US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jeff I think that is an image of the Lockmart Boeing offering that lost.
yep, using images.google.com now found:
October 25, 2013
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lockheed_boeing_NGB_bomber_2-thumb-560x261-162890.jpg

An artists conception of Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s 2009 bid for the Next Generation Bomber (NGB). Boeing Photo
which by the way makes for a quite interesting read:
  • based on it, I wouldn't had thought NG might win LOL
  • mentions 'revolution' I was lucky to miss:
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anyway, I wonder what the actual cost is going to be, instead of "$550 million each at 2010 currency values" quoted inside
#8348 TerraN_EmpirE, Yesterday at 8:54 AM
time will tell
 
Thursday at 9:47 PM
Tuesday at 9:34 PM

related:
Boeing May Replace KC-46 Camera To Fix Scraping Issue

Sep 20, 2017
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and according to DefenseNews If unresolved, KC-46 deficiency could threaten acceptance of Boeing tanker
With only a year left before Boeing must meet a contractual obligation to deliver 18 KC-46 tankers to the Air Force, the program has been hit with three “category one” deficiencies — including one that could affect the service’s willingness to accept the aircraft from Boeing.


This May, the Air Force discovered that during October 2016 testing, the KC-46 was responsible for a number of incidents where its boom scraped the surface of the aircraft being refueled. Furthermore, the tanker is not detecting when it is missing the receptacle, making it impossible for a KC-46 pilot to communicate that the receiving aircraft has potentially been damaged, the Air Force disclosed Friday.

The service is conducting root cause analysis to understand what might be causing the issue and is also reviewing historical data to see how often this occurs during current operations. It also will collect additional information from upcoming tests of the boom and aerial refueling demos with various receiving aircraft.

But based on initial data gathered during developmental tests, the Air Force believes this “undetected contact” is happening at a higher rate than its legacy tanker fleet, Brig. Gen. Donna Shipton, program executive officer for tankers, told reporters on Sept. 22. Once the Air Force completes its review, “we’ll have the data that we need to confirm that hypothesis or not.”

Col. John Newberry, Air Force KC-46 system program manager, said the problem “could have significant risk to the aircrew.”

It could also pose a problem for refueling stealth aircraft like the F-35 and F-22, which are covered in a special coating that bestows low observable properties to the aircraft. The KC-46 has not yet refueled a stealth aircraft, but Shipton acknowledged that a more serious scrape could impact that aircraft’s ability to be detected.

“This does happen in the current fleet, and we need to characterize this as compared to that data so that we better understand [whether we are] in family or out of family with what the fleet is already experiencing,” she said.

For the time being, Air Force officials still believe that Boeing will work through all three deficiencies in time to deliver the first KC-46 in late spring of 2018, with a contractually mandated “required assets available” deadline for 18 tankers following in October.

But Shipton left the door open on whether the Air Force would accept aircraft from Boeing if the problem was not fixed, and at this point the timeline for resolving the issue is yet to be determined.

“That’s a decision for the Air Force that we can’t make at this time,” she said. “We won’t know that until the testing is complete this October, November, and we’ve characterized the issue.”

The other two deficiencies — although still category 1 — appear to be less serious in scope, and the Air Force hopes to resolve them as early as October.

The first involves the KC-46’s high frequency radio. When any tanker refuels an aircraft, it is standard practice to turn off the high frequency radio. An Air Force official told reporters on background that there is no reason to believe there’s an issue with the radio itself, but more data is needed to confirm that the radio will remain off when turned off, even if various systems fail.

Once that testing is done and analyzed in October, the service believes it will be able to close that deficiency report.

The second deficiency occurs when fuel is turned off quickly and the KC-46’s refueling boom disconnects, pushing itself forward into the receptacle. This issue also occurs in the legacy tanker fleet when a receiver aircraft disconnects from the boom, said an Air Force official speaking on background, who added that normally the tanker cuts off fuel from the receiving aircraft and retracts the boom.

When this issue occurred during ground tests, the KC-46 hit the test stand with an undesired degree of force, but the official noted that the test stand was not rated to withstand that impact.

Because the average aircraft receptacle can withstand 10 times the amount of force as what has been encountered during testing, the Air Force believes this issue isn’t a major problem. However, more testing needs to be done on the outer edges of the KC-46’s flight envelope.

Like the radio issue, the service hopes to resolve this deficiency in October.
source:
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Today at 8:54 AM
Thursday at 9:47 PM

and according to DefenseNews If unresolved, KC-46 deficiency could threaten acceptance of Boeing tanker
source:
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now noticed FlightGlobal story
USAF provides new detail on KC-46 issues
22 September, 2017
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The US Air Force’s Boeing KC-46 tanker is facing three outstanding issues as it moves through testing, including a boom scraping problem that could pose serious risk to the tanker’s aircrew.

