Future is Arriving in Dubai: Police Hoverbikes

Japan has Ordered 4 More V-22 Tilt Rotors

Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, is being awarded a $544,668,978 modification to the previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm target, Lot 17-21 multi-year contract (N00019-12-C-2001). This modification provides for the long lead production materials and the manufacture and delivery of four MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft pursuant to the variation in quantity clause in support of the government of Japan; as well as incorporation of an engineering change proposal for the standby flight display. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (24.6 percent); Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (19.2 percent); Amarillo, Texas (10.4 percent); Dallas, Texas (4.3 percent); East Aurora, New York (2.5 percent); Park City, Utah (1.7 percent); El Segundo, California (1.3 percent); Endicott, New York (1 percent); Ontario, Canada (0.9 percent); Tempe, Arizona (0.8 percent); Corinth, Texas (0.8 percent); Rome, New York (0.7 percent); Torrance, California (0.7 percent); Luton, United Kingdom (0.6 percent); Los Angeles, California (0.6 percent); Cobham, United Kingdom (0.6 percent); Irvine, California (0.6 percent); San Diego, California (0.5 percent); Yakima, Washington (0.5 percent); Brea, California (0.5 percent); Rockmart, Georgia (0.5 percent); Albuquerque, New Mexico (0.4 percent); Whitehall, Michigan (0.4 percent); Wolverhampton, United Kingdom (0.4 percent); Tucson, Arizona (0.4 percent); Erie, Pennsylvania (0.3 percent); Vergennes, Vermont (0.3 percent); Kilgore, Texas (0.3 percent); Shelby, North Carolina (0.3 percent); Avon, Ohio (0.2 percent); Santa Clarita, California (0.2 percent); Garden City, New York (0.2 percent); El Cajon, California (0.2 percent); Sylmar, California (0.2 percent); Westbury, New York (0.1 percent); and various other locations inside and outside the U.S. (22.8 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2020. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $302,913,946 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

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US Army Hopes for a lot From the Future Vertical Lift Program

Anyone who has strolled around an army or civil helicopter show in the USA lately cannot help but have noticed some strange rotary-wing birds that promise to morph between troop-carrying assault machines and armed gunships, bristling with cannons and Hellfire missiles. Full-scale mock-ups of the Bell Helicopter V-280 Valor and the Sikorsky S-97 Raider, and models of some other radical concepts, are – their creators hope – the future of rotary-wing aviation for the US military.

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Pakistan in Talks to buy Turkish T-129 Attack Helicopters

Newly-appointed Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik and Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Muhammad Asif met Friday in Islamabad to discuss bilateral defense cooperation.

"One of the most important issues between [the two countries] is a deal for T129 attack helicopters," Isik said at a joint press conference held after the meeting.

The deal for the sale of the T129s -- a multi-role attack helicopter co-developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries -- will "further enhance our bilateral cooperation in the defense industry," Isik asserted.

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US SOCOM to Test Laser Weapon Prototype Mounted on Apache Attack Helicopter

Special Operations Command will test a laser weapon on an Apache helicopter this summer, said one official May 26.

SOCOM's program executive office rotary wing is working alongside the Army’s project office for Apache Attack Helicopters to conduct a feasibility test this summer, said Col. John Vannoy, program manager for rotary wing.

“There is absolutely a niche I believe for use of directed energy weapons,” he said during a briefing at the annual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association. “The lens we are looking at this through right now is: ‘Is it feasible to do this?’ We’re not at the point where we’ve laid out a business case to advance it.”

The office envisions using a laser weapon to destroy vehicles or generators versus sending in a missile that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.

Vannoy’s office and the Army's Apache office have entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with Raytheon to put a podded laser on the aircraft, he said.

“We really want to understand the environment on the wing, the beam quality we can get off the wing and the ability to beam steer and keep power on a target,” he said.

Environmental factors such as dust could affect beam quality. In addition, the vibrations on an Apache’s wing could affect steering, he said.

Vannoy did not disclose a specific timeframe for the test or when results would be made public. “Most of that will be internal quite frankly,” he said.

