December 12, 2022 | International, Naval
HII boss sees mission tech business growing faster than shipbuilding
HIIâs mission technologies business, expanded through acquisitions, now makes up about 25% of the company's sales.
April 24, 2018 | International, Naval
3-D printer keeps F-35B flying during USS Wasp deployment
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — State-of-the-art parts fabrication is keeping America's most advanced stealth fighter in the air during its first deployment aboard the USS Wasp.
When a plastic bumper for a landing-gear door wore out this month on an F-35B Lightning II embarked on the amphibious assault ship, a 3-D printer was used to whip up a new one.
The Iwakuni-based jet from Fighter Attack Squadron 121 later flew successfully with the new part, a Marine statement said.
Called “additive manufacturing,” the process from Naval Air Systems Command allowed the Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 31 to create the new bumper and get it approved for use within days, the statement said. Otherwise, they would have had to replace the entire door assembly, which is expensive and time consuming.
“While afloat, our motto is ‘fix it forward,'” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Rodriguez, CLB-31's maintenance officer, said in the statement. “3-D printing is a great tool to make that happen.”
The Navy said parts created using the 3-D printer are only a temporary fix, but it kept the jet from being grounded while waiting for a replacement from the United States.
Lt. Col Richard Rusnok, commander of VMFA-121, lauded the use of the new technology.
“Although our supply personnel and logisticians do an outstanding job getting us parts, being able to rapidly make our own parts is a huge advantage as it cuts down our footprint thus making us more agile in a shipboard or expeditionary environment,” he said in the statement.
Marine Sgt. Adrian Willis, a computer and telephone technician who created the bumper, said he was thrilled to be involved in the process.
“I think 3-D printing is definitely the future — it's absolutely the direction the Marine Corps needs to be going,” he said in the statement.
The printer has been used multiple times during the patrol, the Navy said, including to create a lens cap for a camera on a small, unmanned ground vehicle used by an explosive ordnance disposal team.
Templates for the parts will be uploaded to a Marine Corps-wide 3-D printing database to make them accessible to other units.
bolinger.james@stripes.com
Twitter: @bolingerj2004
https://www.stripes.com/news/3-d-printer-keeps-f-35b-flying-during-uss-wasp-deployment-1.522987
On the same subject
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March 18, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Raytheon plows ahead to build US Army’s future radar
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The first antenna array for the U.S. Army's Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor passed through initial testing at Raytheon's Massachusetts-based facility, and it will embark on future testing at an outdoor range in the short term, a company official told Defense News. The antenna array went into an indoor, climate-controlled test range, and its performance was evaluated against simulated targets, Bob Kelley, Raytheon's director of domestic integrated air and missile defense programs for business development and strategy, said during a March 16 interview. The technology “came out fantastic on the other side,” he added. Now the array will be mounted on a precision-machined enclosure for integration, Kelley said, and then it will head to a range for testing with real-world targets such as air traffic coming in and out of Boston's Logan International Airport. Raytheon is plowing ahead with an aggressive schedule to deliver the first LTAMDS radar to the Army next year. So far it's on track and on schedule. The company finished building the first radar antenna array in less than 120 days after being selected for the job, following a competition to replace the service's Patriot air and missile defense system sensor. The radar will become a part of the service's future Integrated Air and Missile Defense System that will replace the entire Patriot system. Raytheon also manufactures the Patriot. Raytheon has taken its years of experience refining gallium nitride technology at its Massachusetts-based foundry to help design a new radar system that will provide the Army 360-degree threat detection capability in a configuration that includes one large array in the front and two smaller arrays in the back. The contract is worth roughly $384 million to deliver six production-representative units of the LTAMDS. The Army is working to rapidly deliver initial capability under an urgent materiel release. The service in 2019 held a “sense-off” at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, between three working radars from Raytheon, a Lockheed Martin and Elta Systems team, and Northrop Grumman. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/army-modernization/2020/03/17/raytheon-plows-ahead-to-build-us-armys-future-radar/
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August 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Does Commercial Engine Tech Translate To Chinese Military Aircraft?
Bradley Perrett Does engine technology in commercial airliners translate to Chinese military aircraft as well? Beijing Bureau Chief Bradley Perrett answers: It does, but only as far as China can apply it. However, Western engines for Chinese commercial aircraft programs are supplied complete. CFM International proposed to assemble the Leap 1C in China for the Comac C919, but the deal was scuppered when the authorities demanded more technical information about the design. Unavoidably, something about propulsion technology is learned when a Chinese airframe company works with a foreign engine company on integrating their products. The engine itself cannot be kept secret: China can strip down and examine any powerplants imported for commercial use, including, for example, the latest Rolls-Royce Trent XWBs on Airbus A350s. Whatever is learned about high-bypass turbofans can go into Chinese programs for such engines in military use—and indeed for civil use, subject to patents. Technology from the core is relevant to low-bypass engines. https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/manufacturing-supply-chain/does-commercial-engine-tech-translate-chinese-military