14 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial
The U.S. Air Force has commissioned a flying testbed aircraft to test the avionics system and software for the Northrop Grumman B-21 bomber, a senior official said on Aug. 13.
The first B-21 test aircraft is still being assembled in Palmdale, California, but the flying testbed allows the stealth bomber program to “buydown risk,” said Randall Walden, director of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, which is managing the program.
“We have a flight test aircraft that we've been hosting some of these subsystems on,” Walden said. “We're doing it kind of in a parallel approach, working out some of the bugs with the software as well as the subsystems.”
Walden, speaking to the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute, did not identify the flying testbed, but his remarks come two months after the appearance of a green Boeing 737 owned by the Air Force with registration N712JM.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 program also used a 737 to check out avionics and mission systems before test flights of the stealth fighter started in 2006.
“When you can buydown risk with subsystems on even another platform, no matter what it is like you get into the air and use some of the software and work those bugs out it goes a long way,” Walden said.
The Air Force expects to field the B-21 in the mid-2020s, about a decade after awarding the engineering and manufacturing development contract to Northrop in 2015.
The development program remains on track, but Walden is eager to begin testing as soon as possible.
“All of the tough critical designs, all of the hard engineering, is behind us,” Walden said. “I know we're not going to be immune from design flaws. We're going to have to work through those, and we're doing some of that today. I want to find out what those design deficiencies are as fast as I can to get on with the solution.”
25 septembre 2023 | International, Terrestre
Laser Weapon Demonstrator trials onboard the German frigate Sachsen have successfully been completed, following on from the integration of the LWD in June 2022.
26 mai 2022 | International, Aérospatial
L'armée de l'Air américaine a annoncé le 20 mai que le premier vol du bombardier stratégique furtif B-21 Raider, développé par Northrop Grumman, est reporté à 2023. L'US Air Force a précisé que ce changement n'impacterait en rien les coûts, prévisions et performances du programme. Ce nouvel avion doit remplacer les bombardiers B-1B et B-2 en service. L'US Air Force prévoit de dépenser près de 20 Md$ pour la production du B-21 Raider au cours du plan de défense des années futures (Future Years Defense Program, FYDP), qui s'étend de l'exercice 2023 à l'exercice 2027, et 12 Md$ supplémentaires pour la recherche et le développement du programme lors de la même période, soit un total de 32 Md$ au cours du FYDP, précise Air Force Magazine. Air & Cosmos du 24 mai et Air Force Magazine du 21 mai
18 juin 2018 | International, C4ISR
Mark Pomerleau The Defense Systems Information Agency will allow 14 large corporations to compete for IT business worth as much as $7.5 billion over the next decade. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract is for the Systems Engineering Technology and Innovation (SETI) program. The $7.5 billion, unrestricted pool contract seeks to streamline critical engineering expertise to research, design, develop, integrate, and optimize Department of Defense information technology capabilities, systems, and solutions, the agency said. DISA said it the program is “designed for current and future mission requirements, next-generation technological advancements, and disruptive innovation that looks to create paradigm shifts in the ways warfighters interact with DOD's information technology.” The companies that can win task orders include: AASKI Technology, Inc., Accenture Federal Services, BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., Deloitte Consulting, LLP, Peraton, Inc. (formerly Harris Corp.), IBM, KeyW Corp., Leidos Innovations Corp., Linquest Corp., NES Associates, LLC, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Parsons Government Services, Inc., and Vencore, Inc. Thirty-five companies had bid for the work, the agency said. According to former DISA director, Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn, SETI will provide “an overarching approach for fulfilling requirements for developmental IT and engineering support services across the department.” DISA said it expects to award a separate, small business pool in the fourth quarter fiscal 2018 https://www.c4isrnet.com/disa/2018/06/15/14-companies-will-compete-for-a-share-of-this-75-billion-disa-contract/