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navyreco

navyreco

Senior Member
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navyreco

navyreco

Senior Member
US Navy and USAF to Certify P-8A Poseidon MPA for Aerial Refueling with Instrumented KC-135
A U.S. Navy Aircraft Vehicle Modification and Instrumentation team is hard at work augmenting instrumentation to an Edwardsassigned KC-135 tanker. The unusual arrangement started when the Navy PMA-290 program office approached the 412th Test Management Group about using the Edwards AFB-instrumented KC-135 to certify their P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from Navy unit VX-20 at Patuxent River, Maryland, for aerial refueling.
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FORBIN

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
The MQ-4C Triton completed Operational Assessment.

The MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system built for the U.S. Navy by Northrop Grumman has successfully completed Operational Assessment.

Pending final data analysis, the completion of this milestone signals the maturity of the system and paves the way for a positive Milestone C decision. Milestone C will transition Triton into low rate initial production.

As part of OA, an integrated test team made up of Navy personnel from Air Test and Evaluation Squadrons VX-1 and VX-20, Unmanned Patrol Squadron, VUP-19 and Northrop Grumman demonstrated the reliability of Triton over the course of approximately 60 flight hours. The team analyzed sensor imagery and validated radar performance of Triton’s sensors at different altitudes and ranges. The aircraft system’s ability to classify targets and disseminate critical data was also examined as part of the operational effectiveness and suitability testing. Successful evaluation of Triton’s time on station confirmed that it will meet flight duration requirements.

“Operational assessment for Triton included several flights which exercised the weapon system through operationally relevant scenarios that demonstrated its readiness to meet the Navy’s maritime intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance needs,” said Doug Shaffer, vice president, Triton programs, Northrop Grumman. “As a result of the flight tests, the program moves one step closer to a milestone C decision later this spring.”

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Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Brumby said:
I disagree with your view as IMO it makes perfect sense from a developmental path standpoint. ...
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Jeff Head said:
So...we disagree.

I believe the UCLASS was not to ambitious in terms of what it is slated to do. Yes, it may be taking them longer to get there...
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related to the above discussion, I guess:
WEST: NAVAIR’s Unmanned Aerial Tanker Acquisition Will Be Leaner Than Previous UCLASS Effort
The head of Naval Air Systems Command said the effort to build the Navy’s first unmanned aerial vehicle to operate with the carrier air wing would be a leaner process than what was planned for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program.

NAVAIR’s Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags said the pursuit of the RAQ-25 UAV – currently dubbed the Carrier Based Aerial Refueling System (CBARS) – would take the work from the UCLASS acquisition and streamline the process – one burdened with a high level of requirements churn to industry.

“We end up giving to industry, giving to you all a specification — a statement of work — that literally contains thousands of shall statements. And every one of those shall statements is of equal importance because if you don’t comply with it you’re not complying with the terms of the contract. Thousands of them,” Grosklags said at the WEST conference on Thursday.
“What we’re doing with RAQ-25 is we’ve taken those thousands of shall statements down to a couple of hundred. We’re streamlining the team. We’re taking the typical hundreds of NAVAIR folks that would be working on a program like that and bringing it down to dozens. That is the culture change that we’re trying to get to with inside NAVAIR.”

The Fiscal Year 2017 budget request includes an $84 million line item for CBARS but will also build off of $434 million in future unmanned carrier aviation money that was included into the FY 2016 Omnibus bill, Vice Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources, told USNI News in a Wednesday interview.

“So UCLASS doesn’t exist but the CBARS will be able to draw that money. That’s why in one reason in ‘17 we didn’t ask for a whole lot more,” Mulloy said.
“Basically we view it as forward financing to back to the competitors again and actually start descoping their projects and submit something fast.”

Mulloy said the Navy was patching together a submission to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) that amounted to an 80-percent solution for the initial UCLASS design.

“We’re probably going to drop some of the high-end specs and try to grow the class and increase the survivability [later],” Mulloy said.
“It has to be more refueling, a little bit of ISR, weapons later and focus on its ability to be the flying truck.”

CBARS (“we’re not real enamored [by the name]”, Mulloy said) will build off the UCLASS work for the control station and the connectivity piece of the RAQ-25 effort.

“Two of the parts remain mostly the same – carrier integration and command and control – because we still have to talk to the air vehicle,” Mulloy said.
“Those two will remain the same and will support us in any other unmanned vehicle going ahead.”

Mulloy said the mid-2020s fielding plan for the RAQ-25 would run into the development work for the replacement of Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet – the Navy’s F/A-XX program. Developed in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force’s F-X program, both services are considering optionally manned options to replace the capability.

If an unmanned variant of the Super Hornet follow-on were created it would leverage the work from the control station and connectivity piece from RAQ-25.

Later this year, pending JROC approval, the Navy is set to release a draft request for proposal to the four original UCLASS competitors – Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Atomics and Lockheed Martin – for the RAQ-25 air segment with the final RfP set to be issued in 2017 and an anticipated contract award in 2018.
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bd popeye

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
I keep reading articles about how PLA missiles will defeat the USN and there is little the USN can do to defeat such an attack...so I thought I'd counter with this...sorry if the article is a repost.

