US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Good :)

Service Wants New CAS Squadron at Nellis

The Air Force is restructuring the 57th Operations Group at Nellis AFB, Nev., to enhance its focus on close air support integration. The service would like the 57th OG to include a tactical air support squadron made up of eight F-16s that would be
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from Hill AFB, Utah, but officials said that number could be expanded to 16 once the squadron reaches full operational capability, according to a
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.

The squadron would provide support to the Joint Terminal Attack Controller Qualification Course, USAF Weapons School, and Green and Red Flag exercises. A final decision on the stand up of the squadron won’t be made until an environmental impact analyses is completed.

The changes at Nellis “are an important step in refining our CAS skills through future generations of airmen so we can continue to provide ground forces with all the advantages airpower brings to close combat,” Air Combat Command chief Gen. Hawk Carlisle said, according to the release.

The 57th Wing, which already conducts the JTAC weapon’s instructor course, Air Liaison Officer qualifying course, and Green Flag, will conduct all graduate-level CAS training upon reaching full operational capability.

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Jul 20, 2016
... so All Is Well That Ends Well
? :)
KC-46 Moves Closer to Production Decision After Successful Flight Test

source:
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and
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Believe it or not, Boeing really has made
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, after incurring at least $1.3 billion in cost overruns. Today, it got the only kind of proof that really matters to a corporation: they got the government’s promise of $2.8 billion for doing their job.

The contract award of $2.5 billion is for the first two LRIP production lots of seven and 12 planes. Including options, Boeing plans to build
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for the Air Force to replace the
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.

The tanker uses a boom to refuel Air Force planes and hoses that extend from the wings and center body to refuel Navy, Marine Corps and allied aircraft.

Boeing got the most recent contract for a replacement tanker back in 2011 after a decade of failed deals, illegal actions by the company, bumbling by the Air Force and perhaps the most vigorous public fight over a weapons system’s contract in at least 20 years.

Will the aircraft make money for Boeing? Almost certainly. Will Boeing be able to produce it at the rate the Air Force expects and will it perform as well as the service hopes? We’ll see.
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Sunday at 11:09 AM
Aug 4, 2016
but OPINION: Why US Air Force needs a low-cost gun-slinger

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and let me ask you something: why the Pentagon hasn't paid for the new F-35s yet?
Friday at 7:48 PM
EDIT this whole situation doesn't make any sense to me, thanks
this may be related:
Navy To Modernize Boeing Super Hornets To Fly With Lockheed F-35
The Navy plans to "continue to modernize" Boeing's (
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) F/A-18 Super Hornets, said Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, the commander of Naval Air Forces, calling newer versions "4.5-generation" fighters.

During a talk Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Shoemaker said he isn't minimizing the need for Lockheed Martin's (
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) F-35, a fifth-generation fighter. Instead, he sees a role for both of them.

"We absolutely need the F-35 as soon as we can get it," he said. " We want to pair those two up together."

Shoemaker said the two jets could be flown in tandem to take advantage of the planes' "very good complement of high-low mix."

Boeing shares rose 0.2% to 135 in the
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. Lockheed shares fell 0.1% to 255.42. Northrop Grumman (
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), a major F-35 contractor, was down 0.2% to 218.14

It's unclear how many more Super Hornets the Pentagon will buy. Without additional orders, Boeing faces the end of its production run. Currently, the Navy has money in its budget for two Super Hornets in 2017 and 14 in 2018.

But the service could purchase even more Super Hornets as part of its unfunded spending request, and Congress seems keen to keep the production line open. Boeing has said it needs 24 orders per year to keep the production line alive past 2020.

A deal between Boeing and Kuwait for 28 Super Hornets, with an option for 12 more, is facing political roadblocks, so Kuwait recently ordered Eurofighter Typhoons instead.

Meanwhile, Shoemaker said that, despite some setbacks with the F-35's development, the Navy has plans to declare the new fighter ready for combat in late 2018. The Navy still needs the new 3F software update on the plane, however.

The Air Force declared
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for its version of the F-35 earlier this month, and the Marine Corps declared its version combat-ready last year.
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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Don' t forget dudes you have the Air Force Brat in your Six O'Clock :mad: :)

Syrian Su-24s attempting to fly close to U.S. Special Forces in Syria get intercepted and “encouraged to leave” by F-22 Raptors

Twice in the last few days, Syrian jets performing air strikes close to where U.S. SOF are operating in northeastern Syria caused coalition aircraft to scramble.

On Aug. 18, U.S. jets were dispatched to intercept the Syrian attack planes that were attacking targets near Hasakah supporting regime forces fighting the Syrian Kurdish forces.
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, training Kurdish forces who are fighting Daesh.

Syrian pilots did not respond to the radio calls of the Kurdish on the general emergency frequency nor did they acknowledge calls attempted by the coalition on the air safety channel used for communication with the Russian aircraft operating over Syria.

Anyway, by the time U.S. fighters reached the area, the Syrian planes had already left.
Following the first “close encounter” the Pentagon warned Assad regime to not fly or conduct raids in the area where the American SOF are operating. However, on Aug. 19, two Su-24 Fencers, attempted again to penetrate the airspace near Hasakah.

This time, the two
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attack planes were met by American F-22 Raptors (most probably already operating in the same area providing Combat Air Patrol).

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, a U.S. official said the presence of American F-22 aircraft “encouraged the Syrian aircraft to depart the airspace without further incident. No weapons were fired by the coalition fighters.”

This is not the first time the F-22 presence deters foreign military aircraft from harassing U.S. forces.
In March 2013, few months after two
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(informal name of the IRGC – the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution)
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flying a routine surveillance flight in international airspace the Pentagon decided to escort the drones involved in ISR (intelligence surveillance reconnaissance) with fighter aircraft, including the Raptors.

In one very well-known episode, F-22 stealth jets providing HVAAE (High Value Air Asset Escort) to a U.S. Predator flew under the Iranian F-4E Phantoms that had intercepted the drone then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and radioed a famous
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that allegedly scared the Iranian pilots off saving the drone.

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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Don' t forget dudes you have the Air Force Brat in your Six O'Clock :mad: :)
My guess is that the F-22s (as they have done in the past) took the Syrian aircraft unaware and either lit them up or somehow blatantly indicated that they had the drop on them by making their presence known when the Syrian aircraft had no idea they were even there.

One day we may hear what really happened.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
A Wild Northrop Grumman Model 400 T-X offering has Appeared....
TX-NorthopgummanM400.jpg
Photo credit
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Northrop T-X Breaks Cover At Mojave
Aug 19, 2016
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| Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
LOS ANGELES –
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’s contender for the U.S. Air Force’s T-X next-generation trainer competition has begun taxi tests at Mojave, California.

The aircraft, which was designed by Northrop’s Scaled Composites special projects company, is believed to have begun high speed taxi work this week. Northrop’s offering is a low-wing, single-engine aircraft with side-mounted inlets and a conventional horizontal and large vertical tail.

Similar to the T-38 merged with features of Northrop’s long-abandoned F-20 Tigershark, the design also incorporates area ruling aft of the inlets for transonic capability and a notably tall vertical fin, as well as a distinct dorsal spine. The fuselage incorporates a semi-chined forebody and is mounted on a simple tricycle gear arrangement with an extended wheelbase between the nose and main gear legs.

From initial images released on Aug 19, the aircraft also appears to have simple trailing edge flaps and horizontal stabilizers mounted at a slightly negative dihedral (or anhedral) angle. The images also appear to indicate a baseline, non-afterburning engine – at least for the initial demonstrator. Northrop first revealed a brief glimpse of the concept to reporters in December 2015 and specified at the time the design was tailored to meeting the Air Force’s requirements for sustained G, instantaneous G, angle-of-attack maneuvering and turn rate/ turn radius – without being too expensive.

According to
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registration details, the demonstrator is designated the Model 400 according, to its Scaled Composites design number. It is powered by a single
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F404-102D engine. The aircraft was registered with the FAA in mid-June 2015.

Northrop, which is teamed on T-X with
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and L-3, is expected to make the first flight of the demonstrator before year end. Competition for the T-X program is intense with
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and KAI offering a variant of the T-50A, while
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and
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are working together on a clean-sheet design.
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has partnered with Leonardo to offer the T-100, an upgraded version of the Leonardo (
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)
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advanced jet trainer.

The Air Force is planning to release a request for proposals for T-X in December, with a contract award expected by early 2018. The T-X is now expected to have operational capability in 2034 with initial operational capability in 2024.
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What we thinking guys? Tiger Shark 2? Son of the Tiger Shark? Tiger Shark-Nado?
US Navy steps away from stealth for MQ-25
19 AUGUST, 2016 BY: LEIGH GIANGRECO

  • WASHINGTON DC


A stealth and tanking mission will not go hand in hand for the Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray, according to the commander of Naval Air Forces.

Last year, a strategic portfolio review by the Pentagon emphasised the Stingray’s tanking role over a stealthy, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission. The latest round of discussions with the US secretary of defence did not stress the unmanned air vehicle’s survivability aspect, Vice Adm Mike Shoemaker said at a Washington think tank 18 August.

“There was an article recently that talked about stealth tanker,” Shoemaker said. “Those two don’t go together with MQ-25. That’s something we’ll continue to evolve and then figure out where it fits going into that contested environment.”

The Navy recently finished its final concept refinement and is analyzing the results of its request for proposals from industry competitors which include Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The Defense Department also commissioned a tanker trade study that will examine the design for the UAVs two mission sets, though the tanking mission remains a priority, Shoemaker added.