Earlier this week, the USAF’s chief of air mobility command revealed the air force has discovered three major deficiencies during testing on Boeing’s next-generation tanker. Video and data gathered during developmental testing showed the tanker scraped receiver aircraft outside the receptacle, according to the USAF’s programme executive for tankers, Brig Gen Donna Shipton.

The USAF is also working to understand a high-frequency transmit and “uncommanded boom extension issue,” which the air force plans to solve this October. The service will collect data on the scraping problem throughout October and November, and, until that data is analysed, Shipton is not sure when the issue will be solved.

Based on a schedule risk assessment, the KC-46 programme office does not believe Boeing will be able to complete first delivery in December and instead, expects a spring 2018 delivery. Those delays, which the Government Accountability Office predicted in a report last spring, are not related to the deficiencies but to test points Boeing must complete to acquire US Federal Aviation Administration and military aircraft certifications.

During developmental testing last October, the KC-46 boom’s tip struck receiver aircraft outside their refuelling slipways.The USAF did not discover the issue until testing completed and the service analysed data and completed a deficiency report in May.

“When the boom isn’t being carried into the receptacle, there’s instances where there’s contact outside the receptacle by the boom and in some instances, it goes undetected by the boom operator,” Shipton says. “We have aerial refueling procedures that require... the boom operator [to] notify pilots, make them aware that the boom contacted outside the receptacle.”

The air force believes KC-46 is potentially scraping aircraft at a higher rate than legacy tankers, but Boeing and the KC-46 programme office are analysing historical data to compare how often the issue occurs in the current fleet, Shipton says. While the two other category one issues are not severe, scraping could pose a significant risk to aircrew, she adds.

The USAF is concerned about KC-46 scraping low observable aircraft, but the tanker has not yet refueled stealth aircraft in testing. KC-46 has refueled the F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B, C-17 and A-10.

Less severe but still unknown is a high frequency (HF) transmitting issue during aerial refueling. HF transmitting must be turned off during refueling to avoid electrical sparking between the boom and receiver. The USAF first identified the issue in 2016, but does not have sufficient test data to confirm that when transmitting is turned off, it stays off, says Col John Newberry, KC-46 system programme manager.

“If for some reason it’s off but somehow failed, we needed the test data to prove it wouldn't inadvertently come back on,” he says.

The service will conduct testing in October and, assuming the results are positive, will be able to close out the deficiency report.

The service is also grappling with what it calls an “uncommanded boom extension” on KC-46. During ground testing, fuel flowed through boom, exerting pressure which pushed the boom forward and extended the boom into a test stand acting as a receptacle. The issue also occurs on the legacy fleet, where if a pilot somehow disconnects unexpectedly then the boom operator retracts the boom from the aircraft. That phenomenon is known as a commanded scenario, Shipton says. With the KC-46 ground testing, the test stand was not rated to withstand the same impact as an aircraft receptacle.

“Initially there was some concern,” Shipton says. “After looking at the data, we believe this is not going to be an issue, however we won’t make a decision on closing this deficiency report until October.”
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Will their commanding officers/duty oficers have to pay the damage ( at least the part of that 600 mil. ) out of their own pocket?
I doubt it. They might have there pay docked for sometime, bust first the cause of the incidents has to be identified.
There is an interesting write up of one possible contributing factor from the naval institute press.
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Today at 4:30 PM
Today at 8:54 AM

now noticed FlightGlobal story
USAF provides new detail on KC-46 issues
22 September, 2017
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and AirForceMag
KC-46 Problem Poses “Significant Risk,” Imperils Stealth
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The Air Force is exploring three deficiencies on the KC-46 tanker, one of which is considered serious and could affect the jet’s ability to refuel stealth aircraft without compromising their low-observable features and thus their ability to complete their mission.

Service aerial tanker Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Donna Shipton said two of the deficiencies will likely be “closed” next month, but it’s “too early” to think about how the possible scraping of stealth aircraft by KC-46 refueling booms might be fixed.

This third deficiency involves “undetected contacts outside the receptacle,” meaning that the air refueling boom could hit the receiving aircraft away from the refueling receptacle without the boom operator knowing it. With the existing fleet of tankers, the boom operator gets an indication if the boom has touched the receiving aircraft in such a way, and procedures require him to inform the receiving aircrew. The receiver aircrew then “make the decision” whether this contact has somehow “impacts” the jet’s ability to complete the mission, Shipton said.

The situation could result in stealth coatings being scraped off a receiving jet’s surface, compromising its low observability. KC-46 Program Manager Col. John Newberry said the situation “could have significant risk to aircrew.”