The effort is still in its infancy, he said. “I wouldn’t say that we’re at the tipping point and you’re going to see a Star Wars like effect or a Death Star laser hanging off the side of a rotary wing aircraft,” he said.

A directed energy weapon could also be mounted on an MH-60 Black Hawk, he said.

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US Army Under Pressure to Speed up Future Veritcal Lift Program

The US Army is under pressure to speed up its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) acquisition as it seeks permission from the Pentagon to begin pursuing a mid-sized Capability Set 3 (CS3) aircraft to eventually succeed the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64 Apache.

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Bell & Boeing Hope to Sell V-22s to Brits

The decline in V-22 Osprey orders from the U.S. military in coming years means the tiltrotor transport’s manufacturers are likely to spend a lot of time wooing foreign military officers at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition May 16-18 at National Harbor, Md. – especially Britain’s new First Sea Lord, Adm. Sir Philip Jones.

Representatives from Bell Helicopter and Boeing Co., which make the V-22 in a 50-50 partnership, will have a V-22 fuselage on display at the Navy League conference. They surely would like to show Sir Philip, who is expected to attend, why they think the Royal Navy needs the new CMV-22B variant Osprey the U.S. Navy is buying for Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) – hauling cargo and passengers to and from aircraft carriers at sea.

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Karem Aircraft Plans to Test its Optimum-speed Tiltrotor by 2019

Sometime in 2018 or 2019, Karem Aircraft will power up what it believes should be the American military’s next vertical lift system, the company’s patented optimum-speed tiltrotor.

Best known as the creator of the modern military drone, the company’s founder and namesake Abraham Karem is now devoting his attention to vertical takeoff and landing tiltrotors, with blades that rotate at the most efficient speed during all phases of hover and forward flight.

The frontrunner for this optimum-speed system was the A160 Hummingbird UAV: created by Karem’s Frontier Aircraft and later acquired by Boeing Defense, Space & Security. It demonstrated a highly efficient helicopter configuration that flew past 18h during one test.

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And the ITEP engine may be the drop in for all FVL aircraft.

US Army Desperately Needs Future Vertical Lift for Pacific Theater

The deputy commander of US Pacific Command says the Army must field next-generation aircraft with greater range, speed and survivability than is achievable with today’s helicopter inventory.

Lt Gen Tony Crutchfield says the vast distances inherent in the Pacific theatre, as well as the proliferation of anti-aircraft weaponry, are challenging the current generation of army rotorcraft, namely the AH-6 Little Bird, UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook, which were all adopted in the last century.

“I firmly believe the only way we will close the gap with the problems facing us today is with Future Vertical Lift (FVL),” he says, referring to the army-led acquisition programme that will introduce a new family of aircraft with roughly double the range and speed of today’s models.

“We must have Future Vertical Lift,” he continues, speaking at an Army Aviation Association of America conference in Atlanta, Georgia on 30 April. “It is the only way we will be successful in the PACOM environment with the distances. That range and that speed and that survivability are critical to army aviation to be effective in this fight.”

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First Future Vertical Lift VTOL Will be the Medium Class

The first Future Vertical Lift aircraft to be fielded by the Army will come in the medium-lift category, where attack and cargo lift helicopters reside, Maj. Gen. William Gayler, the new Army Aviation Center of Excellence commander at Fort Rucker, Ala., said at the Aviation Association of America’s Mission Solutions Summit Friday.

Gayler said that since Congress required the Army to consider the FVL program as a joint program to include the Marine Corps and the Air Force, the need to be joint is driving the decision on which type of helicopter will be built first. The Army is still leading the effort.

The Army’s acquisition approach divides up the type of helicopters to be built as a family of helicopters to replace the service’s current fleet into five “capability sets.” The first set is the lightest variant while the fifth is the heaviest. Capability set 3 refers to the medium-lift variant.

Because the Marines and Air Force are more interested in a medium-lift, the Army has decided to focus on that weight class for the first helicopters that will be fielded starting in the early 2030s, according to Gayler.

“Since it’s a DoD joint program, we think the right answer is to go with [capability set 3] with other services, but we obviously will still be very interested in 1 or 2 as well,” Gayler said.

