The KC-135 tanker when it was young.

The KC-135 fleet makes up most of the inventory of USAF air refueling tanker aircraft. Before 911, USAF predicted that it could fly the KC-135 out to the 2030-2040 years. Various post Cold War contingencies like Operation Northern Watch, Operation Southern Watch (the Iraq no-fly-zones of the day), and support of operations over the ex-Yugoslavia (including Allied Force) as well as other day to day duties, kept the aging air refueling fleet busy.

Ops tempo for these aircraft have picked up even more after 911. The KC-135 is a three-level maintenance aircraft. This means that it receives routine flight line maintenance and every few hundred hours it goes into “phase” and “issochronic” maintenance in a hanger at its home base. This involves various inspections and detailed fixes of the aircraft systems. Finally, every so many years or flying hours, it goes to the depot at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma to get stripped down and refurbished.

With the increased ops tempo, the original plan of making this aircraft last to the year 2030-2040 is at risk. Each airframe now spends more time for each depot visit as new corrosion or other aircraft age discoveries show up.

The USAF thought it knew everything there was about three-level maintenance on the F-15 Eagle fighter jet. Then a manufacturing defect showed up two year ago and grounded a huge portion of the fleet after an in-flight catastrophic failure.

The KC-135 tanker fleet is just one surprise maintenance discovery and/or catastrophic failure away from suffering a long term grounding. All of the U.S. fighting forces depend on tanker gas for almost every operation. U.S. Air Power is the permission slip to make any U.S. war fighting operation happen. One bad KC-135 maintenance event means U.S. air power will be crippled.

Procurement of new air-refueling tankers has to be looked as an urgent priority. Or, some years from now people will stand around with a stupid look on their face with the whole KC-135 tanker force grounded due things we should have taken care of years ago.

B-2 and F-22 Train Together

A 36th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron crew chief conducts post flight maintenance on a B-2 Spirit after its arrival Feb.23 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The B-2 is deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Ryan Whitney)

United States Air Force B-2 bombers and F-22 fighters have started training together at Guam.

The F-22 provides the kicking down of the door of stiff IADS (integrated air defense) threats and the B-2 provides the payload. The F-22 is capable of carrying two GBU-32 1000 pound class JDAMs. It will be cleared soon to carry 8 small diameter bombs (SDB). With the internal air-to-ground payload, the F-22 also carries a lot of gun ammo and four air-to air missiles, two AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two AIM-9 Sidewiders. Because of extreme altitude and super-cruise, the F-22 has demonstrated hitting targets with the JDAM as far away as 24 miles. With no air to ground loadout, the F-22 can carry six AMRAAMs and two AIM-9s.

The F-22 takes over the mission of the F-117 as the United States Air Force’s premiere penetrator into high risk IADs. The F-22 “kicks down the door” by killing off heavily defended radar sites and surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. It also sweeps the skies of any enemy aircraft threats using not only its APG-77 AESA radar, but the exquisite AN/ALR-94 passive detection gear which can detect, classify and target enemy radar emissions. With the AN/ALR-94, the F-22s combat system uses the APG-77 radar sparingly in varioius modes only when an airborne target gets to within certain predetermined distances. The F-117 is considered to be obsolete. It doesn’t have the sensors, air-to-air weapons and performance of the F-22, which is needed to survive modern IADs threats.

The B-2 provides exceptional hitting power. Some years ago, using a new smart bomb rack, a B-2 dropped 80 GBU-38 500 pound class JDAMS to hit 80 different aimpoints all in one pass. The B-2 can also carry eight large bunker busters in the 4500-5000 pound class like the older GBU-37 “GAM” and its replacement, the GBU-28.

Other B-2 weapons loadout options include up to eighty, Mark 62 naval mines, sixteen GBU-31 2000 pound class JDAMs, 16 AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles to name but a few configurations.

The B-2 is also capable of carrying nuclear bombs: Up to sixteen B-61-7s or B83-0s or eight B61-11s.

The B-2 because of its design is considered to be broadband stealth. This means that its stealth resistance is to a wider variety of radar threats. The F-22 is considered somewhat broadband but its significant speed and altitude options allow it to use a wider variety of tactics. Both are considered “all aspect stealth” aircraft with the F-22 a little less because of its vertical tails.

If Lockheed Martin, the maker of the F-22 doesn’t hear any good news from Washington on funding, it will be forced to close down the F-22 production line at the beginning of March.

Staff Sgt. Terry Vickery (left), Staff Sgt. Tim Sullivan, and Senior Airman Ryan Ott install an F-22 Raptor canopy Feb. 18 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The Raptors are deployed from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, to Guam for three months. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald)

Technorati Tags: B-2, F-22, Stealth, U.S., USAF, Air Force, Guam

Budget is Policy II

Piling on to the big motivator for defense budget decision making…

BBC NEWS | Business | US economy suffers sharp nosedive

US economy suffers sharp nosedive

The US economy shrank by 6.2% in the last three months of 2008, official figures have shown, a far sharper fall than had previously been reported.

Plunging exports and the biggest fall in consumer spending in 28 years dragged the annualised figure down from an earlier estimate of 3.8%.

