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June 14, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Despite some opposition, US on course to deliver F-35s to Turkey on June 21
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is proceeding with plans to deliver the first F-35 to Turkey, with the country set to accept its first jet on June 21 despite opposition from some in Congress.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman confirmed to Defense News that it's still gearing up for a rollout ceremony at its production facilities in Fort Worth next week.
“The F-35 program traditionally hosts a ceremony to recognize every U.S. and international customer's first aircraft. The rollout ceremony for Turkey's first F-35 aircraft is scheduled for June 21,” the spokesman said in a written statement to Defense News.
“The aircraft will then ferry to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, where Turkish pilots will join the F-35A training pool.”
The Senate is set to vote this week on the annual defense policy bill, which includes language that would prohibit the U.S. government from “transfer of title” to Turkey until the time that the Defense Department submits a report to Congress on removal of Turkey from the F-35 program.
But even if that language succeeds in the Senate, the defense policy bill will proceed to conference, where a group of armed services committee members will hammer out differences between the House and Senate versions to emerge with a single, final piece of legislation. That process could take months.
Congress's opposition to allowing Turkey to purchase the F-35 hovers around two points: the country's detainment of American pastor Andrew Brunson and a deal to purchase the Russian S-400 air defense system.
But for now, it appears that the Defense Department has no plans to keep Turkey from getting its first F-35 or to put restrictions on its use at Luke AFB.
Thomas Goffus, the Defense Department's deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO, acknowledged during an Atlantic Council event Wednesday that Turkey's acquistion of the S-400 could present the U.S. military and NATO alliance with added technical risks.
But he would not go as far to spell out what actions the Defense Department is considering or could consider later down the road — perhaps a sign that the Pentagon is waiting to see how this legislation shakes out.
“We have a process to evaluate the risks to Western technology that that [procurement] would present. Our preference is that they do not acquire the S-400,” Goffus said.
“Given that, they are a sovereign nation, and they are trying to take care of their defense needs,” he added. “What restrictions are placed on them and what Congress will eventually pass, I can't even speculate on it on this point.”
By the time Congress passes legislation that could curb Anakara's F-35 ownership, the country will likely have already started building up its first squadron at Luke AFB. There, Turkish pilots and maintainers will train alongside U.S. ones, moving from academic courseware to live flights.
NATO and U.S. Defense Department officials have warned Turkey that if it continues down the path of purchasing the S-400, it will not be able to plug it in with NATO technologies like the F-35. SASC, in its policy bill, echoed those concerns, saying that Turkey's purchase of Russian hardware would “degrade the general security of the NATO alliance [...] and degrade interoperability of the alliance.”
After a meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu expressed confidence that the United States would not only deliver the first F-35 to Turkey as planned, but that it would ultimately decide to continue F-35 sales to Turkey.
“Turkey rejects threatening language from the U.S. on the issue, it is not constructive,” Çavuşoğlu said on June 4, according to a report from the Turkish newsgroup Anadolu Agency.
Turkey plans to buy 100 F-35As. As a partner of the program, its domestic defense industry helps build the Joint Strike Fighter. Most notably, Turkish Aerospace Industries' serves as a manufacturer of the aircraft's center fuselage. It has also been chosen as a sustainment hub for the international F-35 community.
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November 27, 2017 | International, Aerospace
CAE and Rockwell Collins join forces to develop integrated Live, Virtual, Constructive training solutions
Companies to demonstrate integrated LVC-enabled capabilities at I/ITSEC 2017 Orlando, Florida, USA, November 27, 2017 - Today at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), CAE and Rockwell Collins announced a collaborative agreement to develop integrated Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) training solutions. During I/ITSEC, CAE (Booth #1734) and Rockwell Collins (Booth #2201) will conduct several demonstrations of an integrated mission training exercise using fully connected, LVC training elements. A live-flying LVC-enabled L-29 aircraft, operated by the University of Iowa's Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL), will be networked with a variety of virtual simulators and constructive forces to demonstrate an integrated, joint, multi-dimensional mission training environment. The live, real-time LVC training exercises will take place at I/ITSEC at the following times: Tues., Nov. 28 - 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. and 2 to 2:45 p.m. Wed., Nov. 29 - 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. and 2 to 2:45 p.m. Virtual participants in the demonstration will include blue force F/A-18 aircraft simulators as well an E-2 aerial surveillance platform operated in the Rockwell Collins booth, networked to Naval Combat System Simulators (NCSS) and remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) desktop trainers running in the CAE booth. A variety of constructive elements representing enemy and friendly forces will be injected into the live and virtual training systems for the demonstration of immersive LVC training capabilities. Both CAE and Rockwell Collins will jointly conduct distributed command and control tasks during the exercise. "Integrated live, virtual, constructive training is becoming more critical as defense forces look to cost-effectively maintain readiness and prepare for operational missions," said Gene Colabatistto, group president, Defense & Security for CAE. "As a training systems integrator, we are focused on supporting our customers' training and readiness requirements and recognize that cooperation and collaboration will be necessary to deliver integrated LVC training capabilities." "As a recognized leader in aerospace solutions providing avionics for live assets and integrated virtual training systems and products, we'll be able to provide solutions to make LVC-enabled training more routine without boundaries, ultimately resulting in our military customers achieving optimal mission readiness," said Nick Gibbs, vice president and general manager of Simulation & Training Solutions at Rockwell Collins. The demonstration at I/ITSEC will showcase how synthetic environments built on different database standards can be correlated and interoperate as part of an integrated LVC training exercise. This includes the use of synthetic data onto the Rockwell Collins L-29 pilots' integrated Helmet Mounted Display (HMD). CAE