The year’s biggest air show is canceled as COVID-19 sweeps through Europe

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  August 7, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Army Space and Missile Defense Command is getting a new leader

  By: Jen Judson HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Maj. Gen. Daniel Karbler, who is the chief of staff at U.S. Strategic Command, will depart Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, to take up command at Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, several sources have confirmed to Defense News. Prior to his job at STRATCOM, Karbler was in charge of U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command and was also the director of joint and integration efforts within the Army G-8. Karbler's nomination appears in the Congressional Record on July 31 but does not state the position for which he is nominated. He would receive his third star if confirmed. The two-star general has an extensive background in air and missile defense stemming back to the beginning of his career. Karbler commanded two different batteries in the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command in the European theater. He also commanded the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd AAMDC at Fort Bliss, Texas; the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 32nd AAMDC at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and the 9th AAMDC at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. Karbler is a U.S. Military Academy graduate. He commissioned as a second lieutenant in the air defense artillery branch. Karbler will take the reigns from Lt. Gen. James Dickinson, who is tapped to become the deputy commander at the newly created U.S. Space Command. Defense News first reported Aug. 6 that Dickinson was nominated for the position while reporting from the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2019/08/06/army-space-and-missile-defense-command-is-getting-a-new-leader/

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  January 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  USAF base to use robotic technology to remove paint from A-10 aircraft

  The 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron is leveraging the robotic media blasting technology for the first time to remove paint from the A-10 aircraft at Hill Air Force Base (AFB) in the US. With the use of the new robotic technology, the squadron is expanding its capacity by adding capability. New-generation robots are used to strip paint from A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft that arrive at Hill AFB for depot overhaul and maintenance. The latest process is expected to reduce man-hours and increase safety by removing employees from the blasting atmosphere, resulting in time and costs savings. 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron director Tim Randolph said: “There are going to be across-the-board improvements, including a dramatic reduction in exposure to a Hexavalent Chromium dust environment. “Savings will also be seen with reduced operating time and less power consumption, as well as reduced costs in material. We really haven't found a downside to this system.” The new paint removal process is carried out by two robots, which each have four hose attachments that move independently along both sides of the aircraft. 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Corrosion Control Flight chief James Gill said: “Compared to the manual paint stripping method, the robots use half the amount of blast media at half of the air pressure, while removing an extremely precise thickness, uniformly, across the entire aircraft surface. “This translates into a process that is less stressful on the aircraft skins and saves money in media cost, while creating only half the waste stream.” A new laser burn process is also being tested at the AFB on F-16 aircraft. The squadron expects the application of the process to the A-10s going forward. Combined together, the three processes are capable of reducing the total time an aircraft spends in depot maintenance. Last August, Boeing secured a potential $999m 11-year contract to deliver sustainment work on the USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/usaf-base-robotic-technology/

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  December 10, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed Looks To More F-35 Development Work

  Michael Bruno Lockheed Martin is looking to new government interest in follow-on modernization (FOM) upgrades of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to drive future business returns on top of what could be ballooning sustainment revenue, according to the company's chief financial officer (CFO). CFO Ken Possenriede told a Credit Suisse investor conference this month that FOM and sustainment will drive business growth out of the F-35 for Lockheed and its shareholders as production returns shrink with unit price reductions and maturing production. “We ended the SDD [system design and development] program, but the customer still is looking at capability that they want,” he told financial analysts and investors. “So you'll see growth there and in sustainment.” Lockheed Martin expects to deliver 131 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters this year, compared with 91 in 2018, and should deliver 140 in 2020. Over the next few years, Lockheed expects total international demand for the F-35 to drive production to about 175 a year, most of which will be built in Fort Worth, but with some finished in Japan or Italy. But because the price per aircraft has been reduced 13% over low-rate production lots 11-14, to below $80 million per jet for the A variant, that part of the program–“the lion's share” now–is increasingly becoming minimized as a moneymaker. “The reduction in price has been faster than the ramp-up in quantity,” Possenriede said. “So it's going to be, at least in the short term, [that] you'll probably see modest growth in production revenue.” Lockheed won the original $19 billion SDD contract in 2001, but spending on the FOM, also called Block 4 improvements, could reach an additional $16 billion under Pentagon plans discussed last year. At the same time, the F-35 fleet is expected to more than double from about 400 aircraft to 1,000 in the next couple of years. “You'll have more sparing, some more repairing,” he said. “But then you'll see a larger influx of the modification work that will get done, and you'll see sustainment over the next couple of years double. So that will be a faster piece of the revenue.” The company is about one-third complete in standing up repair base facilities now. Lockheed also continues to promote a performance-based logistics contract for the F-35, the CFO noted. “We provided a white paper, call it an unsolicited proposal, that basically commits to the 80% availability and it commits to the $25,000 per flight hour, which we think is the right number to get to,” he said Dec. 5. The F-35 currently costs $35,000 a flight hour. https://aviationweek.com/defense/lockheed-looks-more-f-35-development-work