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?

link.

Stealth Saga Mini Update: Japanese X-2 Stealth Fighter at Full Thrust for Take-off on Taxi Test

Stealth Saga #26: Just the Japanese

The Japanese unveiled their ATD-X demonstrator (link in Japanese)  aircraft today (in english).  They have dubbed it the X-2.  First flight of the X-2 is expected by mid February.  The X-2 dimensions are 14.2 meters long, 9.1 meters wide and 4.5 meters high (46'7", 29'12" & 14'9" for we Americans).

The X-2 aircraft is intended to be an 'X-plane' for the technologies needed for Japan to produce its own stealth fighter.  They have dubbed that fighter the F-3 and intend on it replacing their F-2 fighters, the F-16 derivatives.  This will complement, but not replace, the F-35s being bought by Japan as well.

Japan is moving ahead with the ATDX/X-2/F-3 program because they were unable to convince the US to sell them F-22s.  In the 1990s, Congress banned foreign sales of the F-22.

More videos are available here.

More Details on Pentagon's Plans for Sixth Generation Fighter Development

Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall unveiled part of his strategy for procuring a next-generation fighter for the Air Force and Navy in congressional testimony last week.

The core of the strategy, Kendall told members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), is called the Aerospace Innovation Initiative.

"What it will be is a program that will be initially led by [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. But it will involve the Navy and the Air Force as well," Kendall said. "The intent is to develop prototypes for the next generation of air dominance platforms, X-plane programs, if you will."

The initiative will also include work on a next-generation engine, Kendall said, adding that more details about the plan will appear in the fiscal 2016 budget request being unveiled this week.

Whereas the F-35 joint strike fighter was billed as one plane that can fit the needs of the Air Force, Navy and Marines, the next-generation fighter will instead be two planes that share common parts.

The Navy and Air Force have offices looking at a next-generation fighter that would replace the Navy's F/A-18s and the Air Force's F-22s, respectively. An Air Force official told Defense News in September that he hopes to have Milestone A acquisition activity started in fiscal 2018.

The 6th generation initiative will be a "fairly large-scale" program, and one that Kendall said was designed with the industrial base in mind.

"The only reason the department's doing that is to preserve the design teams that can do this next-generation of capability in that area, because once those design teams go away, we've lost them and it's very hard to get them back," Kendall said in response to a question by HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas.

"In very specialized areas, like you mentioned electronic warfare, that's a very special skill set and you can't develop somebody who is an expert at that overnight; it takes time," Kendall continued. "And you get that expertise by working on programs, by developing new cutting-edge things."

link.

Report: Karem Aircraft Gets Contract From DARPA for Tilt Rotor Work

Karem Aircraft is to continue work on an unmanned version of its Optimum Speed Tilt Rotor (OSTR) concept under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) program to develop a vertical-takeoff-and-landing experimental aircraft (VTOL X-Plane).

link behind paywall.

DARPA Selects 4 Companies for VTOL X Plane Demo

Four companies – Aurora Flight Sciences, Boeing, Karem Aircraft and Sikorsky – will compete to build a high-speed, vertical take-off and landing X-plane with improved hover efficiency, the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) announced on 18 March.

The announcement adds Boeing and the start-up Karem to the list of previously announced teams selected to compete over the next 20 months.

DARPA plans to select one of the four designs to build a technology demonstrator and perform flight tests by 2017-18, the agency says.

The bidders face a tricky set of requirements. DARPA wants to demonstrate a 4.4t-5.5t (10,000-12,000lb) gross weight aircraft that can cruise above 300-400kt (556-741km/h). It should also have a lift-to-drag ratio of at least 10, twice the aerodynamic efficiency of current VTOL aircraft. DARPA also wants the design to offer a 25% improvement in hover efficiency.

The DARPA requirements also call for the aircraft to carry a useful load of at least 40% of its gross weight, including a payload weighing 15.5% of gross weight.

All four winning teams have based their designs on unmanned aircraft, but that’s where the similarities end.

link.