The decline was much worse than analysts had expected, sending US stocks spiralling lower.

In 2008 as a whole, the economy grew by 1.1%, the slowest pace since 2001.

Technorati Tags: U.S., Budget, Economy, Defense

LM and JPO Speak to the Gullible on F-35

The maker of the F-35 is still trying to weave the fable of an appealing price. Maybe if they repeat it enough, the gullible will believe it. The clueless at the likes of UPI, AP, and Reuters seem to believe everything at face value while exercising  no skill in reporting.

-It said the conventional take-off and landing model was projected to cost in the “upper” $60 million range per copy in adjusted 2014 dollars, when full production is due to kick in.-

Yet again, when we look at the biggest proposed buyer of the F-35, the USAF and their budget, we see something different.

-“There is no such thing as ‘What JSF costs,’” says U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, the F-35 program executive official. “If you give me a year, a variant and a number [in the buy] I can give you a ballpark.”-

With around 2% of flight testing done on a jet that was never prototyped, it is certainly an imaginary ballpark.

Australian Defence Puts Lipstick on a Pig

large image

Today, Defence announced that some of the Super Hornets in their purchase will be wired to to take on Growler capability if needed.(see full text below) If only the Growler had any real substance to it.

“Wiring twelve of the Super Hornets as Growlers will give us the opportunity to provide taxpayers with better value for money,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Lots of over-hype on a system that was procured based on a poor decision in the first place. I can hardly wait for the amusement value of the soon to be released Defence White Paper.

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SUPER HORNETS WIRED FOR FUTURE UPGRADE

The Rudd Government has invested an initial $35 million to boost the capability of the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets the Howard Government controversially ordered in 2007.

After an extensive review of the Super Hornet purchase, the Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced last year that the Rudd Government was left with

little choice but to proceed with the $6.6 billion purchase. Mr Fitzgibbon cited financial penalties and the risk of an air capability gap due to poor long-term planning, as the key reasons.

“Wiring twelve of the Super Hornets as Growlers will give us the opportunity to provide taxpayers with better value for money,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

“If finally pursued, the relatively small investment will significantly enhance the Super Hornet’s capability, by giving electronic attack capacity and stherefore the ability to nullify the systems of opposing aircraft.

“It will also provide the Super Hornets with counter-terrorism capability through the ability to shut down the ground-based communications and bomb triggering devices of terrorists.”

The $35 million investment has allowed 12 of the 24 Super Hornets for future fit-out while still on the production line, providing significant savings.

The completion of the project will require an additional investment of around $300 million. That final decision will not be required until around 2012.

If the Howard Government had taken a more prudent approach in making the Super Hornet decision rather than rushing to fill their impending air combat capability gap, they may have realised that this was a more effective approach to take.

F-15K Integration

Here is a good read released today about the challenges of integrating the F-15K into the ROKAF. This is a powerful platform that offers good range, payload and two aircrew for workload. It also comes with an infra-red search and track and an insane amount of other modern features.

…”the F-15K is one of the world’s most capable strike fighters. The combination of its unique combat characteristics and capabilities, including the AIM-9X missile, helmet-mounted cueing system, infrared search and track, and excellent air-to-ground weaponry, arguably makes the F-15K the most significant strike platform in the Pacific region. In addition, the extended flight range enabled by the conformal fuel tanks has strategic significance because the aircraft can reach even the northernmost regions of North Korea.”

Army of Dude

Real people, real thoughts… in a real war. Great writing and even some great photography.

Army of Dude

UAV Helos

Silly music… interesting video… of the Fire Scout…

http://www.youtube.com/v/_evH7QnGA_A&hl=en&fs=1

“And now is the time on Sprockets vhen ve dance!” (the music almost fits). The   Schiebel S-100 demonstrates some creative possibilities.  

http://www.youtube.com/v/K-seRXkqiS8&hl=en&fs=1

Marketing for the clueless audience

This is exceptional marketing for an unaware audience. Which is the goal of this video by Lockheed Martin. In this video there is absolutely no comparison to the F-22 and F-35. For the unaware audience which will include many political leaders, either aircraft can secure air domination.

BF-2 First Flight

The second F-35B Joint Strike Fighter Short Take-off and Vertical Landing (STOVL)variant known as BF-2 has made its first flight.

BF-2 is on schedule to deploy to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.,later this year. It will remain in Fort Worth for the next several months to conduct a series of ground-test events, instrumentation calibrations, powered hover-pit testing (simulating flight) and airworthiness flights, including STOVL-mode operation. Initial flights will be in conventional mode.

BF-2 is essentially identical to the first STOVL jet, BF-1. The major difference lies with the instrumentation – the two aircraft have different roles during flight testing. BF-2 will conduct flutter envelope expansion, air-refueling testing, high angle-of-attack testing, performance and propulsion testing, weapons testing and radar-signature testing. BF-1 will concentrate on initial STOVL flight operations such as short takeoffs, hovers and vertical landings, and will conduct ship-suitability and gun-integration testing. BF-1′s first vertical landing is planned for the middle of 2009.