14 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial

B-21 Avionics Testbed Aircraft Now Operating, USAF Official Says

Steve Trimble

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.”

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/b-21-avionics-testbed-aircraft-now-operating-usaf-official-says

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  • India’s first batch of Rafale fighters is on its way from France

    28 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    India’s first batch of Rafale fighters is on its way from France

    By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS – The first five of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft bought by India from France's Dassault Aviation are being flown from the manufacturing plant by Indian Air Force pilots to India between July 27-29. The three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft are slated to make the trip in two stages, with air-to-air refueling during the first leg provided by a French Air Force A330 Phenix MRTT tanker. Also accompanying the Rafales is a second MRTT carrying 70 respirators, 100,000 test kits and 10 military health professionals to help India with its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The pilots took off from the Dassault Aviation Mérignac facility near Bordeaux in western France and will land at Ambala Air Force Station in northern India, some 125 miles north of Delhi, on July 29, according to the Indian Air Force official Twitter account. The first leg is to the Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates where the aircraft landed on Monday afternoon. They were sent off in the presence of Shri Jawed Ashraf, the Indian ambassador to France, and Eric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation, who saluted the “amazing efficiency and determination of the Indian Air Force and Indian Ministry of Defense, despite this unprecedented world health crisis” to ensure that the program remained on track. The Indian Air Force team flying the aircraft have been training in France for almost three years. The aircraft will integrate into the country's No 17 Squadron, dubbed “Golden Arrows.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/07/27/indias-first-batch-of-rafale-fighters-is-on-its-way-from-france/

  • Four Bidders Square Off Over Two Coveted U.S. Air Force Contracts

    30 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    Four Bidders Square Off Over Two Coveted U.S. Air Force Contracts