There has been talk about whether the first variant of FVL would be a light reconnaissance-type helicopter in order to fill a gap left open when the Army decided to retire the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters. The service is temporarily filling the gap by teaming AH-64 Apache Attack helicopters with Shadow unmanned aircraft systems.

But Gayler’s comments seem to put that debate to rest.

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AVX Reveals Future Vertical Lift Class One Proposal

AVX Aircraft of Benbrook, Texas has responded to the US Army’s request for information on the smallest of five planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) capability sets with two 7.5t (16,700lb) winged coaxial compound helicopter configurations that the company’s chief executive describes as vertical takeoff fighter aircraft for light reconnaissance, attack, assault and medical evacuation missions.

The baseline swept-wing, 13.4m (44ft) diametre rotor concept would be powered by two 3,000shp Improved Turbine Technology Programme (ITEP) engines and is designed to meet a demanding set of core requirements proposed by the US Army in its “Capability Set 1” RFI document. The requirements that emerged for that next-generation rotorcraft category required a more robust design than the 4.5t (10,000lb) light single that AVX discussed with the Army back in January for Capability Set 1 (CS1), prior to the 18 February RFI release.

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And, interestingly, to replace the Chinook, AVX would want to use a tilt rotor.

The Race to Finish the Joint Multi-Role Demonstrators for the Future Vertical Lift Program

In West Palm Beach, Florida, and Amarillo, Texas, two different aircraft are coming together in a sprint to the starting line of the Army’s much anticipated flight demonstrations of future helicopter concepts in 2017.

The Army plans to design and field a future vertical lift aircraft and is expected to kick off that program of record in the 2019 time frame. The expectation is to buy a new family of helicopters through a competition and field the new aircraft at some point in the early 2030s, although the Army has talked about speeding up that fielding timeline to the late 2020s.

But first the Army plans to demonstrate Joint Multi-Role (JMR) air vehicle capability at a 2017 flight demonstration in order to help the service fully define requirements for the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

A Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin team is mating the entire wing -- which is one big part -- onto the fuselage in Texas of its advanced tiltrotor concept the V-280 Valor, according to Vince Tobin, Bell’s vice president for advanced tiltrotor systems.

Sikorsky and Boeing have all of its Defiant coaxial helicopter parts in fabrication, some have already been delivered to the final assembly facility in Florida, Pat Donnelly, Boeing’s program director, said. Notably, the fuselage is in California being assembled and the team plans to conduct flight loads verification before shipping it to Florida.

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Is the US Navy Serious About Buying the V-22s for Shipboard Logistics?

After years of hesitation, the Navy finally decided last year to buy 44 CMV-22B variant Ospreys to replace its C-2A Greyhound airplanes in Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) missions. But the way the Navy handled the V-22 in this year’s budget calls into question how firm its commitment to buying that many Ospreys really is. The Navy has so many competing, expensive and higher priorities that some Osprey partisans wonder if the money will be there for all those aircraft in the end even if, as expected, the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and Osprey makers Bell Helicopter and Boeing Co. negotiate a new multiyear contract – a bulk purchase at lower unit prices. In other words, the poverty penalty could come into play.

“The stress on the budget is real, it’s acute,” said one retired Marine general. “We don’t know right now how many airplanes the Department of the Navy is going to buy. If the multi-year falls apart, it could be less.”

Under an informal rule set by Congress, multiyear contracts are required to provide at least a 10 percent saving over annual contracts. Under the final year of the program’s second multiyear contract, the Marine Corps requested 16 Ospreys in fiscal 2017 at a “flyaway” price of $74.7 million apiece. Future projections released with this year’s budget show that price rising to $94.7 million per Osprey if they don’t get a new multiyear.

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US Army Told to Find way to Hustle Future Vertical Lift Program

The US House Armed Services panel on tactical air and land forces says in its mark of the fiscal year 2017 defence policy bill that current funding levels for FVL are “inadequate”.

The legislative proposal, which will be considered by the full committee on 27 April, seeks a briefing by the army on its FVL and Joint-MultiRole Technology Demonstrator efforts. That briefing would include a status report on the Bell V-280 Valor and Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant programmes as well as an analysis of “potential options and required resources” for accelerating FVL.

