Is a light attack aircraft coming to the Corps?

On the same subject

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  September 16, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Raytheon Unveils Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile Project

  Steve Trimble Raytheon has unveiled an internally funded program to develop a new air-to-air missile called Peregrine that combines the reach of the medium-range AIM-120 and the maneuverability of the short-range AIM-9X, but in a smaller form factor to increase the magazine depth of tactical aircraft. The unveiling of a Peregrine mockup on Sept. 16 at the Air Force Association's annual National Convention in Washington comes just three months after U.S. Air Force officials confirmed the ongoing development of the Lockheed Martin AIM-260, which is intended to replace the AIM-120 with a longer-range missile of the same length. The Peregrine missile is being pitched to U.S. and international customers that want AIM-120 performance in a smaller package to double missile loads in the internal weapon bays of stealth fighters or triple the magazine depth on the external weapon stations of nonstealth aircraft, says Mark Noyes, vice president of business development and strategy for Raytheon Missile Systems. “What we see it as is a complement to our [AIM-120] Amraam and AIM-9X,” Noyes says Raytheon's internal development project follows the introduction of multiple weapons boasting longer range than the nearly three-decade-old AIM-120 design. In addition to the MBDA Meteor, the PL-15 is being developed by China and the Vympel K-77M has been ordered by the Russian government. The Peregrine also fits into a new category typified by the 2013 unveiling of Lockheed Martin's Cuda concept, which offered the Air Force a missile with AIM-120-like range—or slightly better—in a package half the size and weight. The Cuda received support from an Air Force Research Laboratory project called Small Advanced Capabilities Missile. Raytheon lists the Peregrine with a length of 6 ft. (1.8 m) and a total weight of about 150 lb. (68 kg), or roughly half the length and mass of the 12-ft., 335-lb. AIM-120. Although Peregrine shares a common stature with Lockheed's Cuda concept, there are distinct differences. Lockheed designed the Cuda as a hit-to-kill weapon, but the Peregrine destroys the target with a blast-fragmentation warhead. The missile is guided to the target with a “multimode autonomous seeker,” says Noyes, but he declined to elaborate. A multimode guidance system places the Peregrine in a different category than the radar-guided AIM-120 and infrared homing AIM-9X. It could more closely reflect the multimode guidance system installed in the Raytheon/Rafael Stunner surface-to-air missile, which combines radar and infrared sensors into a dolphin nose-shaped radome. A “new, high-performance propulsion section” will accelerate the Peregrine to supersonic speed to achieve potentially slightly better range than the AIM-120, but Noyes declined to describe the specific type of propulsion technology selected for the new missile. Several options are available to modern missile designers. The Stunner uses a multipulse rocket motor, while the MBDA powers the Meteor missile with a ramjet-augmented rocket. Missile developers also have been experimenting with new propellant technologies, including exotic gels. Even at a range equivalent to that of the AIM-120, the Peregrine should provide similar endgame maneuverability as the super agile AIM-9X, Noyes says. “It will go supersonic and that's attributable to that new lightweight airframe and high-performance modular control system,” he says. “That permits it [to] go and do incredible maneuvers, especially at the endgame where it's needed most.” How long Raytheon has been developing the Peregrine is not clear. In a blow to Raytheon's hopes to deliver the successor of the AIM-120, the Air Force awarded the AIM-160 development contract to Lockheed in 2017. Raytheon filed a trademark application for a new guided missile called Peregrine on Aug. 14, 2018. The company is testing components and is “seeing tremendous progress,” Noyes adds. “We are making a commitment to mature this so our service customers will resonate with its capabilities and demonstrated performance,” he says. https://aviationweek.com/defense/raytheon-unveils-medium-range-air-air-missile-project

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  April 23, 2024 | International, Land

  CACI Awarded $1.3 Billion Task Order to Provide Communications and Information Technology Expertise to U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command

  Under this task order, CACI will modernize and improve critical software and hardware performance, optimize network IT and communications, and deliver end-user support for over 11,000 personnel across 60 locations...

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  April 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Land, C4ISR

  COVID-19: Army Delays Missile Defense Network Test EXCLUSIVE

  The long-awaited IBCS battle network is meant to connect a wide range of Army radars and weapons – and potentially other services' as well – for anti-aircraft and missile defense. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: The Army has indefinitely postponed a major test of its IBCS air and missile defense network to protect the soldiers and civilians involved from the COVID-19 coronavirus, Breaking Defense has learned. A battalion of air defense troops who'd been training for weeks at White Sands Missile Range have been sent back to home base. Even more important for public health, technical experts from multiple Army agencies and contractors will no longer have to travel to the test. Known formally as a Limited User Test, the event requires participation from across the country, the head of the Army's air & missile defense modernization task force, Bring Gen. Brian Gibson, told me in late March. The LUT would involve both soldiers and civilians from Fort Sill, the Army's artillery & air defense center; Huntsville, headquarters for the service's missile procurement; and extensive support from the host facility, White Sands Missile Range, as well as neighboring El Paso, Tex., Gibson said. Other participants would come from even further afield, such as Army Test & Evalucation Command (ATEC) at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. “There are testers from afar that come in to oversee that test,” Gibson told me. “Those are all variables that are part of this daily assessment on should we, can we, do we continue?” Ironically, the soldiers training for the test were probably safer than the general public – as long as they were isolated in the desert at the vast White Sands Missile Range. But if one of them were somehow exposed to the coronavirus, Gibson warned, the patient would be in close quarters with lots of other soldiers and a long way away from a hospital. “Certainly, being away from large population centers is a different dynamic, [and] most of the time that is positive,” Gibson told me in March, “but, also, we're very cognizant that's still a pretty large number of individuals we have together in tight quarters that are further away from population centers where most of the health care infrastructure and support is.” There have been no reports that any soldiers involved have fallen ill. The test had been scheduled to begin May 15, after weeks of intensive training and preparation. No new date has been set, but if the Army can start the LUT up in July – far from a foregone conclusion – it can keep the high-priority program on schedule. Why IBCS Matters What is IBCS? The name is an awkward nested acronym for Integrated Air & Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System. The network is intended to share data and commands seamlessly among a wide range of historically incompatible systems across the Army and, potentially, the other services. As such, it's the No. 1 priority in the Army's air & missile defense portfolio, which is in turn one of the service's Big Six priority areas for modernize. The program's been in the works for over a decade with many ups, downs and delays, but the Army and lead contractor Northrop Grumman are confident they have turned IBCS around. Four years ago, an earlier — disastrous — Limited User Test revealed software problems that led the Army to delay the program four years and overhaul the entire program. Since that 2016 LUT, the Army and Northrup have been bringing soldiers and engineers together frequently to try out the latest software upgrades and make fixes, rather than waiting for feedback from a major test event. The Army even brought in the Air Force for an experiment in which an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter successfully transmitted targeting data on a missile to IBCS. Compatibility with IBCS is now mandatory for all future Army air & missile defense systems, which has been a stumbling block for the Israeli-made Iron Dome. Top brass have even begun touting IBCS as a key building block of the future Joint All-Domain Command & Control (JADC2) mega-network meant to coordinate all the armed services in a future war with Russia or China. So the Army and Northrop were understandably eager to show off how well the latest version of IBCS performs. When they'll have a chance to do so depends less on what they do themselves than on the progress the entire nation makes against an insidious and invisible enemy. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/covid-19-army-delays-missile-defense-network-test-exclusive