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By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. “We're looking at airframes of the future that will have common cockpits, advanced propulsion systems, (and) signature management," Miller said. The goal “really is understanding (how) to modify or build an airplane that allows us to operate through that threat environment." AFA: Air Mobility Command's tankers and transports would be big, slow targets in a major war, but without them, most of the US military can't move. The imperative to fly fuel, supplies, and troops in the face of high-tech threats – from anti-aircraft missiles to cyber attack – is forcing AMC to change its approach to aircraft upgrades, communications networks, and what they ask airmen to think about every day, its new commander told reporters here this morning. AMC wants to stimulate innovative thinking by all its people, Gen. Maryanne Miller said, but “not so much on innovation for innovation's sake” – they have to be “much more focused.” On what? “It needs to be on our resilient and agile response,” she said, “being able to operate in that contested, degraded, or operationally challenged threat environment.” There are a lot of buzzwords in that sentence, but they add up to a major change in mindset for strategic transport and logistics. While roadside bombs have ravaged ground convoys in Afghanistan and Iraq, US pilots and sailors can usually assume that they'll arrive alive. Until last year, the joint Transportation Command – overseeing Air Mobility Command, Military Sealift Command, and the Army's Surface Deployment and Distribution Command – didn't even factor into its war plans that an enemy might shoot down planes or sink ships. But Air Mobility Command is already under constant attack in cyberspace, and advanced adversaries such as Russia, China, or even Iran have long-range missiles to challenge US dominance of the air and sea – what's known as an Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) strategy. Transportation Command is now well into a congressionally-directed Mobility Capabilities & Requirements Study (MCRS) that “is looking at all the things that you're describing,” Miller said when I asked about such factors. TRANSCOM is working with the Pentagon's independent office of Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation (CAPE) and the Air Force, she said, with AMC providing extensive data on how it's operated over the years. Due out “later this fall,” she said, the study will look at the evolving threats and make recommendations on how many tankers and transports AMC needs, and of what kinds. Full article: https://breakingdefense.com/2018/09/how-air-force-tankers-transports-can-survive-in-high-tech-war

By Mandy Mayfield The Air Force is hoping a suite of new artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies will help accelerate the speed at which pilots and airmen are trained, the Air Education and Training Command leader said Sept. 18. “We are actually allowing our students to explore these [AI] tools of learning and measuring what's going on in their brain, what's going on in their body, what's going on with the effectiveness of them doing the job we are trying to teach them to do,” Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, Air Education and Training Command commander, said at the Air Force Association's annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference at National Harbor, Maryland. AETC is in the midst of an experimental program, the Pilot Training Next initiative, which is utilizing AI to train pilots — in hopes of not only streamlining the process of airmen becoming flight ready — but also improving the quality of their education, Kwast said. “So the data is very promising in that we can accentuate the adult brain to learn fast, better and, I'll say, [with] more ‘stick' — meaning that when you learn something you remember it longer and better,” Kwast added. As pilots use the “emerging technologies” to learn, the Air Force is learning alongside them, aggregating each pilot's data onto a grade sheet, he said. Although leadership is enthusiastic about the new technologies, the program is still underway and results about its effectiveness aren't available yet,, Kwast said. “We aren't at the place where we can say what we can do with it yet.” Some of the beta testing should be completed by the summer of 2019, he added. Maj. Justin Chandler, a Pilot Training Next team member, also touted the technologies, saying they allow future airmen 24-hour access to pilot instruction. “The artificial intelligence allows us to ensure that they [student pilots] don't pick up bad habits,” Chandler said. http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/9/18/air-force-uses-ai-to-accelerate-pilot-training

SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM, BY: GARRETT REIM After completing static, drop and durability testing on the F-35A, Lockheed Martin believes that early results indicate potential for an increased service life certification of the stealth fighter. The F-35's service lifetime is designed to be 8,000h, but each test airframe is required to successfully complete two lifetimes of testing, the equivalent of 16,000h. The F-35A exceeded the requirement by completing three full lifetimes of testing, 24,000h, prompting Lockheed to moot the potential service-life extension. “We look forward to analyzing the results and bringing forward the data to potentially extend the aircraft's lifetime certification even further,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin's vice president and general manager of the F-35 program. “Already certified for one of the longest lifetimes of any fighter, an increase would greatly reduce future costs for all F-35 customers over several decades to come.” The USAF plans to fly the F-35A until at least 2070, so a longer lifespan per aircraft may allow the service to reach that goal without having to purchase new fighters. However, as aircraft age they become more expensive to maintain and operate, making it unclear if a service life extension of the F-35A would be economical. The F-35A airframe completed its testing at BAE Systems in Brough, England. The F-35B and C variants were tested at Lockheed Martin's facility in Fort Worth, Texas, though the company did not release the results for those variants. All variants will eventually undergo final teardown inspections at the National Institute for Aviation Research in Wichita, Kansas. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-stress-tests-raise-possibility-of-longer-servic-451964

Le contrat signé par le Qatar pour l'achat de 24 avions de chasse Typhoon Eurofighter est devenu effectif mardi, a annoncé l'industriel BAE qui a reçu la première tranche de paiement d'un contrat de 5 milliards de livres. "Ce contrat d'environ 5 milliards de livres (5,6 milliards d'euros, ndlr) est devenu effectif lorsque nous avons reçu le premier paiement ce jour", a expliqué dans un communiqué le groupe de défense britannique, membre du consortium européen Eurofighter aux côtés d'Airbus et de l'italien Finmeccanica. L'accord prévoit non seulement la livraison de 24 Eurofighter mais aussi de 9 avions d'entraînement avancés Hawk, ainsi que les services associés. Les appareils doivent commencer à être livrés à partir de 2022, a précisé l'avionneur. Un accord de principe en ce sens avait été conclu en septembre 2017 puis confirmé lors de la signature du contrat au mois de décembre suivant. Depuis le début de la crise avec ses adversaires arabes qui tentent de l'isoler depuis plus d'un an, le Qatar a pris de nombreuses mesures sur le plan international ou en interne, qui comprennent la signature de nombreux contrats d'équipement militaire. En juin 2017, Doha a signé un accord avec les Etats-Unis portant sur 12 milliards de dollars (10 milliards d'euros) pour l'achat d'avions de combat F-15. Deux mois plus tard, il a confirmé une commande de navires de guerre à l'Italie pour un montant de cinq milliards d'euros. En décembre, outre le contrat avec les Britanniques, le Qatar a signé des contrats de plus de dix milliards d'euros pour l'achat notamment d'au moins 12 avions de combat Rafale et 50 Airbus A321. Le consortium Eurofighter a conclu en mars dernier un protocole d'accord distinct avec l'Arabie Saoudite pour la livraison de 48 avions de chasse. Ryad a déjà reçu 72 appareils de ce type commandés il y a dix ans. Cet accord et celui avec le Qatar ont constitué une bouffée d'air frais pour le programme Eurofighter, qui avait dû ralentir dernièrement son rythme de production faute de commandes - poussant BAE Systems à annoncer en octobre 2017 la suppression de 1.400 emplois dans sa branche aéronautique. Le programme Eurofighter emploie plus de 100.000 personnes sur l'ensemble de la chaîne de fabrication, essentiellement en Europe, dont 40.000 au Royaume-Uni, où BAE Systems fait travaillere pour le moment 5.000 personnes directement pour fabriquer cet avion. https://www.journal-aviation.com/actualites/41110-l-achat-de-24-eurofighter-par-le-qatar-devient-effectif

By: Kyle Rempfer The Air Force has spent the past few years gearing up for a near-peer fight against adversaries with high-end air forces that match their own. While new doctrines and technologies occupy much of the planning for such a shift, another type of preparation is needed: reorganizing wings and squadrons. One possibility on the table is a return to composite wings. In the early 1990s, the Air Force organized the 366th Fighter Wing out of Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, into the service's premier “air intervention” composite wing. For roughly a decade, the wing flew fighters, bombers and tankers with the goal of meeting the challenges of a post-Cold War world order — where conflict could arrive anywhere, anytime. “They were ready to pack up and go fight as a unified team,” Lt. Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of 12th Air Force, told a crowd of Air Force leaders Monday at the 2018 Air, Space and Cyber Conference in Washington, D.C. “But that was disbanded, and part of it came down to money," Kelly said. "The cost per flying hour of trying to sustain the small-fleet dynamics there didn't look great on spreadsheets.” But Kelly argues that financial assessment was faulty. The quality of the training airmen were getting was being compared to the day-to-day operations at other bases around the Air Force. In reality, it was more comparable to the day-to-day training at Red Flag — a two-week, advanced air combat training exercise still held several times a year in Nevada and Alaska. “Frankly, the training they were getting compared more to Red Flag daily ops," Kelly said. “And that would be a good problem to have and a good construct to be able to build.” The Air Force is rethinking how it constructs wings and squadrons, as well as how it deploys airmen, as it shifts to better align with the 2018 National Defense Strategy, according to Kelly. As it stands, “airmen only come together to fight at the line of scrimmage," Kelly said. For instance, before airmen arrive at a forward base to fight against insurgents in Afghanistan, they may have a unified command at the squadron level, but a unified command at the wing level is severely lacking. Additionally, airmen preparing to deploy today benefit from a surplus of “spin-up" time. They know when their unit is scheduled to deploy and have the luxury of training to meet that challenge well in advance. “That's a luxury that we cannot rely on in great power competition,” Kelly said. Organizing some aircraft and airmen into composite wings could provide the training and deployment structure necessary for fights against modern militaries, Kelly said. The composite wing concept was heavily pushed in 1991 by then Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak, according to his biography on the Defense Department's website. McPeak wanted to organize wings by their mission-set, not aircraft type. According to his “air intervention” doctrine, a wing deploying for a near-peer fight should have all the aircraft and airmen it needs to accomplish its mission with limited, or possibly no, outside support. This meant one wing could potentially operate electronic warfare aircraft for the suppression of enemy air defenses, bombers to lay waste to enemy fortifications, fighters to engage in air-to-air combat, and tankers to refuel them all. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, however, the old composite squadron idea was mostly discarded. The 366th Fighter Wing was restored to fly F-16Js, and the consolidation of the Air Force's KC-135 and B-1 forces led to the reallocation of the wing's bombers and tankers to McConnell AFB, Kansas, and Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, according to Mountain Home's website. But composite wings, and the idea of sustainable fights with more or less autonomous Air Force commanders, is back in vogue. Funding was one of the biggest challenges to composite wings back in the day, but the reasons for that unit structure are better appreciated now as concerns about China and Russia preoccupy defense planners. To fuel a restructuring, steady funding will be key, according to Kelly. He projected the Air Force's shift to great power competition will continue to be a focus of the defense budget into 2021 and 2022. But regardless of the funds Congress ultimately appropriates for the Air Force in the coming years, restructuring for a near-peer fight needs to happen, Kelly said. “This has to happen regardless of if we have the force we have today with only one more airman, or the force we need with tens of thousands more airmen," he added. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/09/18/bombers-fighters-and-tankers-unite-will-the-air-force-rebuild-composite-wings-to-fight-near-peer-foes

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has added two new technical issues to the KC-46 tanker's list of problems, potentially throwing a wrench into the projected delivery of the first tanker in October. The service confirmed to Defense News on Sept. 17 that both deficiencies are category-1 , the most serious designation of technical problems, and revolve around the tanker's refueling boom system. At this point, the Air Force is unsure whether the two problems will be solved in time for KC-46 manufacturer Boeing to deliver the first tanker next month, said Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek. “Boeing and the program office are still reviewing the test data and assessing the risk and potential solutions to these deficiencies, and proceeding in parallel to aircraft delivery,” she said in a statement. The first new deficiency, which the service has labeled “No Indication of Inadvertent Boom Loads,” refers to situations where boom operators unintentionally provide an input into the flight control stick that induces loads on the boom while it is in contact with a receiver aircraft. The KC-46 currently has no way to notify that operator that this is happening. The second deficiency was found