September 23, 2020 | International, Aerospace
LONDON – Britain is poised to cut an order for Boeing E-7 Wedgetails, with the airborne early warning and control aircraft possibly becoming the first confirmed victim of the government's upcoming integrated defense review.
Negotiations between Boeing and the Ministry of Defence have been underway since mid-summer over a possible reduction in Wedgetail numbers from five to three, or possibly four, aircraft as part of a wider cost-cutting exercise.
Newspapers here have recently been full of leaks about possible capability cuts and delays to equipment like armored vehicles, artillery, surface warships and support ships and fighter aircraft.
All of the leaks have been brushed off by the MoD as speculation, even though some of the leaks were likely inspired by the MoD itself to test the waters of political and public acceptability.
This time, though, the response from the MoD was different. Replying to a tweet in The Times Sept. 22 an MoD spokesperson pretty much confirmed the cuts were under consideration.
“We regularly discuss equipment programs with our partners, particularly when it comes to making savings and cutting costs, where appropriate,” they said.
A Boeing spokesperson in London said the company “doesn't comment on commercial matters.”
Defense consultant Howard Wheeldon of Wheeldon Strategic Advisory said leaving the RAF with just three Wedgetails would leave the UK seriously short of aerial command-and-control and situational awareness capability.
“Personally, I regard this as little short of insanity. ... To guarantee 27/7 capability requires that the UK has a minimum of five airframes. Potentially reducing the number to three would have very serious consequences and if this really has already been decided it needs to be reconsidered very quickly. Assured 24/7 AWACS capability is not just an option – it is an absolute necessity,” said Wheeldon.
A potential reduction in Wedgetail numbers is not the only ISTAR capability cut in the cards.
The RAF remains on track to take out of service next year its Raytheon-supplied Sentinel battlefield surveillance aircraft.
In early 2019 the MoD controversially signed a deal worth £1.5 billion – without a competition – to supply five of the Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft to the RAF with deliveries starting in 2023 and the final platform being handed over in 2025.
The aircraft will replace the RAFs increasingly ancient Sentry E-3D's, whose capability has been limited by under-investment going back years.
The deal with Boeing was meant to restore high-quality airborne early warning to the RAF by the mid 2020s.
Last year the company signed a deal with STS Aviation to modify the 737NG commercial aircraft used for Wedgetail to an AEW configuration at a hangar on Birmingham airport in England.
Early work on stripping out two second-hand airliners has already got underway in the US ahead of the aircraft being transferred to the UK where the modification effort will create jobs.
Wedgetail is not operated by the US military but has secured Australia, Turkey and South Korea as export customers. Much of the equipment for the RAF aircraft are due to be supplied by Australian industry.
The move to reduce Wedgetail numbers comes as the government moves closer to taking the wraps off what it has promised to be a “fundamental” review of British defense, security, foreign policy and overseas development.
Led by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chief advisor Dominic Cummings, the review is looking at pivoting defense away from conventional sunset capabilities to more sunrise technologies in areas like space, artificial intelligence, cyber and undersea warfare.
The trouble is Britain's Brexit- and Covid-19-battered economy is unlikely to find much, if anything, in the way of additional resources for an MoD which already has significant funding issues.
To make room for costly future technology programs the armed services are going to have to make sacrifices elsewhere.
The procurement process is likely to be in Cummings cross hairs along with conventional capabilities like main battle tanks and army personnel numbers. When the review is published, possibly around mid-November, it's likely to be a bloody affair.
One industry executive here, who asked not to be named, said he thought the outcome was likely to be worse than the 2010 strategic defense and security review, which stripped out capabilities like aircraft carriers, fast jets, maritime patrol aircraft and personnel.
Wheeldon said by now nobody should imagine the integrated defense review is about building Britain's defense capabilities, but quite the reverse.
“If anyone really is still under the illusion that the underlying intention behind the 2020 ‘Integrated Review' process – that of forming a soundly based long-term strategic decision making process of where the UK wants to be in the future, why and what defense and security capability will be required to meet those ambitions – let them now understand that the reality is that what eventually emerges will primarily have been about further cutting of UK defense capability at a time when others, including our adversaries and would-be enemies, are increasing their expenditure in the sector.”