    Irene Klotz United Launch Alliance (ULA) CEO Tory Bruno is keen on competition, even if that means losing a government contract every now and then, as happened in February when NASA chose a SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch a science probe to the metal asteroid Psyche in 2022 for $117 million. ULA had offered Psyche mission launch services aboard its workhorse Atlas V for an undisclosed price. “Can't win them all,” Bruno tells Aviation Week. “We win about half, but that's OK. That's how competition is supposed to work. “It's healthy for the government. It's healthy for the industry . . . because we try to be as efficient as we can and to differentiate ourselves, which ultimately usually results in more value for the customer, either in capabilities or in prices,” he adds. Bruno's mettle is being put to the test. This summer, a heated two-year competition to provide national security space launch (NSSL) services through 2027 concludes with the U.S. Air Force deciding whether to retain incumbents ULA and SpaceX or replace one or both with Northrop Grumman and/or Blue Origin. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office, plans to award firm fixed-price, indefinite-delivery contracts to two domestic launch service providers for procurements in fiscal 2020-24, with work split 60/40%. The NSSL Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement (LSP)—the first such solicitation since 2005—is designed to end dependence on Russian rocket engines for national security space launches, reduce launch costs and spur competition for current and future national security space launches. 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The company, which publishes base pricing on its website, has not disclosed what it would charge for NSSL missions, but SpaceX is well-known for undercutting its competition. Ten years ago, Iridium shopped for launch services to put its next-generation network of 75 communications satellites into orbit. It signed with SpaceX, which at the time was preparing for the first flight of the Falcon 9. SpaceX's bid for the Iridium Next launch campaign—which consisted of eight flights from January 2017 to January 2019 from Vandenberg AFB in California—was $500 million. “My next price from there was $1.2 billion to launch the same 75 satellites,” says Iridium CEO Matt Desch. “Thank God for SpaceX . . . . 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The Rocket That Scrum Built One company hoping to wrest the NSSL business away from the incumbents is Northrop Grumman, which presents a very different view of launch market viability. “The Air Force's intent from the beginning is to make sure that our business case didn't depend on them with large numbers of launches,” says Northrop's Charlie Precourt, vice president of propulsion systems. “We're not a launch vehicle searching for lots of different payloads,” he adds. “We're a launch vehicle that is built on existing manufacturing lines, facilities and workforce infrastructure.” Northrop's Phase 2 offering, the Omega, can close its business case with just 3-4 launches per year, far below ULA's estimate of what it takes to sustain a viable medium- to heavy-lift launch service program. 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Northrop used an agile development system called scrum—initially developed by teams to write software in sprints—to design and manufacture the Omega. “We like to call Omega the rocket that scrum built,” says Precourt. “Scrum is about moving faster, how to innovate to go faster and do more in less time.” Between the May 2019 and February 2020 static test firings of the Omega's first and second stages in Promontory, Utah, engineers used scrum methodologies to apply lessons learned, such as determining what the environments were like inside the motor and how it behaves when fired, Precourt says. Both static firings were successful, completing full-scale engine testings planned prior to the Omega's debut launch in 2021. However, the May test, during which the Omega's two 31-ft. solid-propellant rocket motors were ignited, ended with the booster's 18-ft.-long nozzle breaking apart, a function of atmospheric conditions during testing and not an issue for certification or flight, Northrop says. “The nozzle was just one part of the design we analyzed. Our engineers ran in sprints, with the customer as part of the team, to assess data, anchor models and optimize the design,” says Precourt. “By taking a little extra time between the two tests and utilizing scrum, we were able to fully test design improvements without any impact to our launch-readiness date. We're deploying scrum more broadly across the plant as we go.” Under terms of Northrop's $792 million LSA agreement, awarded in 2018 for Omega development and certification work, the company plans to conduct two more full-duration static tests of the first and second stages after the Omega's first two flights, which will be used to certify the booster for national space security missions. Northrop is developing the Omega primarily to provide launch services to the Air Force, but it is also offering the rocket commercially. In December, the company announced it had a customer for the Omega's first flight, one of two missions required prior to flying high-value national security payloads. The debut mission will carry one or two Saturn NationSat geostationary communications satellites. Northrop said it is “converging on an agreement” with a customer for the Omega's second flight, which is expected to launch next summer, says spokeswoman Jennifer Bowman. 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That is because the company's BE-4 engines will power the first stages of both ULA's Vulcan rocket and Blue's New Glenn. Company founder Jeff Bezos has invested $2.5 billion in the New Glenn, including a new $200 million, 350,000-ft.2 factory and office complex in Huntsville, Alabama, where BE-4 engines and the New Glenn's BE-3U upper stages will be manufactured. Blue Origin also is expanding New Glenn manufacturing facilities adjacent to Kennedy Space Center. In March, the normally low-profile company displayed videos of the New Glenn's newly completed mission control center, a first-stage fuel tank, which is the rocket's largest structure, and the first completed 23-ft.-long payload fairing. At nearby Cape Canaveral AFS, a launch complex for the New Glenn is under construction, with the booster's debut expected in late 2021. Like SpaceX and Northrop, Blue Origin's future does not hinge on winning a Phase 2 contract. The company won LSA funding, which it says it is using to cover NSSL certification costs and program requirements to develop a West Coast launch site for polar orbits. Blue Origin has signed New Glenn launch contracts with at least five customers—Eutelsat, mμ Space Corp. of Thailand, Sky Perfect JSAT, OneWeb and Telesat—several of which are buying multiple flights. Powered by seven BE-4 engines on its reusable first stage, the New Glenn is designed to carry nearly 50 tons to LEO. “And that is the smallest orbital vehicle we are planning to build and launch,” says Clay Mowry, Blue Origin vice president of sales, marketing and customer experience. Like SpaceX's Musk, Bezos aims to parlay his company's space transportation technology into a future that more closely resembles the science fiction novels both men hold dear. Bezos' vision is for millions of people to be living and working off Earth. ULA and Northrop, meanwhile, seek only to serve the national security mission. The Air Force has never had such ripe pickings. https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/space-symposium/four-bidders-square-over-two-coveted-us-air-force-contracts

  • LOCKHEED MARTIN AND FINCANTIERI MARINETTE MARINE AWARDED CONTRACT TO BUILD LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP 29

    28 septembre 2018 | International, Naval

    LOCKHEED MARTIN AND FINCANTIERI MARINETTE MARINE AWARDED CONTRACT TO BUILD LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP 29

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