when pilots of receiver aircraft reported that the boom is too stiff during the part of the process when the receiver plane moves forward into the fuel transfer zone. “We discovered these deficiencies during the course of flight testing,” Stefanek said. “As the program progresses through receiver certification testing, we are still in discovery phase with the tanker/receiver pairs. ... The test team is still writing the test reports, but submitted the DRs [deficiency reports] in advance to assist in accelerating root cause, corrective action development.” In a statement, Boeing said that it continues to work with the Air Force to determine a path forward. “These are not safety of flight issues and we are confident in the unmatched capabilities of the KC-46 tanker aircraft," the company said. "To date we have completed more than 4,000 contacts during flights with F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B, C-17, KC-10 and A-10 aircraft. The refueling system has been tested extensively — we have a well-tested system that works.” The Air Force can accept tankers at its own discretion, with or without active deficiencies. However, both Boeing and the Air Force have worked under the assumption that the service will not do so until all category-1 issues have been worked out or downgraded to category-2, which signifies that a workaround has been put into place. The news of two more deficiencies is a blow to Boeing, which had been hoping to deliver the first tanker in October after finally coming to an agreement with the Air Force earlier this year on a proposed schedule. The KC-46 program has been notoriously above cost, and Boeing's fixed-price contract with the Air Force has forced it to pay out more than $3.4 billion to cover those overruns. It has also run years behind schedule: The company was initially slated to deliver the first 18 certified tankers by August 2017. Boeing now has until October 2018 to meet that deadline — called required assets available— but will almost surely miss it, as the Air Force does not have the resources to absorb 18 new tankers in a month. Over the past year, Boeing has been racing to resolve three additional category-1 deficiencies. Two involve the tanker's remote vision system, or RVS, a series of cameras and sensors that allow the boom operator to direct fuel into a receiver aircraft. Unlike legacy tanker operators, KC-46 boomers will be unable to look out a window in order to see the refueling process happen — making them entirely reliant on the RVS. However, certain lighting conditions make it difficult to see the receiver aircraft's receptacle, leading to incidents where the boom has scraped the plane being refueled. To fix the issue, Boeing has developed and tested a fix to the RVS' software. The Air Force is currently reviewing that data, and both RVS-related deficiencies are still in effect. The final issue involves the system centerline drogue system, which has a mechanical lock that sometimes inadvertently disconnects during a refueling. Boeing plans to create a software fix to ameliorate that problem, too, but it remains a category-1 deficiency. https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2018/09/17/air-force-finds-new-kc-46-deficiencies-putting-planned-delivery-date-in-jeopardy

By Canadian Press OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Air Force is contending with a shortage of around 275 pilots and needs more mechanics, sensor operators and other trained personnel in the face of increasing demands at home and abroad. The Air Force says it is working to address the deficiencies and that they have not negatively impacted operations, but officials acknowledge the situation has added pressure on Canada's flying corps and represents a challenge for the foreseeable future. “Right now we're doing everything we can to make sure we recruit, train and retain enough personnel to do our current mission,” said Brig.-Gen. Eric Kenny, director general of air readiness. “In the next 20 years, it's going to be a challenge to grow the force at the rate that we would like.” The shortfall in pilots and mechanics was referenced in an internal report recently published by the Department of National Defence, which also flagged underspending on maintenance for bases and other infrastructure, as well as reductions in annual flying times thanks to Conservative-era budget cuts. Some of those issues have since started to be addressed by the Liberals through their new defence policy, but the personnel shortage remains an area of critical concern given the need for pilots and others to fly and maintain the military's various aircraft fleets at home and abroad. Those include the planes and helicopters involved in Canada's military missions in Iraq, Latvia, Mali, and Ukraine; domestic search-and-rescue aircraft; and the CF-18 fighter jets deployed in Romania and guarding against a foreign attack on North America. The Air Force is authorized to have 1,580 pilots, but Kenny said in an interview the Air Force is short by around 