Stealth Saga #41

Sixth Gen Fighters:

The AFRL is seeking information on the status of lasers that could be used to shoot down incoming SAMs or air to air missiles.

France and Germany are having a tiff over whether or not the FCAS will have significant export restrictions.  Germany wants them.  France does not.

Germany is eager for Spain to participate in the FCAS and some design parameters are starting to emerge.

The FCAS program must be manned because France needs it for the air superiority and nuclear missions.

KF-X:

Indonesia is trying to renegotiate its contribution to the KF-X/IFX project due to fiscal constraints.

TF-X:

Turkey selected GE over Rolls Royce to provide the engines to its new fighter.

Other sources are stating Turkey is putting in a local engine design instead.

SU-57:

The Russians did a photoshoot of the SU-57.

They also did a slightly cheesy shoot of the load testing and failures on a static article for the SU-57.

The Russians are claiming the SU-57 is better than the F-22 and the F-35.  WiB comes to defend the F-22 vs the SU-57.

SU-57 pilots are testing gravity suits to counter the affects of acceleration had high g turns and the like.

The Russians have released pictures of testing the SU-57 at a radar range.

CH-7:

China showed off its stealthy CH-7 UAV.

Tiang Ying:

China also showed off a flying wing UAV that could be a carrier based drone.

J-20:

J-20s, at least three, possibly more, participated in the airshow at Zhuhai.

The J-20 overflew the Zhuhai airshow with its weapons bay open.  It showed it could carry six missiles: four in the main bay and one in each of the secondaries.

F-35 haters are defending the J-20.

China is making significant advances on the fighter front.

J-31/FC-31:

Sources stated the Chinese government has given AVIC a contract to develop the J-31 into an aircraft suitable for the Chinese military due to the J-15 problems.

H-20:

Reports are starting to circulate the Chinese will unveil the H-20 next year.  Accurate?  Who knows.

Unknown Tonopah aircraft:

Satellite images were censored of an unknown aircraft at the famous Area 51.

Northrop Grumman Stealth Transport:

Was this a cockpit mockup of an undisclosed stealthy transport aircraft?

B-2:

A B-2 bomber had an emergency landing in Colorado Springs.

B-21:

Edwards AFB will be where the B-21 is tested and Tinker AFB will be its regular post testing base.

F-23:

The F-22 changed a lot from the YF-22 to the F-22A.  Had the YF-23 won the competition, what would the production F-23A looked like?

WiB attacks the idea bringing the F-23 into production is a good one.

F-22:

Hurricane Michael did damage to up to 17 F-22s at Tyndall AFB. At least five were in good enough condition they were flown out of Tyndall to Langley.

F-22s arrived at Klein-Brogal AFB in Belgium.

The KC-30 is undergoing refueling trials with the F-22 for certification.

On April 13th, an F-22 had a bellyflop landing on take-off.  The pilot was to blame.

All F-22s have left Tyndall, SecUSAF has stated.

F-35:

Has the Block Buy for the F-35 begun?  Lockheed received a downpayment of $6B for 255 F-35s.

80% of F-35s have been returned to flight operations after the recent grounding.

The crash may slow the F-35 testing a couple months.

The USAF is working to fix the cyber security weaknesses of the F-35.

An F-35B connected to the USS Wasp anti cruise missile system.

The Aviationist has a video of a F-35B refueling over the Middle East.

Belgium has reportedly selected the F-35A over the Eurofighter to replace its F-16s.  European firms are unhappy with the selection.  The F-35 selection shouldn't shock anyone.  It still makes some haters unhappy.

The Brits tested the Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing technique for the first time on the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

F-35Bs on the Queen Elizabeth have completed DT-1 trials.

The British confirmed their order of another 17 F-35Bs.

Israeli F-35Is had been returned to service faster than the rest it seems.

Italy is signaling it will be slowing down its F-35 orders.

A report from the Pentagon to Congress on Turkey's participation in the F-35 has been delivered.

Lockheed expects to sell even more F-35s.

Can Lockheed keep the sustainment costs down for the F-35?

Did Digital Globe Snap a Picture of a Chinese "Fast Mover" UAV?

Jane's ran a story this morning claiming a Digital Globe satellite snapped images on June 7th and June 10th a possible new unmanned aerial vehicle was spotted at Malan air base in western China. The link has since gone 404.

That said, I went and did a little asking in other circles about the image.

I was provided with:

The unknown aircraft is superficially similar to the Dark Sword UAV that caused some hullabaloo in June.  Interestingly, the Dark Sword photo popped up on June 5th.  The photo above was supposed to be taken by Digital Globe on June 7th and seen again on June 10th.  The time is interesting, but may just be a coincidence.

The primary difference between this aircraft and the Dark Sword is the wings look...wrong.  Everything looks lined up here and without the angled out wings for the Dark Sword.  OTOH, that could be an artifact for of the resolution of the satellite.  I'm not convinced, to be honest.

Jane's does note, in the now nuked article, there are two known high speed UAVs in development by China.  The preview does not state what they are or if the Dark Sword is one of them.  It should be noted, the shape of this aircraft is quite similar to the various images Lockheed put out of the proposed SR-72.  A purported sighting of a flying SR-72 UAV was seen recently in Texas, fwiw.

The aircraft to the right of the triangular bird is a Soaring Dragon, a joint or tandem wing UAV.  That aircraft is 47 ft long.  That would give our new unknown a length of between 30 to 40 ft (9m to 12m).  The wingspan only looks to be between 10 to 15 ft (3m to 4.5m) at most.  

It should be noted this COULD be a hoax.  Whether a prank or misinformation by the PLAAF on anyone looking at Malan AB.  Or it could be some other sort of hoax.  Healthy skepticism should be kept.

However, it should be noted that just because its Chinese, doesn't mean its not possible.  Indeed, the laws of physics don't care what color your flag happens to be.  They work the same for everyone.

Stealth Saga #58

FCAS:

The Anglo-French  FCAS may not be unmanned.

The French and British have agreed on the interim work for the FCAS.

KFX:

South Korea will develop a new air to surface missile for its KFX.

South Korea will start the design of the KFX in 2017.

FC-31:

The second prototype of the FC-31 has taken flight.

H-20:

The Chinese have confirmed they are working on the H-20 stealthy strategic bomber.

J-20:

Did the J-20's just go IOC?  (image source)Some are stating this is the Chinese equivalent of Nellis AFB where tactics are worked out.

Two new J-20As were spotted and supposedly assigned to the 126th Air Brigade.

The J-20 gets a comparison to the F-35.

PAK-FA:

Russia has stated they will put the PAK-FA into production on schedule in 2017.

The PAK-FA is getting a new set of weapons.  Supposedly.

CNN has new photos of the PAK-FA.

The eighth prototype of the PAK-FA has entered testing.

Stealth Recon Drones:

The USAF is looking for new stealthy recon drones.

B-21:

The B-21 Raider is being named as likely to cause more headaches for the Trump administration than Air Force One.

F-22:

The USAF F-22s are having a problem in the Middle East. The stealth coating on the fighter is warping and shedding.

The F-22 gets a cheer from the F-35 haters.

F-22s are going to be deployed from Australia next year.

F-35:

The Pentagon is hopeful the F-35 block buy will proceed.

President-elect Trump has taken aim at the F-35 program calling it out of control (why?).  McCain agrees but has stated Trump can't cancel the program.  Others are not so sure.  Cancellation would end jobs in 45 states.   Others are stating the F-35 needs to be produced faster, not cancelled.  Still others have pointed out the cost per plane has dropped for most models.  Does Trump's tweet indicate an assault on the defense industry is coming?

Trump, after meeting with the CEOs of Lockheed and Boeing, has vowed to cut costs on the F-35 (and Air Force One replacement) and the head of the F-35 program for that matter.  Trump is now calling for Boeing to bid a F/A-18 variant with the same capabilities as the F-35.  This. is.  stupid.

Some dispute the costs for the F-35 cited by the Pentagon.

Unilateral negotiations are still in play despite Lockheed's threat of legal action.

The USAF has named the ANG bases vying for the F-35A.

The F-35A is likely to go to Europe next summer.

USMC pilots speak out about the F-35B and they are wildly positive.

USMC F-35Bs will be the aircraft embarked on the British Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier's maiden voyage.

The fire in the weapons bay of an F-35B was from a known defect that was already being worked on.  Apparently, the problem was a loose bracket.

The British are progressing with their weapons certification for the F-35.

Canada still considers the F-35 an option for its new fighter even though the Liberal government promised its cancellation.

Israel's first F-35Is have arrived in country.  Netanyahu has stated Israel is stronger for the arrival.   The first two were delayed enroute due to fog.  More pix.

Italy has become the first nation outside the US to operate the F-35.

Japan's first F-35 was handed over at Luke AFB.

The Netherlands' F-35s buzzed Star Wars Canyon.

The Netherlands also joined the Norwegians to develop a brake chute for the F-35.

