Saturday, February 16, 2019

Stealth Saga #44

Sixth Generation Fighters:


The USAF PCA effort gets a profile.

The US Navy may postpone the 6th gen procurement.

AvWeek has a slideshow of the next gen fighter efforts.  Whether all of them will be 6th gen or not remains to be seen.

China has begun work on its 6th gen fighter.

Avweek discusses Germany's position with the Tornado replacement.

The French and Germans are expected to sign the first contracts in mid 2019.  Some seem to have been signed already.  Concept studies for manned and unmanned aircraft were contracted.  Work gets profiled by AvWeek.

The FrancoGerman FCAS team is working on export controls for the new fighter.

Spain was expected to and then did join the FCAS team.

Italy is attacking the FCAS deal.

Britain may be inviting India to join Team Tempest.

The Tempest will have a carrier capable loyal wingman UCAV.

Saegheh-2:

Iran unveiled an updated version of the Saegheh stealthy UAV.  This is a knock off of the captured RQ-170.

KF-X:

Metal has been bent for the first KF-X.

Su-57:

The Russians are stating they will place their second LRIP order for 13 Su-57s in 2020.

Ohotnik-b/Hunter-B:

Russia's Ohotnik-B or Hunter-B appears to have been doing taxi tests (more). Aviation Week is calling it a strike aircraft.  Jane's gets into the mix, too.  A new picture emerged and, wow, that engine sticks out.

J-20:

Unnamed analysts are stating an upgraded J-20 will be far superior to the F-35.

There are reports the Chinese are building a two seater J-20 for electronic warfare.

Chinese Stealth Bombers:

China is building the acknowledged strategic H-20 bomber, but also a regional medium stealth bomber as well termed the JH-XX or so says the DIA.  More info here and here.

KC-Z:

The KC-Z may not be stealthy after all.

B-2:

The B-2 is getting its ejection seats upgraded.

Photos were taken of the B-2 sortieing out of Hawaii.

F-22:


The USAF is 3d printing metal replacement parts for the F-22 to keep costs down.

Meggitt won a large contract for components for the engines of the F-22 and F-35.

F-35:

The stupid plan to buy the F-15X will not impact the procurement of the F-35.

The DOT&E flames the F-35 program again.  Gun accuracy is one of the problems.

Lockheed needs to deliver 130 F-35s in 2019.  Can they?  By the end of 2019, they will have delivered 488 F-35s.

The Pentagon is starting negotiations for the next 3 LRIPs, encompassing 485 F-35s and bringing the F-35A price down to $80M.

The Pentagon is laying out the Tier II repair sites for the F-35.  Team ROK seems to be one.

The F-35A per unit cost will drop below $80M in 2023 according to Lockheed.

Watch the F-35 do some impressive acrobatics.

The Pentagon is considering making the F-35 an interceptor for killing ballistic missiles.  While the sensor suite is excellent on the F-35, the realism of this proposal is pretty low: we will not ever have a situation where we will have dominance over the air like in the First Gulf War.

The USAF F-35 Demo team was caught doing some new maneuvers in practice for the new air show season.

The first F-35 female test pilot has completed her first mission at Edwards.

The F-35As over Luke AFB were filmed by a helicopter with a steady cam.

The F-35 demo team does its thing.

The USAF is pressing Lockheed on improving F-35 readiness.

F-35A's conducted dogfights with L-159s.

The oldest F-35B could hit the end of its service life in 2026 due to flaws in the early B models.

The USMC demonstrated refueling and rearming a F-35B from a CH-53E in Japan.

The US Navy awarded Lockheed a half billion dollar contract for the F-35.

The US Navy awarded Lockheed another $31M contract on behalf of the Australian government.

The USS Essex and its F-35Bs are on standby in the Middle East.

Germany has dropped consideration of the F-35 for its new fighter.  The head of the Luftwaffe had preferred that aircraft before and was nearly sacked over it.

The Italians just deployed 6 F-35As to Sardinia for training.

Japan is considering discontinuing local production of the F-35 to save money.

The Netherlands have unveiled their first operational F-35.

Singapore is buying a small number of F-35s to evaluate them as replacements for their F-16s.

South Korea will get its first two F-35s in March 2019.

British Aerospace got a contract to upgrade the F-35's EW suite.

Lockheed had an F-35 mockup in Arctic camo.  What's the story behind it?

No comments: