Stealth Saga #28

PAK-FA:

Russia claims it will put the PAK-FA into service by the end of the year and that it will be able to launch cruise missiles.

J-20:

China remains ahead, so goes the narrative, between the nations in Asia to acquire stealth aircraft.


UCLASS:

Rumor has it the US Navy is considering changing the mission of the UCLASS drone from recon and strike to air to air refueling.  Yup, a tanker.  This is going to really, really annoy Congress.  Congress stated they wanted a stealthy, long range strike plane for the UCLASS and funded the procurement even for competitive fly-off.  Well.  umm.  yeah.  Here is more info.

Here's an editorial in support of the shift of the UCLASS from strike to tanker.

If Congress agrees with the conversion, the tanker drone will move to the Terminator Times posts.

IMNSHO, it would be best to do the tanker and start the development of the strike asset.  It takes time to develop those capabilities and get them on the deck.  The tanker will get there faster and will be of great use.  However, the strike asset will take MORE time and we need capability in the 2030 time frame.  If we start now, we'll barely get it on deck in time.

Tacit Blue:

Take a virtual tour of the Tacit Blue's cockpit.  Tacit Blue was another stealth aircraft black project from the 1980s.  It flew from 1981 to 1985 built by Northrop.  The intent was to have a stealthy spycraft right at the enemy lines with loads of sensors.  For whatever reason, probably risk, the program was cancelled and the sensors were used on the JSTARS aircraft.  The JSTARS is in process of being replaced now.

F-22:

F-35:

One of the consequences of the UCLASS change is more F-35Cs are being ordered for the US Navy.  The Navy will get more F-35Cs.  Apparently, 10 more F-35s more than planned over the next 5 years.

A report is that the F-35's test schedule is unrealistic.

The British will be receiving their last test F-35 shortly.

One analysis predicts the F-35 will revolutionize the Israeli Air Force.

F-35A operating costs have come down considerably and its operational readiness has been increased.

The US Air Force has cut its request for 48 F-35As to 43.

The top weapon's tester is expressing opposition to doing a bulk buy of the F-35 until after testing is complete.

Four F-35As will deploy to Mountain Home AFB in Idaho to test whether or not the F-35A can be declared as having IOC this summer as planned.

Stealth Saga #14: History! China! And Bombers! Oh MY!

More information has come to light about Chinese plans for the FC-31/J-31 stealth fighter. 


Supporters of the Long Range Strike Bomber are calling on the US Air Force to formally commit to buying 100 bombers instead of 80 to 100.  After all, the LRS-B/B-3 is going to be the backbone of the bomber force in the future.

Cracks have been found in the wing spars of the F-35C.

From stealth aircraft history, why did the YF-22 beat out the YF-23 in the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition for the first 5th generation fighter?

Are Modern Aircraft Carriers Less Capable Than Cold War Era Equivalents?

The high-cost, high-controversy centerpieces for the future Navy fleet — the Ford-class aircraft carrier and the F-35C fighter — not only take it in the wrong direction, says a report out today. They double down on a strategic mistake made 20 years ago, when the Navy shortchanged range, argues Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain now with the Center for a New American Security in a new study.

Only investing in new, unmanned aircraft with longer range — ideally launched off smaller, cheaper carriers — can restore the carrier’s relevance in the face of Russian and Chinese ship-killing missiles, Hendrix argues. Like a recent study from the Hudson Institute, Hendrix sharply criticizes the modern carrier air wing for being too short-ranged and argues the Navy’s UCLASS drone (Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance & Strike) should be optimized for long-range raids.

In fact, both studies were at least partially inspired by a public debate Hendrix had with one of the Hudson co-authors, Bryan McGrath, back in January. Unlike the Hudsonites, however, who stoutly defend big carriers in general and the Ford class in particular, Hendrix takes issue with the ships as well as the airplanes flying off them.

