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  August 17, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  UK fighter concept emphasizes stealth, next generation sensors

  BY TOM RISEN Britain wants to build a twin-engine stealth fighter jet that the Defense Ministry says would enable the United Kingdom to stay competitive in air-to-air combat technology and maintain its domestic fighter industry. U.K. Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson unveiled a full-scale model of the Tempest at the Farnborough Airshow in July as a commitment that Britain would remain “a world leader in the combat air sector.” The U.K. contractors chosen to design the plane must first present a business case for the fighter to the ministry by the end of the year to begin the approval process for funding. The ministry has promised to draw 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) for the Tempest over several years from the ongoing Future Combat Air System Technology Initiative enacted in 2015 that ends in 2025 to develop a successor to the twin-engine Eurofighter Typhoon. Team Tempest, the name for the government agencies and companies working on the project, shared limited details about the design in progress beyond the concept they showcased. With their near diamond shape, the Tempest wings resemble those of the YF-23 stealth fighter demonstrator built in 1990 for the U.S. Air Force by Northrop and McDonnell Douglas, notes Adam Routh, an aerospace researcher at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. The YF-23 was flown in 1990 but lost the competition for the Air Force contract to what became the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, which ended mass production in 2011. The F-22 engines include thrust vectoring to maneuver the plane around enemy aircraft at close range, which the YF-23 lacked. Thrust vectoring engines were not presented as part of the Tempest concept, possibly because “next generation stealth and guided missiles may undermine the benefits of maneuverability by allowing planes to attack from a significant distance,” Routh says. Pilots of future air-to-air combat won't often find themselves in dogfights won with maneuverability, Routh says, because guided missiles and stealth “will allow aircraft to engage opposing aircraft from a significant distance.” Full article: https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/uk-fighter-concept-emphasizes-stealth-next-generation-sensors

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  March 1, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  The US Air Force doesn’t want F-15X. But it needs more fighter jets

  By: Valerie Insinna ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force wants more fighters. But it didn't necessarily want the F-15X, and it didn't intend to buy any in the upcoming fiscal 2020 budget, its top two leaders confirmed Thursday. “Our budget proposal that we initially submitted did not include additional fourth-generation aircraft,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters during a Feb. 28 roundtable at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium. Wilson's comments confirm reporting by Defense News and other outlets who have reported that the decision to buy new F-15X aircraft was essentially forced upon the Air Force. According to sources, the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation Office was a key backer of the F-15X and was able to garner the support of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Asked by one reporter, point blank, whether the Air Force wanted new F-15s, Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein danced around the question. “We want to buy new airplanes,” Goldfein said. “We want to buy 72 aircraft a year,” Wilson added. Air Force leadership has confirmed that, as long as current budget plans don't change, it will request money for new F-15s in FY20. The service plans to purchase eight F-15X planes from Boeing in FY20, with an expected total buy of about 80 jets, Bloomberg reported Feb. 19. It's normal for the Pentagon to be intimately involved with each service's portion of the budget — and even to overrule service leadership and move funding around to better support the White House's aims — something that Wilson herself alluded to in her comments. “The Air Force and each of the services put in their budget proposals, given the top line that we've been allocated, and then there are further discussions that include the potential for some additional funds throughout that process,” she said. “It's not something that is an Air Force decision. Ultimately it's a Defense Department budget, and it goes into an overall presidential budget.” However, the potential F-15X buy has received increased scrutiny for a number of reasons. For one, Wilson has been vocal in dismissing reports that the Air Force had been considering purchasing an upgraded F-15. “We are currently 80 percent fourth-gen aircraft and 20 percent fifth-generation aircraft,” she told Defense News in September. "In any of the fights that we have been asked to plan for, more fifth-gen aircraft make a huge difference, and we think that getting to 50-50 means not buying new fourth-gen aircraft, it means continuing to increase the fifth generation.” Additionally, when Bloomberg broke the news that the Air Force would buy new F-15Xs in December, it reported that the decision was pushed by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who has since become acting defense secretary. Shanahan's spokesman has rebutted those reports, stating that “any DoD programmatic decisions impacting Boeing were neither made nor influenced by Mr. Shanahan.” One official alluded to sustainment costs as being a critical factor in the decision to buy the F-15X over additional F-35 fighter jets. Boeing has not disclosed its proposed F-15X unit price, with numbers from $100 million to less than $80 million having been reported by various outlets. Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, declined to comment on the cost per plane in a later roundtable, but said that some of the value of the F-15X proposal lays in the total ownership cost of the plane, especially when taking into account the expense of sustaining the F-35. “There's more to think about than just the acquisition cost. There's the cost to operate the airplane over time. There's the cost to transition at the installations where the airplanes are — does it require new military construction, does it require extensive retraining of the people and then how long does it take?” he said. “We're pretty confident to say that we can go cheaper getting 72 airplanes with a mix of fifth and fourth gen than we did if we did all fifth gen.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-warfare-symposium/2019/02/28/the-air-force-doesnt-want-f-15x-but-it-needs-more-fighter-jets/

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  October 30, 2020 | International, Naval

  Naval Group keeps its head down during the pandemic

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — French shipbuilder Naval Group is counting its blessings of full order books during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, conscious that defense companies will be scrutinized as national economies contract, according to CEO Eric Pommellet. The company so far has seen no impact on its activities, including big-ticket shipbuilding programs in Europe, Australia and South America, Pommellet told reporters during a conference call last week. “We have not lost any projects, we have not lost any customers. All of the defense programs have been kept intact in terms of government budgets for all of our customers,” he said. Pommellet's comments fall in line with a trend throughout Europe of governments trying to preserve, if not boost, their defense budgets in the midst of an economic crisis whose contours are still taking shape amid drastic new measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. France and Germany announced new lockdown measures this week, with offers by the governments to ease the blow to companies. In France — which represents 70 percent of Naval Group's business, according to Pommellet — officials consider defense spending a national stimulus. Still, the situation remains fluid, as the company has worked to adapt its operations to keep the workforce healthy. “When I look at the overall situation for now, I would say: ‘No impact,' ” Pommellet said. “The question will be tomorrow, of course. And here, I'm unable to look into the crystal ball.” The uncertainty has driven the company to keep its head down and plug away on the work at hand. “This is a moment where we must stick to our projects and stay in touch with our customers,” Pommellet said. “Delivering and serving our customers at absolutely perfect performance in this period sends a key message. Because tomorrow, they will remember that we were there.” It also may not be the time for bold moves when it comes to pursuing further consolidation in Europe's naval shipbuilding sector in the face of competition from China and Russia. The perennial vision of consolidation has yet to gain traction across the continent. For now, Pommellet said, he wants to ensure cooperation with Italy's Fincantieri, under the banner of the Naviris joint venture, can bear fruit. “Let's stick to what we do. Let's deliver, let's satisfy our customer, let's demonstrate that what we're doing is good and see tomorrow where the wind is blowing,” he said. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/euronaval/2020/10/29/naval-group-keeps-its-head-down-during-the-pandemic/