and Rockwell Collins will also utilize the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) and High-Level Architecture (HLA) industry standard networking protocols to link LVC assets. About CAE CAE's Defense & Security business unit focuses on helping prepare our customers to develop and maintain the highest levels of mission readiness. We are a world-class training systems integrator offering a comprehensive portfolio of training centers, training services and simulation products across the air, land, naval and public safety market segments. We serve our global defense and security customers through regional operations in Canada; the United States/Latin America; Europe/Africa; and Asia-Pacific/Middle East, all of which leverage the full breadth of CAE's capabilities, technologies and solutions. CAE is a global leader in training for the civil aviation, defense and security, and healthcare markets. Backed by a 70-year record of industry firsts, we continue to help define global training standards with our innovative virtual-to-live training solutions to make flying safer, maintain defense force readiness and enhance patient safety. We have the broadest global presence in the industry, with over 8,500 employees, 160 sites and training locations in over 35 countries. Each year, we train more than 120,000 civil and defence crewmembers and thousands of healthcare professionals worldwide. www.cae.com Follow us on Twitter: @CAE_Inc and @CAE_Defence About Rockwell Collins Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) is a leader in aviation and high-integrity solutions for commercial and military customers around the world. Every day we help pilots safely and reliably navigate to the far corners of the earth; keep warfighters aware and informed in battle; deliver millions of messages for airlines and airports; and help passengers stay connected and comfortable throughout their journey. As experts in flight deck avionics, cabin electronics, cabin interiors, information management, mission communications, and simulation and training, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that can transform our customers' futures. To find out more, please visit www.rockwellcollins.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RockwellCollins http://www.cae.com/CAE-and-Rockwell-Collins-join-forces-to-develop-integrated-Live-Virtual-Constructive-training-solutions/?contextualBUID=103
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July 2, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Strategic Air Bases Receive First Counter-UAS Systems
RACHEL S. COHEN Several Air Force installations with strategic assets are now armed with systems to protect against small unmanned aircraft that might loiter nearby. Steve Wert, the Air Force's digital program executive officer helping to roll out counter-UAS systems, said the service had fielded initial capabilities to an undisclosed number of US Strategic Command and Air Force Global Strike Command sites. Speaking at an Air Force Life Cycle Management Conference recently in Dayton, Ohio, Wert described the new systems as “a command-and-control capability integrated with some detection and some jamming,” but did not mention kinetic attacks. “Much more work to do,” he said. “We're finding the typical problems you will find on some bases. In order to have a radar providing detection, you actually have to build a tower. Building towers is hard because you have to do environmental assessments.” The systems provide “a composite suite of options” to sense and defeat drones attempting to enter restricted airspace around nuclear, space, electronic warfare, long-range strike, and missile defense resources, Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews said. “The concept of ‘tailored and layered defense' provides the ability to execute kinetic solutions, such as traditional ballistic rounds and capture nets, coupled with other countermeasures that disrupt the operator's ability to navigate drones in our restricted airspace,” she said. The Air Force and Army are also collaborating on using 40 mm ammunition with nets that deploy and wrap around the drones to bring them down. “We've had some recent success working with the Army on kinetic defeat, successful test round firings,” Wert said. “The idea of a net round is probably a good solution, but that system's becoming accurate enough where the training rounds are directly hitting UAVs, so very good results there.” In May, Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord told reporters Defense Department officials were concerned that military personnel weren't aware of their options for addressing UAVs and the services weren't sharing their ideas. Combatant command representatives and acquisition officials meet each month to discuss the right way forward. That's generated a list of counter-UAS systems in the DOD with details on their maturity, how many are deployed, and how they are used, Lord said. The Air Force is also working toward laser and microwave weapons for that purpose. The FAA already regulates how and where small UAS are allowed to fly, though those rules are evolving in collaboration with the Pentagon, which called the issue a high priority earlier this year. “I really do think of these UAVs as something that's low-cost, it's easy to manipulate,” then-acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told the Senate Appropriations Committee in May. “We need to develop the capabilities and the rules because, quite frankly, this airspace is shared by so many different authorities, so it's as much about rules to operate in space as it is the technologies to defeat them.” Over the past few years, Defense Department officials have pointed to instances of enemy combatants dispatching small drones for strike and intelligence-gathering in the Middle East and of unmanned aerial vehicles lingering near high-end aircraft. US Strategic Command did not answer how many little aircraft have been spotted lately or if the number is growing. "So far, they've been incidental activities,” STRATCOM boss Gen. John Hyten said at a 2017 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "But the fact that they're occurring, and then if you watch what is happening overseas in the [US Central Command theater] with the use of lethal UAVs and the use of UAVs for surveillance on the part of a terrorist adversary, I'm very concerned that those same kind of UAVs could be employed against our weapon storage facilities, especially on the nuclear weapon storage facilities." Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mike Holmes in 2017 also noted two incidents that interfered with operations on the same day and required reports to Air Force leadership. Conventional military assets need similar policies and protections as STRATCOM has put in place over the past few years, allowing workers to track and engage drones when needed, he argued. "At one base, the gate guard watched one fly over the top of the gate shack, tracked it while it flew over the flight line for a little while, and then flew back out and left," Holmes said. "The other incident was an F-22 . . . had a near collision with a small UAS, and I don't have anything that I can do about it." http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2019/July%202019/Strategic-Air-Bases-Receive-First-Counter-UAS-Systems.aspx