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Will The Kiowa Replacement be the First Future Vertical Lift Program?

The US Army’s requirement for a next-generation armed scout platform to replace the acclaimed Bell OH-58 Kiowa has been around since the Light Helicopter Experimental (LHX) programme of the 1980s.

Now, as the remaining Kiowas are being scrapped, stored or sold without a dedicated, manned replacement, the army could decide this year whether to launch another light attack/reconnaissance rotorcraft development effort under the banner of Future Vertical Lift (FVL).

The assumed plan has been that the army would move first on “FVL Medium” as a natural follow-on to the 13,600kg (30,000lb)-class technology demonstrator showdown between the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant and Bell Helicopter V-280 Valor prototypes.

But a “Capability Set 1” request for information (RFI) released last month and seeking rotorcraft options for the “light attack/reconnaissance role”, has long-time FVL players, particularly Sikorsky, pushing rotorcraft like the S-97 Raider, first flown in May. Bell, Boeing, AVX, Karem and MD Helicopters have also shown interest, but have not shown their hands.

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Did the Russians Just Test a Tilt Rotor VTOL?

A convertiplane developed by the Russian Helicopters Group has performed its first flight, the company’s representatives told TASS at the rotocraft maker’s exhibition stand at the Singapore Airshow 2016 on Wednesday.

"The works on developing the unique machine started in 2015. Over that time, we have achieved considerable results and have already started the first state of flight tests," the representatives quoted Alexander Okhonko, the CEO of VR-Technologies, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters Group, as saying.

The project is being implemented as part of the Speed program in cooperation with the company Aerob, a resident of the space cluster at Russia’s Skolkovo hi-tech hub outside Moscow.

The project aims at developing a family of multi-purpose rotocraft, Russian Helicopters said.

The convertiplane is equipped with a hybrid power plant expected to allow it to develop a speed of up to 500 km/hr.

Today only the consortium of US companies Bell Helicopter and Boeing is serially producing convertiplanes, in particular, the MV-22 Osprey. These machines are delivered to the US Marine Corps and the Air Force, as well as to Japan, which has ordered five such aircraft.

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2nd link, but still same source.

Stealth Saga #33: Meet the B-21

B-21/Long Range Strike Bomber:

Meet the B-21.  This is the first official rendering of the new bomber.  No word when they will release other images or unveil a prototype.  IMO, they really ought to have named it the B-3. The obsession with the '21st century' is sooooo 90s.  ;)

Senator McCain is very unhappy with the prospect of the first LRSB contract being a cost plus contract rather than a fixed price. Note: the production contact is a fixed price, but the development contract is cost plus.

At the unveiling, the air force replied to McCain as well.

In general, despite McCain's anger, Congress is supportive of the nuclear triad revamp.  Maybe, just maybe, we have something so important they'll stop being stupid. The B-21 is amongst those programs.

Here's some more background info on contracting something like the B-21.

It also seems the air force brass is stating one of the older bomber types will have to be retired (B-1 or B-52) when the LRS-B comes online.

Minor Update:  The Air Force brass will be asking to raise the number of bombers planned from 100 to 175, maybe, 200.

Minor Update: Boeing and Lockheed have signaled they will not be suing (and again) over the B-21 contract.

VTOL Stealth Drone:

DARPA is looking at funding a VTOL X Plane.  Some sources are stating this is the second coming of VARIOUS.

Sixth Generation Fighter:

The US Air Force is looking at new missiles for the 6th gen, including SACM.

F-35:

General Bogdan has stated it is possible for Australia to do a block buy of the F-35 before the US does.  The US cannot do a block buy until at least LRIP 13's batch.  The international partners have six months to decide on whether or not to do a block buy for them.

However, Australia is now considering other platforms than the F-35 (paywall) for the 2030s time frame for its strike capabilities.

The Dutch F-35s will be flying to the Netherlands soon.

PAK-FA:

More sources have started calling the PAK-FA a '5th gen fighter in name only.'

ATD-X/X-2:

The X-2 gets a quick profiling ahead of its maiden flight.

