Stealth Saga #45

Loyal Wingman:

Australia and Boeing announced a new Loyal Wingman aircraft called the BATS.  It is designed to be built in Australia without American components so it can be exported pretty much anywhere without American approvals.  First flight is expected to be next year.
India's HAL has shown off its concept.

Kratos' XQ-58A Valkyrie was to make its first flight.   It did and it was beautiful.  The intent is to make the Valkyrie a Loyal Wingman where a flock of them could be managed by an single F-35.  In the process, Kratos stole Boeing's thunder.

6th Generation Fighters:

The USAF head of acquisition seems unhappy with the answer the USAF came back with about what its next gen fighter will be and seems to want to derail the effort.

Analysts are stating the US Navy needs its 6th gen fighter and unmanned assets for its carriers to stay relevant.

Is it better for India to order F-16s, ahem F-21s or join the Tempest project?

MTU Aero Engines may join the Franco-German FCAS project.

Dassault is warning against turning the FrancoGerman FCAS into another Eurofighter.

AMCA:

India's indigenous stealth fighter has supposedly begun the detailed design phase.

Su-57:

The Russians will only take delivery of ONE Su-57 in 2019 and ONE in 2020.  Not 12 in 2019.  More will not be delivered until the improved engine has been perfected.

Russia is trying to convince the Indians to buy the Su-57 again.

J-20:

Chinese J-20s deployed to Cangzhou air base.

F-117:

At least one F-117 is still flying.

A Dutch magazine claimed F-117s conducted airstrikes in Syria.  The Drive semi convincingly argues the F-117 returning to combat for strikes in Syria were unnecessary because the US gov has at least 8 stealthy Avenger drones capable of conducting strikes.

B-2:

What a shot!  The B-2 gets the full hawaii experience.

F-22:

13 F-22s participated in an elephant walk.

An Australian pilot has been trained on the F-22.

F-35:

The Pentagon is proposing buying 78 F-35s instead of 84.

Some doubt the F-35 can carry weapons capable of intercepting North Korean missiles.

F-35s were photographed in the Sierra mountains.

US Generals are coming out strongly against the F-15X buy and advocating buying more F-35s.

The USAF's F-35As apparently clobbered the older fighters at the Red Flag exercise pretty handily.

Watch the F-35A demo team at Luke AFB.  They debuted new aerobatics.

The USAF isn't worried by the F-35As gun being inaccurate.

The USAF conducted an exercise where they did forward refueling for the F-35A.

The USAF is trying to fix ALIS...by moving it to the cloud: *head desk*

USMC's deployment of the F-35B on the USS Essex has ended and hints at new roles for the amphibious group.  The F-35Bs conducted over 100 combat missions.

The US Navy has declared IOC for the F-35C finally.

The US Navy is preparing for its first carrier deployment of the F-35C.

The US Navy F-35C commander is focused on the first deployment of the bird and transitioning the first USMC wing.

The US Navy ordered repair materials for 7 F-35s.

The US Navy paid a beltway bandit to help with the F-35 program.

The US Navy gave Lockheed a $14M contract mod for improving the ground avoidance system.

One analyst believes the Navy should not develop the 6th gen fighter yet and instead develop an F-35C derived interceptor/bomber escort.

The Pegasus finally refueled an F-35.

Australia's F-35 repair work by Northrop gets detailed.

Australia signed an agreement with Lockheed to increase local industry participation.

Australia is happy with the F-35 operations so far.

Israeli F-35s may have destroyed a Chinese made antistealth radar in Syria.

Japan is gearing up for supporting the F-35.

Poland might buy 32 F-35s.

The Russian Embassy in DC made some weird threats to the F-35 with Vietnam era footage.

Singapore is buying 4 F-35s with options for 8 more.

US Generals are pushing for Turkey to lose its participation in the F-35 program due to the purchase of the Russian S-400 missiles.

BAe is updating the EW suite on the F-35.

Lockheed is working to reduce F-35 operational costs.

Northrop has finished the 500th center fuselage for the F-35.

Stealth Saga #18

UAV/UCAV:

British Aerospace has stated the Taranis has, in fact, had its last test flights.

France will continue the testing of the Neuron UCAV demonstrator through 2016.  Aviation Week has a nice photo gallery of the Neuron.

The US Navy's UCLASS got $300M in the final budget for a competition and must be a highly stealthy, strike platform.

AMCA:

India is getting  the F-414 Enhanced Engine for its AMCA Fifth Generation Fighter.

Tornado Replacement: 

Germany is looking at an optionally manned Tornado replacement.

Long Range Strike Bomber:

Boeing is doubling down on its protest about the LRS-B contract award and calling the selection process fundamentally flawed.

6th Generation American Fighters:

Northrop  FA-XX (left) and F-X (right).

 Northrop has released its latest concept for a Sixth Gen Fighter. It uses lasers and is a cranked kite. Thermal management due to the use of lasers is the primary concern given it is supposed to be a stealth aircraft.

Aviation Week also discusses Northrop's 6th gen concept.

Foxtrot Alpha also discusses the concept as well, but with some skepticism.

I venture my own opinions as well.

 F-35:

The USS America amphibious assault carrier, ahem, ship has been upgraded to work with the F-35B.

Norway has ordered six more F-35s.

Singapore is not in a rush to buy the F-35.

Israel is interested in F-35Bs now.

Japan has started putting together its first locally assembled F-35.

Israeli firms have earned $770 million worth of business for their part in the F-35.

Stealth Saga #8: Setbacks, Bulling Ahead and Progress

The plot thickens on the F-35/KF-X scandal in South Korea.

Despite the setbacks, the South Korean government will be pushing the KF-X program on schedule.

The Indians continue to worry about their cooperation with the Russians on the FGFA/PAK-FA program.

India is starting to emphasize the AMCA 5th generation fighter program over the FGFA.

A Canadian defense rag claims the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter doesn't qualify as a 5th gen fighter!

The Chinese FC-31/J-31 is being promoted as a replacement for the JF-17 in export markets.

A US Congressman notes the Chinese J-20 and J-31 'mirror' the F-22 and F-35.

A new book claims the 'Stealth-hawk' used in the bin Laden raid was one of two prototypes that were built.  Other sources are claiming nonsense.

The Long Range Strike Bomber contract has been delayed at least two months.

However, the LRS-B program has two prototypes already and will award the contract even if Congress is dumber than dumb and does a continuing resolution for the full year.

There are hints the LRS-B program may get accelerated. 

The F-35C returns to sea for testing on October 5th.  Turns out this was moved up to October 2nd.

The F-35 has done its first external weapon release.

Norway has reaffirmed its intent to buy 52 F-35s.

Lockheed is already started work on how to place its fiber lasers onto the F-35.

Northrop has completed the first center fuselage for Japan's first F-35A.

India Freezes AMCA Stealth Fighter Configuration

Indian fighter designers freeze AMCA configuration, now seek funding

While New Delhi negotiates for a small share of Sukhoi T-50 development, its defense ministry engineers prepare a fighter that would be 80% Indian.The designers have now frozen the configuration of a proposed medium-weight Indian fighter that they expect to fly early in the 2020s. General Electric is the preferred supplier of propulsion for the twin-engine, stealthy Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

link (paywall).