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Dave Majumdar
December 4, 2015

The U.S. Navy has decided to upgrade its Boeing EA-18G Growler fleet with the new high-speed Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) datalink and other new hardware following a successful demonstration of the new technologies at Fleet Experiment 2015 this summer. According to Boeing, all new Growlers currently in production will be fitted with the enhanced hardware while older jets will be retrofitted the new standard.

“This enhanced targeting capability provides our aircrews with a significant advantage, especially in an increasingly dense threat environment where longer-range targeting is critical to the fight,” said Capt. David Kindley, U.S. Navy F/A-18 and EA-18G program manager.

The enhanced hardware would allow multiple Growlers to coordinate their efforts against ever more capable enemy systems that proliferating around the world as part of the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) battle network. According to Boeing, the upgrades include an advanced targeting processor, high-bandwidth datalink and a Windows-based tablet, which is integrated with the Growler’s mission system. The new upgrades are necessary to keep paces with an ever-changing threat environment.

“The complexity of global threat environments continues to evolve,” said Dan Gillian, Boeing F/A-18 and EA-18G programs vice president. “This long-range targeting technology is essential as we advance electronic attack capabilities for the conflicts of today and tomorrow.”

The Navy’s decision to upgrade the Growler fleet comes after the Fleet Experiment 2015 exercise validated the service’s concept to use multiple EA-18Gs to generate a “weapons quality track” against enemy emitters. Under the NIFC-CA construct, Rear Adm. Mike Manazir, the Navy’s director of air warfare, told me in December 2013 that the service would need a minimum of two airborne EA-18Gs linked via a high-speed datalink both to each other and to a third point—a Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye—to perform a time distance of arrival analysis to precisely locate threat emitters.

With the three separate points, the Navy expects to be able to narrow down the location of multiple mobile threat emitters to a narrow enough “ellipse” as to generate a weapons quality track in real time. The tactic works best when there are three Growlers working in conjunction with each other—but an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye can substitute for one of the EA-18Gs. While the Hawkeye has an excellent electronic support measures suite, it has neither the capability of the EA-18G nor can it get as close to the threat.

The new technique is essential to the Navy’s plans to fight in a threat environment dominated by advanced integrated air defense systems that could include VHF radars better capable of tracking stealth aircraft and highly mobile double-digit surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems like the Russian–built S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) or Chinese HQ-9.

Older techniques to suppress or destroy enemy air defenses relied on satellite imagery and long-range intelligence gathering aircraft to develop an order of battle for fixed enemy SAM sites. Those techniques are not effective against these newer, more mobile threats.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for the National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.
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Brumby

Brumby

Major
bd popeye said:
I keep reading articles about how PLA missiles will defeat the USN and there is little the USN can do to defeat such an attack...so I thought I'd counter with this...sorry if the article is a repost.
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The new technique is essential to the Navy’s plans to fight in a threat environment dominated by advanced integrated air defense systems that could include VHF radars better capable of tracking stealth aircraft and highly mobile double-digit surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems like the Russian–built S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) or Chinese HQ-9.
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The method is to use triangulation through TDOA technique and made possible by a strong networked capability to geolocate for targeting. It is a highly accurate method against stationary targets. However against a S-400 which is highly mobile and hence time sensitive between launch and impact, there would likely be a need to reprogram for terminal guidance. For example, a launch of a JSOW by an F-18 from 70 nm away would have a flight time of 10 mins and against a S-400 the stand off distance would probably be more. It is my view the F-35 acting as sensor and operating within the threat bubble can provide this needed terminal guidance.
 
Brumby

Brumby

Major
New JSOW variant carries out successful F-18 operational flight test

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Operational testing of Raytheon’s AGM-154 Joint Stand-off Weapon (JSOW) C-1 gliding munition has begun, during which it was deployed from a US Navy Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet and achieved a direct hit against a land target.

The new C-1 variant of the weapon adds the ability to counter moving maritime targets, in addition to land ones, through a seeker modification and the addition of a two-way Link 16 capability. The successful first test will lead on to subsequent sea trials in the coming months.

During testing the air-to-surface weapon demonstrated the ability to follow a pre-planned route once dropped from 29,000ft, destroying a land target with “precision accuracy”, Raytheon says.

“JSOW is truly a cutting edge to precision stand-off strike,” Mark Borup, business development for JSOW at Raytheon, tells Flightglobal. “It has a very potent penetration capability.”

Before the testing, the new variant achieved "seven-for-seven" against land and maritime targets during its developmental and integration phase, Raytheon says.

The net-enabled 475kg (1,050lb) C1 has a range of 70nm (130km) and a 10min flight time when released from 40,000ft. It will be released to the F/A-18 fleet in 2016, Borup says, at which point it will be operational with the USN.

Boeing F-15 and Lockheed Martin F-35 integration with the C variant of JSOW is expected to take place in 2017, and with the C-1 variant by 2020. For the F-35, JSOW will be integrated internally on the conventional take-off and landing A and C carrier variant models, and externally on the short take-off and vertical landing B.

In July 2015, the USN ordered 555 JSOW weapons for $180 million, including 200 units of the C-1 version for itself plus 355 Block III C-models for Saudi Arabia.
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