Chinese 5th Gen VSTOL:

The J-18 VSTOL fighter, the equivalent of the F-35B, is something of a will o'wisp.  Reported here.  Reported there.  Rumored periodically.  Never with any real substance.  However, it is clear the Chinese want one, whether or not they have even a prototype now.

DARPA's Aviation Shopping List: Drones, X Planes & Hypersonics, oh my!

DARPA is up to mischief again. In some cases, mischief that has been delayed by budgets and elsewhere.

1. AFRE (Advanced Full-Range Engine) seems to be taking over from the old MOTR. Both were/are engines that were supposed to work from subsonic all the way up through high supersonic or even potentially low hypersonic speeds. This sounds a lot like the concept Lockheed's SR-72 was supposed to work with. This is at the the (re)kick off stage with a request for $9 M.

2. Hypersonic weapons! DARPA has two hypersonic weapon programs requested. HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept), a hypersonic scramjet powered cruise missile as I understand it and has requested $49.5M for completing the first CDR and ground tests of the hydrocarbon powered scramjet. DARPA has also asked for $22.8M for TBG (tactical boost glide weapon): an air launched, rocket powered hypersonic boost glide warhead. They want to launch from existing aircraft and be compatible with the Navy's VLS system. The TBG is intended to be test launched by the end of 2017.

3. Despite rumors of the XS-1 being canned in December, due to fuel danger problems, it seems DARPA has requested an additional $50.5M for the small sat launcher.

4. DARPA has also requested $52M for a VTOL X Plane with a selection on source *this* quarter and have a flying demo by the end of 2017. Is this something leaking in from the Black? Should we call the move from the black to white world 'white washing?'

5. TERN gets another $12M for CDR and assembly of the VTOL Predator equivalent for shipboard use on destroyers, cruisers and frigates.

6. Finally, at least for this post, Gremlins, the effort to design and build UAVs that can be launched and recovered in the air gets an additional $36M requested.

I am really intrigued with the VTOL X Plane. If its jet powered, I'd be really surprised given the time frames. Maybe its not?

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Those Crazy Kids and Their Crazy Flying Machines

This year, we've seen a number of important developments in the race to bring personal flyers to market. A team of flying enthusiasts from Hungary took to the skies in a proof of concept tricopter named Flike in March, Malloy Aeronautics announced plans to develop its Hoverbike for the US Department of Defense at the Paris Air Show in June, and the JB-9 made its maiden flight around the Statue of Liberty just last month. Now a team of students from Singapore has joined the fray with a battery electric multicopter called Snowstorm that's being designed for recreational flying.

The Snowstorm vertical take-off and landing prototype is the culmination of two semesters' work under a collaborative program at the National University of Singapore known as FrogWorks, which challenges students to design and construct clean leisure craft. The eight-strong student team prototyped the design by initially building a scale model, before starting work on a version that could carry, and be controlled by, a single pilot.

Mounted to a hexagonal anodized aluminum frame with carbon fiber plates and tubes and Kevlar ropes are 24 electric motors that each drive a 76 cm (30 in) diameter prop. The aircraft's three lithium batteries, each designed to function independently as a safety measure, provide enough juice for five minutes of flight with a 70 kg (155 lb) pilot aboard. The pilot's seat is secured to the frame by a five-point harness and six landing gear legs, each ending in an inflatable ball, break out below.

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MQ-8C FireScout Completed Operational Assessment

The MQ-8C Fire Scout completed a three week operational assessment period Nov. 20 at Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu, California.

The OA included 11 flights totaling 83.4 flight hours where Fire Scout was tested against maritime and surveyed land targets to assess system performance, endurance and reliability of the unmanned helicopter.

“MQ-8C is meeting or exceeding its performance objectives and will deliver greater warfighting capabilities to the fleet in the future,” said Capt Jeff Dodge, Fire Scout’s program manager for Multi-Mission Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems.

The MQ-8C will provide twice the endurance and three times the payload as the existing MQ-8B. It has a range of 150 nautical miles and a payload capacity of more than 700 pounds which provides unique situational awareness and precision target support for the Navy on land and at-sea with its multiple intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.

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