“I still think that the Ford is too damn expensive. I still think we can do aircraft carriers more cheaply,” Hendrix told me. And he’s hardly alone: The retired Navy pilot who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain, repeatedly has hammered the Ford program for being over budget and behind schedule. Hendrix notes that McCain himself flew off the USS Forrestal, considered America’s first modern “supercarrier” but still 20 percent smaller than the subsequent Nimitz class or the Ford (80,000 tons at full load versus 100,000).

Yet despite being smaller, the Forrestal launched larger, longer-ranged aircraft than carriers do today. McCain, for example, flew the A-4 Skyhawk, whose range exceeds both the current standard strike fighter, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the forthcoming F-35C. (Skyhawk combat radius: 550-625 nautical miles. Super Hornet: 500 nm. F-35C: officially 615 but Hendrix estimates, based on how the F-35A variant is falling short of its range spec, that the C will end up closer to 550). Other retired carrier aircraft had even longer ranges, the greatest being the A3D Skywarrior introduced in 1956, the largest plane ever to fly from a carrier and boasting an 1,800-nm combat radius.

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Watch F-35Cs Land on the USS Eisenhower

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American Nuclear Weapons Update: Nukes for F-35C and Commonality Sought for US Navy SLBM and USAF ICBM Replacements

A US think tank has proposed installing nuclear weapons on the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter for deployment aboard aircraft carriers as a hedge against Russia and China.

Clark Murdock of the Center for Strategic and International Studies floated the idea of a return to carrier-based nuclear weapons in a new report published on 22 June.

The US government has committed to outfitting only the land-based F-35A with nuclear weapons as a “dual-capable aircraft,” namely the Boeing B61-12 thermonuclear guided bomb.

According to Murdock though, the F-35C should also receive nuclear weapons in the future as a “visible manifestation” of the United States’ commitment to protecting its allies.

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As the Air Force train pulls out of the station, the Navy’s running alongside asking to be pulled aboard. Both services will need to replace aging nuclear missiles sometime ca. 2030. They could save money by coordinating their modernization programs — but the Air Force is on a tighter schedule and the window of opportunity is starting to close.

“Commonality [is] a topic that I’ve been pretty aggressively shopping around town to anyone who will listen to me,” said Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, the Navy’s director of Strategic Systems Programs. But while the Navy’s not officially launched an effort to replace its Trident submarined-launched ballistic missile, the Air Force’s Minuteman ICBM replacement, the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, already issued a Request For Information back in January. “Because of the urgency of the GBSD effort,” Benedict said, “we need to begin this assessment now.”

“There’s absolute consensus at the leadership level to begin that work,” Benedict said at Peter Huessy breakfast hosted by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute. “I think the direction to formally proceed on that work is imminent.”

In the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon’s top buyer, Undersecretary Frank Kendall himself, is conducting a Strategic Posture Review that addresses the commonality question. Benedict has also spoken to the Air Force’s top buyer, Assistant Sec. Bill LaPlante, and to the service’s program executive officer for weapons, Maj. Gen. Scott Jansson. Strategic Command chief Adm. Cecil Haney even got Benedict to address a meeting of “basically every flag officer in the United States Air Force associated with ICBMs.”

“It’s hard to argue with [commonality]: I mean, who doesn’t want to save money?” Benedict said. “But, rightfully, they have a requirement that they have to meet to replace the Minuteman III, and so there are concerns that this does not distract them or derail them from meeting that requirement, and I respect that.”

The Air Force and the Navy also need their missiles to do different things. At the most basic level, launching from a silo underground is very different from launching from a submarine underwater. A component that works for both may not be optimal for either.

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US Navy Asks Congress for Additional 12 F/A-18E/Fs and 8 F-35Cs Outside of Normal Budget

The U.S. Navy included 12 Boeing Co F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets and eight Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s on a list of "unfunded priorities" prepared for Congress, defense officials and other sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Navy's list was reviewed by senior Pentagon officials and the Joint Chiefs of Staff this week, and should be sent to U.S. lawmakers in coming days, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the vetting is still under way.

Top Pentagon officials are skeptical about the weapons wish lists, and worry they help lawmakers "cherry pick" specific weapons programs to fund, while crowding out bigger priorities. However, they say they will not stand in the way of the military services complying with requests from lawmakers.

The total value of the additional 12 Boeing jets is around $1 billion, while the eight extra Lockheed jets would be just over $1 billion, the sources said.

A decision by Congress to fund the extra Boeing jets as part of the Navy's fiscal 2016 budget would help the company extend its St. Louis production line beyond the end of 2017, although it was not immediately clear for how long.

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US Marine Corps Receives Last F-35 Delivery of 2014, First F-35C for USMC

The US Marine Corps has received its first carrier-based Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, marking the 36th and final delivery of a Joint Strike Fighter in 2014.

Lockheed Martin says the 22 December delivery of aircraft CF-19 meets the 36 aircraft delivery target for 2014, and marks the 109th overall delivery of operational F-35s to the USA and partner operators.

The first USMC F-35C out of a planned 80 will be assigned to the US Navy’s VFA-101 “Grim Reapers” squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing, based at Eglin AFB. After delivery CF-19 will be used for F-35C pilot training.

[...]

Of the 36 aircraft delivered in 2014, 23 are USAF ‘A’ models, two are RAAF ‘A’ models, four are USMC ‘B’ models and seven are ‘C’ models – six for the USN and one for the USMC.

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New Pentagon Budget Adds Aircraft, Ships

Military aviation officials and defense contractors will have a merry Christmas if the $1.1 trillion fiscal year 2015 budget is approved as agreed upon on 10 December passes both houses of the US Congress.

The Department of Defense netted $93.8 billion in procurement funding, of which $31.9 billion is slated for aircraft purchases by the air force, army and navy.

Congress authorised the purchase of a total 38 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs, nine more than were bought in fiscal year 2014 and four more than the Obama administration requested. The order funds two additional F-35As for the air force at $224 million and two F-35Cs for the navy at $255 million.

The navy also will receive authorisation to purchase 15 Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft for $1.46 billion. Those aircraft were not included in the navy’s 2015 budget request, but the service included atop its list of unfunded priorities. Twelve EA-18Gs were added into a bill passed by the House that died without a vote on the Senate floor.

Though it rewards the navy, the bill denies the air force authority to retire its Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolts by funding the fleet’s maintenance at $337.1 million. The plan, pitched as a cost-saving measure by a cash-strapped air force, met with strenuous opposition on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have been promising to preserve the A-10.

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Additionally, The Ohio SSBN Replacement was also fully funded and a new LPD-17 San Antonio Class Amphib was also paid for.  UCLASS naval UCAV  was fully funded (with some restrictions) and the Long Range Strike Bomber was also fully funded.

F-35C Conducts First Night Carrier Operations

The F-35C Lightning II carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter conducted its first carrier-based night flight operations aboard an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego Nov. 13.

Navy test pilot Lt. Cmdr. Ted "Dutch" Dyckman piloted F-35C test aircraft CF-03 for the inaugural night flight, taking off from USS Nimitz (CVN 68). At 6:01 p.m. Dyckman conducted a series of planned touch and goes before making an arrested landing at 6:40 pm.

The night flight was part of Development Testing I (DT-I) for the F-35C, which commenced Nov. 3 and is expected to last two weeks. The Nimitz is hosting the F-35 Lightning II Pax River Integrated Test Force from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 during the initial sea trials of the F-35C.

During DT-I, the test team has conducted a series of events designed to gradually expand the aircraft-operating envelope at sea, including crosswind and low-energy, high-wind catapult launches and approaches to test the aircraft's ability to perform in both nominal and off-nominal conditions.

Through Nov. 13, two test F-35C aircraft have completed 28 flights for a combined 34.5 flight hours and accomplished more than 75 percent of threshold test requirements. The aircraft also performed 108 catapult launches, 215 planned touch-and-go landings, two long touch and go landings, 110 arrested landings and zero bolters.