17 per cent — or about 275 pilots — along with similar shortfalls for navigators and sensor operators, who work onboard different types of aircraft, as well as mechanics. Kenny also acknowledged the threat of burnout as service members are forced to pick up the slack left by unfilled positions, and the added burden of promised new drones, fighter jets and other aircraft arriving in the coming years, which will require even more people to fly and maintain. Efforts to address the shortfalls have looked at retaining service members with tax breaks, additional support and services for family members to ease military life, and plans to free up experienced personnel by assigning administrative staff to do day-to-day tasks. Several initiatives have also been introduced to speed up recruitment and training, and attract older pilots back into the Forces, which has borne some fruit and aimed at buying time for officials to decide whether to change the length of time pilots and others are required to serve before they can leave. “This is beyond just looking at benefits,” Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Tuesday. “We're looking at a much more holistic approach in how we look after them.” But the current training system means the Air Force can only produce 115 new pilots each year, which commanders have said is insufficient to meet needs given the rate at which military pilots have moved on to commercial opportunities in recent years. Conservative defence critic James Bezan suggested one reason the military is losing pilots is because they are being asked to fly older planes, including CF-18 fighter jets that are close to 40 years old. “If pilots aren't getting new aircraft, why are they sticking around?” Bezan said. “And so, the idea of bringing in used fighter jets from Australia that are even in worse shape than the current CF-18s that we fly today, why would they stick around?” The Department of National Defence is drawing up plans for a new system that officials hope will be in place by 2021 and include the ability to expand or shrink the number of trainees in any year given the Air Force's needs. Kenny said the shortfalls will remain a challenge since the current system will remain in place for several more years — and because it takes four and eight years to train a pilot from scratch. “We know what capabilities we're receiving and now we can start working to make sure that we have personnel that are trained to be able to meet those requirements,” he said. “But I'm not going to lie: It's definitely a challenge.” https://ipolitics.ca/2018/09/18/canadian-air-force-short-275-pilots-as-attrition-outpaces-recruitment-training-2/

ADAPTING ON THE FLY “Agile” and “nimble” are the buzzwords as the Royal Canadian Air Force moves forward under new commander LGen Al Meinzinger. By Chris Thatcher AN INVESTMENT IN CAPABILITY Skies test pilot Robert Erdos flew Leonardo's AW101-612 search and rescue helicopter to see what upgrades might be in store for Canada's CH-149 Cormorants. By Robert Erdos

By: Aaron Mehta NATIONAL HARBOR, Md – Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, today unveiled a new extended-range drone that it claims can hit previously unattainable distances for small unmanned systems. The company's Integrator Extended Range design has a 200-nautical mile radius with 10 hours on station, or 300 miles with six hours on station, according to company officials. The 145-pound system was unveiled at the annual Air Force Association conference. Those ranges improve on current capabilities for unmanned systems of that size, which traditionally have been limited to around 50-70 miles distance and line-of-sight tethering. The increased distance and time comes from advances in satcom technology that have made it possible to shrink down the needed components to useable size. Esina Alic, Insitu CEO, made it clear the company is targeting the Integrator-ER for the Air Force, saying bluntly during her presentation, “Air Force customer, we have heard you. We are giving you a theater range platform, at a fraction of cost, at a fraction of a footprint compared to today's ISR asset in the field.” Specifically, Alic and Don Williamson, vice president and general manager for defense with the company, positioned the system as giving the Air Force an option to stop using high end systems for surveillance missions. Buying a lower-cost system like the Integrator would allow higher-capability MALE systems, like the MQ-9, to focus on higher-stakes opportunities or strike missions, while also allowing those systems to pick up missions currently tasked to top-end fighter jets. “No one in the air force has specifically evaluated this capability,” Williamson said. “One of the purposes of being able to show here is, to be able to reveal this with our Air Force customer. We have a number of engagements coming up over the next couple of days.” Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-force-association/2018/09/17/insitu-unveils-new-integrator-extended-range-unmanned-system