“As I talk to industry, those two designs to do one or those other mission sets alone are different,” he said. “You drive a high endurance, probably not a lot of fuel on board, large wingspan, very efficient platform for the ISR. If you’re going to be a tanker at range, obviously you’ve got to be able to carry a fair amount of fuel internal to the platform.”

Shoemaker’s comments further cement Stingray’s role as the Navy’s future carrier-based aerial refueling (CBARS) UAV, which the service originally scoped as an unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft. Although the Navy has not prioritised stealth in its latest vision for CBARS, industry has approached the service with existing designs that could lend some elevated survivability performance, Shoemaker said.

“Even though we’ve said survivability is not a key performance parameter this time, I think there’s ways to take advantage of some of the shapes already out there,” he said.
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Striking the balance between a tanker and a surveillance aircraft is an area of concern for Navy aviation planners and industry as they craft what will be the service’s first operational, carrier unmanned aerial vehicle, commander of Naval Air Forces said on Thursday.
until now I thought a tanker aircraft couldn't be a surveillance aircraft but
Navy, Industry Looking for Design ‘Sweet Spot’ for MQ-25A Stingray
Striking the balance between a tanker and a surveillance aircraft is an area of concern for Navy aviation planners and industry as they craft what will be the service’s first operational, carrier unmanned aerial vehicle, commander of Naval Air Forces said on Thursday.
Once tasked with being primarily an information, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft native to the carrier strike group, the Navy’s first push into unmanned fixed wing aviation – MQ-25A Stingray — will now fulfill a badly needed tanker role for the air wing in addition to the ISR mission, said Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker during a presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute.

The Navy has recently collected the results from a draft request for proposal for the Stingray program and is currently mulling the results from competitors Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Based on the responses, the Navy is refining the requirements for the full RfP expected next year. Affordability will be a key requirement to the program, USNI News understands.

The problem that industry and the service are dealing with is the ISR and the tanking mission inherently requires two very different types of aircraft shapes or planforms, Shoemaker said.

A primarily ISR UAV would be a high-endurance platform “probably not carry a lot of fuel, have a large wingspan,” to be an efficient platform, Shoemaker said.

For example, the highflying Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton UAV is built with a 131 foot wingspan and can fly unrefueled for up to 30 hours.

“If you’re going to be a tanker at range, you’re obliviously going to have to be able to carry a fair amount of fuel internal to the platform. That drives the different design for those two,” he said.
”So the industry is working on an analysis of where that sweet spot is to do both of those missions.”

Without mentioning specific companies, Shoemaker said there were some existing planforms that could serve as a baseline for the MQ-25A design.

“There are some shapes that they have designed already that help in that survivability piece of it. There’s a way to capitalize on existing designs in what we come to in terms of what we call a compromise solution but whatever MQ-25 ends up being but we’ve not said survivability is a priority this time around,” he said.
“But I think there’s ways to take advantage of some the other shapes already out there.”

The dividing line between the competitors will almost certainly be between a traditional wing-body-tail design and tailless variations of a delta wing planform.

In the lead up to the last bid for the carrier UAV – the Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program – designs from General Atomics and Boeing featured a wing-body-tail design while Lockheed and Northrop Grumman focused on tailless designs.

General Atomics’ Sea Avenger design is heavily influenced by Predator C Avenger, a jet powered evolution from the companies MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper.

Lockheed Martin’s UCLASS marketing material used a design reminiscent of the company’s RQ-170 sitting on a carrier flight deck.

Rob Weiss, the head of Lockheed’s Skunk Works program, told USNI News earlier this year that a company could build a
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.

“We believe [that a flying wing] will be just as affordable as a wing-body-tail configuration. But a wing-body-tail will not be able [to meet] the requirements for penetrating strike in the future,” he said.
“You can take the flying wing and not put on all the coatings and other capabilities in that initial version and be competitive on the cost but have a growth path forward… that same path to use that vehicle design to operate in a [contested] environment.”

Northrop Grumman was thought to have submitted a variation of its cranked-kite design it used for the Navy’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) that proved a UAV could be launched and recovered from a carrier.

The least is known publically about Boeing’s plan for MQ-25A. The company only exhibited a single piece of promotional material of a wing-body-tail design for UCLASS.

Regardless of the final composition of the Stingray airframe, the introduction of a new tanker to the carrier air wing will be a welcome relief to the service. Anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet sorties are for mission tanking and are placing unexpected stress on the airframes that have been in high demand in the last several years.

In addition to the planform discussions, the service is mulling how to integrate the MQ-25A into the air wing. Under consideration is pairing the Stingray with the sailors and aviators in the Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye and C-2A Greyhound community. The relationship would be similar to the way the Sikorsky MH-60 community will be paired with the unmanned Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout and the Boeing P-8A Poseidon operators will be paired with the MQ-4C Triton.
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