Testing thus far has demonstrated the aircraft's exceptional handling qualities throughout all tested launch and recovery conditions. F-35C maintenance and operations have integrated well with standard Navy carrier procedures onboard Nimitz. The F-35C has proven its ability to operate in the carrier environment and has consistently caught the optimal three-wire during arrested landings. The test team successfully landed during every attempt, with zero hook-down bolters, or failures to catch an arresting cable on the flight deck.

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F-35C Completes Over 200 Cat Launches, First Night Flight in First Two Weeks of Testing on USS Nimitz

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More Footage of the F-35C Carrier Launches and Landings

F-35C Catapult Launches From USS Nimitz

nice writeup. 

F-35C Lands on an Aircraft Carrier

F-35C set to Make First Carrier Landings Next Week

The naval variant of the tri-service Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter is set to land upon the deck of USS Nimitz (CVN-68) next week. Two of the single-engine F-35C stealth fighters are set to carry out a set of sea trials onboard the carrier to ensure that the jets can operate safely from the flight deck.

“They will fly on the third of November, and the first time that they touch the deck of the Nimitz will be with a trap,” Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, the Joint Strike Fighter program executive officer told reporters on Oct. 30.
“We’re not putting them on the ship with a crane.”

The Joint Strike Fighter Program Office is deploying test aircraft CF-3 and CF-5 to the carrier. The jets were set to arrive at Yuma, Arizona, from Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 30, Bogdan said. The two aircraft will be prepared for their trials at Yuma over the next “couple of days,” he added.

The two jets are fully instrumented and are cleared to operate with a full flight envelope, Bogdan said. Once onboard Nimitz, the jets will be run through the gamut of carrier operations.

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Two F-35Cs to Deploy to USS Nimitz for Testing in November: one may not really be ready for carrier flights

Plans to test a Lockheed Martin F-35C aboard a US aircraft carrier in November are on track, but both aircraft scheduled to deploy to the Pacific may not be capable of taking off and landing from the ship.

The C-model F-35 will be the US Navy’s carrier-based version of the jet and will be the last to enter service in 2018, following the Marine Corps and air force variants. Lt Gen Christopher Bogdan, speaking at a meeting of the programme’s joint executive steering board in Oslo, Norway, said the deployment to the USS Nimitz in the Pacific Ocean was on track despite lagging software development and flight restrictions resulting from a June engine fire that damaged an F-35A prior to a training flight.

However, work is ongoing to determine if both aircraft slated to deploy will be fully capable of performing carrier launches and landings, Bogdan says.

“We have some work to do as we lead up to that point in November,” he says. “That work we’re doing now will decide whether both airplanes that go to the ship will be capable of doing arrestments and catapult launches or only one of them will be and the other airplane we will leave on the deck to do logistics testing.”

“The November deployment will happen. It will most likely happen with two airplanes. Whether both airplanes will be fully capable of doing all the work remains to be seen,” he says.

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US Navy Already Looking Past F-35C to Sixth Generation Fighter or Other Alternatives

More than four years before the aircraft is scheduled to enter service, the US Navy already is considering modifying the Lockheed Martin F-35C to perform future missions beyond 2030.

Navy officials announced on 9 September that an analysis of alternatives (AoA) for the FA-XX aircraft would begin in calendar year 2015 and will consider modifying both the F-35C and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, as well as building a new aircraft to fulfil the requirement.

In the meantime, the Navy will host a series of technical interchange meetings (TIMs) with contractors “for the purposes of trade space refinement as a precursor” to the AoA.

The process began in 2012 with the release on a request for information (RFI) on aircraft concepts, technologies and capabilities “projected into future combat scenarios in the 2030 timeframe,” when the service foresees initial operating capability (IOC). The Navy’s F-35C is scheduled to reach IOC in 2019, after both the air force and Marine Corps versions have come online.