Shipton said “now that we’re aware of this,” the test force will work to “collect all the right data,” meaning a further series of tests next month. Only after the data have been collected and analyzed can a correction even be contemplated, she said. “We are concerned,” she said, and that’s why more testing is being done.

“The dimensions of potential fixes is premature to discuss at this point,” a top program official said, adding that it’s too early to tell if the problem will further exacerbate the conclusion of developmental testing and the delivery of production aircraft.

Boeing insists that it can achieve its requirement to complete development by the end of calendar 2017, but Shipton said the Air Force’s estimate is “spring,” and when reminded that the end of spring is June 20, she agreed “that’s what we’re thinking.” A senior program official said the KC-46 is “55 percent through flight testing,” and that some margin was “baked into” the schedule for “unknowns” -- discoveries during the flight test that cause some delay.

Top Air Force uniformed acquisition chief Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch told reporters at ASC17 that it remains to be seen if the undetected contact issue is “a problem we can live with” or whether a corrective action is needed. The KC-46 has not, to date, made refueling connections with any stealth aircraft. Only the C-17, A-10, and F-16 have been tested in receiving mode.

The other two deficiencies, Shipton said, are not program-threatening. One has to do with the high frequency radios. Because they use the wings as antennae, HF radios must not broadcast during refueling operations, because there could be arcing and static electricity between the boom and receiver aircraft, Newberry explained. However, USAF can’t tell from tests so far if the HF radios, when turned off, stay turned off, even after various “failure modes.” An Air Force official said a more grave consequence could be “interference with flight controls.” Testing is supposed to be completed soon and the issue “closed out” in October, Shipton said.

The second problem involved the boom extending back out “uncommanded” even after it has disconnected from the receiver aircraft. This seems to be due to a spike of pressure inside the boom when fuel flow is abruptly halted, Shipton said. The situation was discovered in a ground test, when a boom poked back into a receiving test stand, striking it after an abrupt disconnect. This kind of thing is common in aerial refueling operations and isn’t a problem, Shipton said, providing the boom extension hits the refueling receptacle. Typically, “there’s no real danger” to either aircraft and “operators won’t even know” such an event has happened, she said. However, the Air Force is testing to see if there could be issues if the receiving jet is “off to the right or left” and outside the “outer edges of the envelope.”

Shipton said that USAF’s estimate that Boeing will be about six months late concluding development is “not keyed” to the three deficiencies she discussed Friday, but rather because of delays in receiving amended and supplemental certifications for the KC-46 from the FAA. Because the jet is viewed as a commercial aircraft derivative, it must clear civil checks before military certifications can be granted.

She also said that while Boeing’s “estimate at completion” of development is $5.9 billion, the Air Force’s figure is $6.3 billion. Boeing is responsible for all costs above the contractual $4.9 billion cap under the fixed price contract. If the aircraft already delivered must be modified to meet original specifications, Boeing will pay for that work. If the fix goes beyond something contained in the contract, the Air Force will absorb the cost of modifications. There are 24 KC-46s on contract and six are flying. Shipton said she sees no reason why a fourth production lot contract can’t be inked on time in January. Newberry said the cost was set in 2011, and so isn’t a matter of negotiation.
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
The right place here...

US Ship Force Levels
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I did some digging of my own! Using year range 2008-2016.

San Antonio Class: 7 commissioned (1 fitting out)
America Class: 1 commissioned (1 fitting out)
Expeditionary Transfer Dock: 3 commissioned (1 fitting out)
Arleigh Burke Class: 12 commissioned (1 fitting out)
Virginia Class: 10 commissioned (2 fitting out)
Litoral Combat Ship: 9 commissioned

That brings a total of 42 ships commissioned between 2008 and 2016. Not a dinitive list, but gives you an idea of the scale at which China's navy is being built up.

Pay attention between delivery and commissioning when the ship join effectively the Fleet and in fact only operationnal in service after some months except problems

Nimitz, Bush : 1, 2009
Litoral Combat Ship: 8 commissioned the 9th in 2017
Expeditionary Transfer Dock: 2 commissioned (1 fitting out), Montford Point/ESD Expeditionary Transfer Dock, to MSC
Puller/ESB Expeditionary Mobile Base : 1 + 1 to USN finaly
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Rocket Man is on a suicide mission...

U.S. flies strategic bombers east of North Korea in show of force

The Pentagon flew its Air Force B-1B Lancer strategic bombers Saturday east of North Korea, near the demilitarized zone, demonstrating U.S. President Donald Trump’s resolve.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced later that day that the bombers flew from Guam, escorted by F-15C Eagle fighters from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, to international airspace over waters east of North Korea.

This is the farthest north of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) any U.S. fighter or bomber aircraft have flown off North Korea’s coast in the 21st century,” said Pentagon Spokesperson Dana White, “underscoring the seriousness with which we take reckless behavior.”
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