June 8, 2021 | International, Aerospace
U.S.A.F. Research Lab Plans to Use Reusable Rockets as Intercontinental Cargo Carriers
U.S.A.F. Research Lab Plans to Use Reusable Rockets as Intercontinental Cargo Carriers
May 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace
US Air Force bails on Mattis-era fighter jet readiness goal
By: Valerie Insinna and Stephen Losey
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has officially abandoned a directive to get its F-35, F-22 and F-16 jets up to an 80 percent mission-capable rate after failing to meet that goal in fiscal 2019, the service's presumptive chief of staff indicated Thursday.
According to written responses by Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown ahead of his May 7 confirmation hearing, “the F-16 mission capable rate reached a high of 75% in June 2019, the F-22 mission capable rate achieved a high of 68% in April 2019 and the F-35 mission capability rate climbed to a high of 74% in September 2019.”
However, data obtained exclusively by Air Force Times and Defense News revealed the mission-capable rates for those three aircraft over the whole of FY19 — while, in some cases, an improvement over the previous year — fell well short of the 80 percent goal mandated by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in October 2018.
And the overall rates for the year were lower — in some cases, much lower — than the high-water marks cited by Brown.
The Air Force's newest fighter jet, the F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing model, showed the most improvement, increasing from a mission-capable rate of about 50 percent in FY18 to 62 percent in FY19.
The F-16 mission-capable rate grew modestly, with the F-16C increasing from 70 percent in FY18 to 73 percent in FY19. The F-16D's mission-capable rate rose from 66 percent to 70 percent over that time period.
However, the F-22's mission-capable rate actually decreased from 52 percent in FY18 to 51 percent in FY19. This is likely due to the continued maintenance challenges after 17 Raptors were left behind at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, during Hurricane Michael in 2018, damaging a portion of the fleet.
Ultimately, Pentagon leadership decided not to renew the effort in FY20, Brown told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“The Office of the Secretary of Defense determined the FY19 80-percent Mission Capable (MC) Rate initiative is not an FY20 requirement,” wrote Brown, who is currently the commander of Pacific Air Forces.
Instead, the Air Force has returned to its usual practice of letting commanders set their own readiness objectives, with no definitive requirements for mission-capable rates, he said.
“We continue to balance near term readiness recovery with investment long-term combat capability,” Brown said. “While maintaining all of our aging fleets are difficult and expensive, we continuously examine emerging technologies, commercial best practices, and other methods to reduce the sustainment costs for our Air Force.”
Although the services tried to meet Mattis' 80 percent mandate, even after he resigned in December 2018, the goal was never popular among Air Force leadership.
If confirmed by the Senate as the uniformed head of the Air Force, Brown will replace Gen. Dave Goldfein, who argued that the readiness of the service's aircraft inventory could better be measured by other metrics.
In an interview with Air Force Times in August, Goldfein said readiness can truly be measured by how well the Air Force can carry out its missions, which requires more than mission-capable aircraft. It also requires trained and ready air crew, maintainers and other airmen as well as enough spare parts and resources, he said. Goldfein also cited increases in flying hours and pilot training as other indicators of progress.
Instead of driving toward an 80 percent mission-capable rate, the Air Force is implementing a new “strategic sustainment framework” that will aim to increase readiness by improving the service's repair network and expanding the use of conditions-based maintenance, Brown wrote in his response to the SASC.
The service's inspector general is also conducting a comprehensive classified review of readiness assessments across the Air Force, he said.
In his hearing, Brown reiterated the Air Force's need to grow to 386 squadrons over the long term. When asked by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., whether the Air Force is now large enough to carry out the National Defense Strategy, Brown said: “To an extent.”
“In the immediate term, I think we are, but we've still got to be able to grow to the 386” squadrons, Brown said. “Anything less than 386 incurs risk.”
However, he acknowledged the Air Force may come close but might not completely meet that goal, which was first laid out by previous Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson. But the Air Force's improved capabilities, including making better use of unmanned platforms, will help make up some of that difference, he said.
“We may be a little bit smaller than 386, but we'll be more capable,” Brown said. “It's not just the manned platforms; it's also how we do manned-unmanned teaming. The XQ-58 Valkyrie [combat drone] is one of those systems that we can team up with, particularly some of our fifth-gen capability to increase our range, increase our awareness, to increase our strike capability.”
On the same subject
-
-
May 22, 2020 | International, Security
Coulson’s CU-47 is ready for the fire fight
Posted on May 22, 2020 by Howard Slutsken Leveraging its experience with fixed-wing air tankers, Coulson Aviation has unveiled its latest aerial firefighting conversion, based on the Boeing CH-47D Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. In early March, the first Coulson-Unical CU-47 was flown from the company's Port Alberni, B.C., base to the Aerial Firefighting North American 2020 conference in Sacramento, Calif. Featuring a 3,000 gallon roll-on/roll-off internal tank and an advanced Garmin avionics suite, up to 12 CH-47Ds will be converted into next-generation heli-tankers, in a partnership with Unical Aviation that was announced a year ago. “Unical provides us with the aircraft and a vast supply of parts,” explained Britt Coulson, president and COO, in an interview with Skies. “They bought the entire Canadian Forces CH-47 parts inventory and were the largest purchaser of CH-47Ds from the U.S. Army.” The twin-rotor Chinook is well known for its speed, size and payload. While the helicopter is often deployed on fire attack missions carrying a water bucket as an external load, Coulson wanted to give the CU-47 more flexibility and capability. The company's engineers had already developed a 4,000 gallon Retardant Aerial Delivery System RADS-XXL for its Lockheed C-130 Hercules tanker conversions, and that tank was shrunk to create a 3,000 gallon RADS-L for the CH-47D conversion. “It's the same overall design as the C-130. It shares most of the same hydraulic components, the same doors and the same design of a roll-in, roll-out tank,” said Coulson. Other CH-47 internal tank systems utilize the small hook well in the centre of the helicopter as the water and retardant delivery port, but according to Coulson, that has its limitations. “The other tank designs are plagued with flow rate issues, which means they don't pack enough punch to really get through [forest] canopies or drop in heavy timber – the hook well opening just isn't big enough. “The lower the flow rate you have out of your tank, the slower and lower you have to fly. The problem with a big helicopter like a Chinook is if you fly too slow and low, your downwash is going to negatively affect the ground fire conditions and your drop is going to be ineffective.” To increase and optimize the flow rate for the RADS-L, the belly of the CH-47D was modified by cutting the helicopter's lower skin and adding structure below the floor to accommodate the tank installation and a pair of drop doors, controlled by the pilots through a state-of-the-art touchscreen controller. From the same touch panel, the pilots also control the CU-47's newly-developed retractable snorkel system to refill the RADS-L tank from water sources close to a fire's location. Installed internally, the snorkel head sits flush with the belly when retracted, so that with no additional external drag, the helicopter can maintain its fast 140-knot cruise speed. In a hover, the snorkel takes just four seconds to deploy and six seconds to retract, and the pilots and flight engineer can monitor the system's operation via a high-definition belly-mounted camera feed, displayed on the touchscreen controller. “The snorkel system has exceeded our expectations and we're filling the entire tank in under two minutes,” said Coulson. With the advanced capabilities of the Garmin avionics, the relocation of the flight engineer's panel, and the new RADS-L tank, Coulson originally believed that the CU-47 could be crewed solely by two pilots, without a flight engineer. But recent operational experience led the company to rethink that strategy. “We realized that with a helicopter of this size, going into some of the smaller dip sites, to have an additional set of eyes looking out the side or back is valuable to the pilots. So we've de-modified the helicopter and gone back to a full-time flight engineer to provide that increased safety and situational awareness.” Like Coulson's C-130 conversions, the CU-47 can also be tasked with night-time firefighting missions, thanks to the Night Vision System (NVS) certification of the helicopter's avionics suite. Wearing NVS googles, the CU-47's crew work in tandem with a fire attack “Intel” helicopter's pilots. The Intel crew uses a thermal camera to evaluate the behaviour of a fire, and if a drop is required, they take a page from military ground-attack operations. Using a laser, the Intel crew designates the target for the tanker. “With a geo-referenced lock, the Intel helicopter can orbit, and the laser beam will stay on the same spot. It illuminates an area on the ground about the size of a car,” said Coulson. The first CU-47 will soon be joined by a second RADS-L equipped helicopter, two CU-47's with upgraded avionics that will fly “bucket” missions, and a fifth, tank-equipped CU-47 that will deploy as a spare. “All of our FAA testing [on RADS-L] has finished, we're just waiting for the final Supplemental Type Certificate signature,” said Coulson. “We're doing some minor cleanup to the helicopter to make sure that it's ready to go fight fires this summer.” Howard Slutsken's lifelong passion for aviation began when he was a kid, watching TCA Super Connies, Viscounts, and early jets at Montreal's Dorval Airport. He's a pilot who loves to fly gliders and pretty much anything else with wings. Howard is based in Vancouver, B.C. https://www.skiesmag.com/features/coulsons-cu-47-fire-fight
-
November 20, 2019 | International, Land
German Army acquires 1500 SPIKE missiles and hundreds of launchers
November 18, 2019 - Eurospike, a joint venture between Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Diehl Defence GmbH & Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH has signed a multi-year framework contract for the supply of SPIKE (also known as MELLS in Germany) Missiles & launchers to the German Army. The missiles and launchers will be manufactured in Germany by local German companies, in keeping with RAFAEL's global policy of teaming up with domestic industry, resulting in knowledge transfer and local job creation. The contract was signed by representatives from Eurospike and BAAINBw in a ceremony that took place at the beginning of November in the offices of the German MOD (BAAINBw) in Koblenz Germany. As part of the framework contract, the first order was made for the supply of 1500 SPIKE rounds, as well as hundreds of RAFAEL'S new ICLU (Integrated Control Launch Unit) dismounted missile launchers. The multi-year framework contract will allow the Bundeswehr to continue procuring additional SPIKE Missiles in the next few years to reach its goal of high launcher-to-missile ratio. The German Army is already currently using both the dismounted portable SPIKE (MELLS) launcher as well the as the vehicle-mounted launcher on the German army Puma, Marder & Wiesel. SPIKE is a cutting-edge precise, multi-platform, multi-mission and multi-range electro-optical missile Family, with capabilities of fire-and-forget, as well as fire, observe and update, allowing attack of hidden targets. With 33 SPIKE missile users around the world, Germany is among 19 other SPIKE users in the EU and NATO. More than 30,000 SPIKE missiles have been supplied worldwide to-date, with over 5500 SPIKE missile firings, both in training and in combat. Moshe Elazar, EVP, Head of RAFAEL's Land and Naval Division: “This is a significant contract for Eurospike and thus for RAFAEL, as a leading supplier of 5th generation ATGM in the world. It will undoubtedly cement the German Army's position as one of the strongest ATGM forces in Europe. The SPIKE missile and launcher cross-nation commonality enables the nations to manage joint SPIKE missile stocks, create joint procurement and maintain mutual support. In combination with local production within Europe by Eurospike, SPIKE is a truly common European missile.” Watch SPIKE in action, click here for video. For more information please contact Ishai David at ishai@rafael.co.il View source version on Rafael Advanced Defense Systems: https://www.rafael.co.il/press/german-army-acquires-1500-spike-missiles-and-hundreds-of-launchers/