Counter Stealth:

The Russians are looking at a new coutner stealth radar (again).

War is Boring: There is a Secret Spy Plane Flying Over the Pacific

The Pentagon is unflinchingly tight-lipped about any new, high tech planes it has in the works. But every so often, a bit of information manages to squeak out into the public domain.

In 2013, the U.S. Air Force sent a secret spy plane out over the Pacific region. The unknown aircraft – possibly a drone – flew “national collection missions” – a euphemism for strategic intelligence against states like North Korea or China.

It was one of five different types of aircraft flying these missions. The Pentagon’s top headquarters asked the flying branch to use its U-2 Dragon Ladies and RC-135V/W Rivet Joints to take high resolution pictures and scoop up radio chatter, according to an official history of the Air Force’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency – a.k.a. AFISRA – for that year.

“Other USAF aircraft flying national collection missions included the RC-135U Combat Sent, the RC-135S Cobra Ball and the aforementioned [redacted],” the history stated.

War Is Boring obtained the heavily redacted historical review through the Freedom of Information Act. In 2014, the flying branch renamed AFISRA to the 25th Air Force.

[...]

So what is the mystery aircraft? The blacked-out portion of the document suggests the missing portion is five to seven characters long. With that in mind, the super secret RQ-170 Sentinel – a six character designation that would fit in the redacted segment – is one possibility.

[...]

Of course, the censored plane could be something entirely new. For decades, the Pentagon and the CIA have repeatedly acknowledged advanced aircraft projects — after the fact — only to decline to release any significant information about them.

link.

US AIr Force has *TWO* Long Range Strike Bomber Prototypes Already

The US Air Force is in the final phase of discussion before awarding a contract for the next-generation bomber, and expects an announcement very soon.

“We’re in the final closing phase and it’s going well and you should expect to hear something pretty soon,” William LaPlante, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, said during an event hosted by Defense one on Tuesday.

Even if the Pentagon is forced to operate under a yearlong continuing resolution, the Air Force will proceed with the contract award for the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) on schedule, he noted.

Industry is still holding its breath for the long-delayed contract, which could come anytime in the next few months. The Pentagon had planned to make the decision on who will build the new bomber fleet first this summer, then early fall. Most recently, one Air Force official estimated the announcement sometime in the next few months.

[...]

The Pentagon is taking measures to ensure the LRS-B program does not go the way of A-12 by focusing on using mature technologies rather than launching new developments. The program is also unusually advanced in terms of design and testing; the Air Force already has two robust prototypes in hand.

link.

The Stealthy Franken Super Hornet is Something Odd

go read.

Why is There a *NEW* Giant Hanger at "Area 51?"

In the latest satellite imagery released to the public, dated June 30th (partial) and June 2nd (full), Area 51 continues to undergo changes, and one of them is significant in nature. This new construction project is of especially high interest, not just because of its physical size, but also because of its very peculiar location and timing.

link.

Another Mysterious Triangular Aircraft Spotted

link.

Sure looks like an A-12 (flying dorito, not the SR-21 predecessor)

Sweetman Might be on to Something: USAF Neither Confirms nor Denies Texas Mystery Plane

The identity of what appears to be a blended wing-body aircraft type photographed over Amarillo, Texas, on March 10 remains uncertain, with the U.S. Air Force declining any comment on the aircraft.

Three aircraft were observed flying in formation southwest of Amarillo around 4:20 p.m. CDT, by photographers on the fence line of the city's international airport. IbOne of the aircraft could be a B-2, but the clearest color photos and monochrome images enhanced (for contrast and resolution) with commercial software suggest a blended shape with a straight trailing edge. Steve Douglass, one of the photographers and an experienced aircraft observer, says the aircraft were “larger than fighter-size” and appeared similar in wingspan to commercial traffic.

The formation was not using Mode S transponders, according to a review of records at the Flightradar24 air-traffic-tracking site. Radio transmissions apparently associated with the flight were intercepted and recorded, possibly including the call sign “Sienna.”

An Air Force representative in Washington responded to queries about the aircraft, and about flight activities at that time and place, with the statement “I have nothing for you,” a phrase long associated with responses to queries about classified programs and operations. The 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., home of the Air Force's B-2 fleet, says that none of its aircraft were operating near Amarillo on March 10. However, test units have also flown B-2s.

The fact that three aircraft were in formation suggests an aircraft that is operational or close to reaching that status. The unidentified aircraft are not likely to have been examples of the Northrop Grumman stealth reconnaissance drone known as the RQ-180 (AW&ST Dec. 9, 2013, p. 20) because unmanned air systems are seldom flown in formation of any kind. Likewise, the Lockheed Martin demonstrator that is reportedly being built to support the Long Range Strike-Bomber program is likely to be a one-off product.

link.