The documents released on 9 September list focus areas for individual TIMs, including modification of current aircraft and specifically names the Boeing F/A-18E/F and F-35C. Another of the meetings will focus on the possibility of building a new-start aircraft. The service is also asking for information on the projected technology readiness level of each proposal for 2020.

Some possible modifications of the existing carrier-based fleet have already appeared. The navy has discussed stealth modifications to the F/A-18E/F, while GE has studied more powerful engines enabled by expanded inlets. Meanwhile, the F-35 has long been discussed as possible benefactor of adaptive propulsion, in which the ratios of bypass and perhaps even compression airflow can be made variable to improve efficiency.

FA-XX is slated to replace the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft. The original RFI says it will compliment other aircraft in navy carrier air wings including the F-35C and whatever aircraft emerges from the ongoing unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) programme.

The aircraft is intended to serve multiple missions in an anti-access, area-denial environment. The RFI lists air warfare, strike warfare, surface warfare and close air support as possible missions. Navy officials also want to collect information on covering air-to-air refuelling, tactical reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition and airborne electronic attack.

The service is open to unmanned, optionally manned and manned aircraft.

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Is the US Navy Waffling on the F-35?

Boeing’s recent strategy to question the effectiveness of the F-35’s stealth capabilities against the latest air defense radars brings to mind similar questions that were raised about another expensive next generation stealth aircraft about 13 years ago.

In 1991, Pentagon tests found that Northrop Grumman’s B-2 Spirit was less capable of evading radars with its stealth bat wing design than initially expected. These problems along with cost overruns cut the B-2 program by more than 70 percent.

The Air Force had planned to field 75 of the B-2 bombers, but Congress ended the program at 21 aircraft as costs skyrocketed. If you include all procurement costs, the B-2 cost $929 million per aircraft. It almost makes the F-35 sound like a steal with its procurement costs at $162 million per aircraft.

However, the current debate deals with the F-35 and doubling down on more EA-18 Growlers to increase the Navy’s electronic attack capabilities. Boeing has pushed the Navy to buy more Growlers. The Navy has requested 22 Growlers in its unfunded priorities lists with the possibility of buying up to 50 more.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said its a top Navy priority to increase the number of Growlers aboard each carrier from five to seven. The logic had been that with F-35Cs, the Navy’s need for electronic attack aircraft would diminish, not increase. But that’s assuming the Navy stays on board with the Joint Strike Fighter Program.

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F-35 not Capable to Fight Without EF-18G Support?!

Stealth is being outpaced by software, radar and computing power so electronic warfare and cyber attacks are growing in importance. So the F-35, though it may possess excellent — if circumscribed — electronic attack and cyber capabilities, needs help from the Navy’s EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft.

That means, Boeing and the Navy are arguing, that the Navy needs more of the electronic attack versions of the F-18, known as the Growler, to fly with the F-35 on the first day of combat to protect the F-35 and to help protect the service’s precious carrier strike groups.

“The Growlers were highlighted as a priority need by the Chief (of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert) in his request to Congress. Our assessment is that the DoD needs 50 to 100 additional Growlers, so we will continue to work with Congress to add 22 Growlers to the Fiscal Year 2015 budget and later with the Navy for future Growlers to be inserted into the baseline Fiscal Year 2016 budget in the next cycle,” Mike Gibbons, the Boeing vice president in charge of the F/A-18 and EA -18G programs, said in a statement.

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US Navy to Start Testing F-35C on Aircraft Carriers

The U.S. Navy for the first time will begin testing its version of the F-35 fighter jet from an aircraft carrier this fall, according to the No. 2 official in charge of the program.

Rear Adm. Randy Mahr, deputy director of the Defense Department’s Joint Strike Fighter program, didn’t specify a date or ship for the upcoming evaluations. But he spoke confidently of the planned milestone for the F-35C, the Navy variant designed for taking off from and landing on carriers.

“It’s going to be the year of the F-35C,” he said during a briefing at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference on Monday in National Harbor, Md.

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