February 13, 2024 | International, Land
This contract provides suborbital launch services and launch support services necessary to accomplish the Rocket Systems Launch Program’s suborbital mission.
April 23, 2024 | International, Land
August 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace
By: Andrew Chuter LONDON – Rolls-Royce has formed a strategic partnership with British hypersonic-power experts Reaction Engines and is backing that up with a new investment in the company. The new partnership is aimed at developing high-speed propulsion systems for defense and civil applications as well as exploring Reaction Engines' key thermal management technology as part of Rolls-Royce's own gas turbine engines and hybrid-electric systems. Rolls-Royce will invest £20 million ($26 million) over the next two years, building on an initial equity investment made in 2018. Other investors like BAE Systems, Boeing Horizon-X and financial institutions could follow suit, said a Reaction Engines spokesman. The announcement comes as Rolls-Royce steps up its interest in supersonic flight. Earlier in August, Virgin Galactic revealed a delta-winged Mach 3 sub-orbital vehicle concept powered by Rolls-Royce. Earlier this year the British engine builder said it was collaborating with the U.S. company Boom Aerospace on propulsion options for a Mach 2.2 airliner called Overture. “We have been working closely with Reaction Engines for the past two years, including exploring the potential of high-Mach systems for defense applications, and I am delighted that we are able to strengthen that relationship,” said Mark Thompson, director of global strategy and business development at Rolls-Royce.” “Reaction Engines' thermal-management skills, added to our suite of existing technologies and capabilities, will further assist us as we explore opportunities in supersonic and hypersonic aviation,” Thompson added. The two companies have also been involved with BAE and the UK Ministry of Defence in the first phase of a contract related to high-Mach advanced propulsion systems which could eventually find their way on to the British Tempest sixth-generation combat aircraft development. Aerospace and defense consultant Howard Wheeldon, of Wheeldon Strategic Advisory, said the tie-up demonstrated the determination of both companies to be at the forefront of high-speed engine development going forward. “The future of aerospace development from here on is about creating greater efficiency of operation and sustainability. Speed, including supersonic and hypersonic aviation development, will be an important part of this, and high-Mach advanced propulsion systems combined with the potential to apply some of the developed Reaction Engines technology within existing gas turbine engines together with what this offers for future hybrid-electric systems is of huge importance to a world-leading aerospace company such as Rolls-Royce,” he said. Reaction Engines CEO Mark Thomas said the partnership will help speed commercialization of the technology. “This strategic partnership is about developing market-ready applications for Reaction Engines' technology in next-generation engines and is a significant step forward for our technology commercialization plans,” said Thomas. Based at Culham, southern England, and with a test site at Denver, Colorado, Reaction Engines has been developing technology to power aircraft and rockets at supersonic and hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above – more than twice the speed of the Concorde. Last October Reaction Engines announced its key lightweight air cooling technology had been tested at its Colorado facility as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's HTX project. At the time Reaction Engines said its heat exchanger had been exposed to hypersonic conditions approaching 1,000 degrees centigrade (1,800 degrees F). The heat exchanger performed its precooler function by quenching about 1,800-degree Fahrenheit temperatures in less than one-twentieth of a second. Wheeldon said the Colorado test was a significant step in the development of Reaction Engines' SABRE rocket engine program. “As an enabling technology for a potentially large range of other precooled propulsion systems that have potential commercial applications, the successful testing last year by Reaction Engines of its precooler heat exchanger at airflow temperatures conditions representing Mach 5 was a significant milestone in the development of its revolutionary SABRE air-breathing rocket engine. The new strategic partnership with Rolls-Royce offers further the commercial opportunities and potential for both companies,” said Wheeldon. SABRE, which stands for Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine, is a propulsion system being developed to operate in air breathing and rocket modes using the pre-cooler technology. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/08/21/rolls-royce-backs-hypersonic-power-specialist-reaction-engines-with-new-investment/