Sweetman @ AvLeak Claims Plane Chasers in Texas Find Mystery Aircraft

As far as I know, this sort of thing has happened only once since 1956.

That was when British magazines started getting eyewitness accounts and grainy photos of the Lockheed U-2, then operating out of RAF Lakenheath on its first spy flights over the Soviet Union. Classified programs have been exposed in all sorts of ways since then - for example, the A-12 Blackbird was disclosed under a degree of pressure - but until the RQ-170 Sentinel was seen at Kandahar in 2007-09 there has been no such aircraft photographed before it was declassified. (And in the case of the RQ-170, the operational security people were not trying too hard.)

With that in mind, let's look at the photos taken by Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett of an aircraft seen over Amarillo on March 10.

link.

hmmm.  I remember the doughnuts on a rope pix from the late 80s early 90s as well.

RQ-180: A Huge Stealthy ISR US Air Force UAV Unveiled by Avleak

link.  2nd link.  3rd link.

Is it strike capable?

Sweetman Still Holds to Aurora Project

“It’s been almost 20 years since the SR-71 was retired. If there was a replacement, they’ve been hiding it pretty well,” says Brad Leland, Lockkheed Martin's portfolio manager for air-breathing hypersonic technologies, quoted in Guy Norris' breakthrough story on the SR-72.

Very true. 20 years ago, I and a bunch of other smart and occasionally eccentric individuals, Guy included, spent a lot of time trying to track down that SR-71 replacement, and (if it existed) it was indeed hidden very well. Mind you, those responsible for hiding secret projects had a few advantages over us, including the services of unfriendly men carrying M-16s, the authority to turn large pieces of the Mojave into use-of-deadly-force-authorized no-go areas, and the resources to forge quite convincing documents that linked Area 51 to re-engineered spacecraft and dead aliens.

Indeed, if someone hasn't hidden quite a few aircraft programs very well, the taxpayer is owed a confession and a refund, because there are a few things in this murky story that are clear beyond a doubt.

[...]

One of those things was a high-speed vehicle.

Of all the evidence that came to light in the course of the media/amateur investigation of Area 51, two pieces stand out: the 1989 sighting of an unidentified aircraft over the North Sea, and the sonic booms that created a small sensation in the Los Angeles area in 1990.

[...]

The background to the "mystery booms" is worth recounting. Seismologists at CalTech had recently finished networking the sensors distributed around the area. Out of curiosity, they began using those readings to plot the tracks of Space Shuttle landings at Edwards; only after that did they check on the unexplained "skyquakes", finding similar tracks. Although the researchers eventually accepted the USAF's contention that the booms were caused by fighters operating off the coast, one of the nation's leading sonic boom experts, Domenic Maglieri, has rejected that explanation.

link.

The booms ought to be easy to check out.  FOIA request for the flight times and logs of aircraft off the coast of California during the time frame Sweetman mentions.  If there was an Aurora it was almost assuredly canceled.  Remember, the time frame is when the cold war was winding down.  Aerospace companies were being massively downsized.  Giant projects were no longer in the appetite of the US: we picked between the SSC and ISS after all as an example.  We massively delayed the F-22.

Was There Ever a YF-24?

Was there ever a YF-24? The US Air Force says no. "Our historians said there is no record of there ever having been a YF-24," says Lt Col Max Despain, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon. "Perhaps it's being mistaken for an X-24 which wasn't a fighter?"

That said, this old bio for a former test pilot, Colonel Joseph A. Lanni lists such an aircraft--which is curious. So there remains a small possibility a YF-24 might have been squirreled away somewhere out in the desert in Nevada. I say that because Lanni, according to his bio, commanded a classified flight test unit between July 1995 and June 1997.

While the entry in the bio might be a typo, it was certainly not the X-24 that Lanni flew. The Martin Marietta X-24A flew during 1963 to 1975, which was well before Lanni became an Air Force pilot. It's also not likely that Lanni flew the Northrop YF-23 either since he was assigned to Eglin AFB in Florida during the time those jets were flying.

So, what exactly the YF-24 is or was is still kind of a mystery. Your guess is as good as mine.

Intriguing. Not sure I buy it, but the link included in the article is most likely a typo.  Still an interesting idea that some group attempted to get something built that was a fighter prototype.  It'd also explain why Boeing beat out McDAC for the JSF prototype contract.