13 mars 2024 | International, Terrestre
14 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial
B-21 bomber program survives pandemic disruptions
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Despite impacts from the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Air Force's B-21 Raider program remains on track as Northrop Grumman continues production of the first B-21 bomber, the head of the service's Rapid Capabilities Office said Thursday.
Speaking at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event, RCO Director Randall Walden acknowledged that some B-21 suppliers had been adversely affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. For instance, Spirit AeroSystems — which builds large composite aerostructures for the bomber — has run into challenges not only on its defense side, but also for its commercial division due to the halt in Boeing 737 Max production, Walden said.
Spirit received $80 million in Defense Production Act funds meant to help stimulate struggling businesses, and Walden noted that the company also funneled employees who normally work on the 737 Max line into augmenting B-21 production efforts.
“The folks that are not manufacturing 737s and those components came over to our production line and really kind of beefed up — where people had some COVID issues — they beefed up that portion of our production,” he said. “Right now, the components that we're building are really for the test fleet, but the good news: All of what we're doing today is really insightful for what we're doing for production in the future.”
After completing a critical design review in 2018, B-21 prime contractor Northrop Grumman is currently building the first B-21 test aircraft in Palmdale, California. The Air Force plans to buy at least 100 Raiders.
On Aug. 3, Walden traveled with Defense Secretary Mark Esper to Northrop's B-21 design and development office in Melbourne, Florida, to receive a program update.
“I think overall his takeaway was he's happy with the progress we're making,” Walden said. “The good news is all of the tough critical designs, all of the hard engineering is kind of behind us, and now it's a matter of actually producing the airplane and actually rolling it out and getting on with the developmental flight test activities.”
Walden said his office has flight tested some B-21 mission systems and avionics on a surrogate aircraft to work though software bugs and design problems before installation on the actual B-21 test aircraft.
“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. From my perspective, I want to find out what those design deficiencies were as fast as I can, get on with a solution, get that into the program in the development phase, and get on with production.”
In July 2019, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson said the Raider could take to the skies in about “863 days,” which would pinpoint an inaugural flight in December 2021. Walden has since said that would be the earliest possible date for first flight.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/08/13/b-21-still-on-track-despite-complications-from-pandemic/
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10 juillet 2023 | International, Terrestre
Australia to make, export Boxer armed carrier to Germany
Australia signed an in-principle agreement with Germany on Monday to deliver more than 100 Australian-made Boxer armed carriers to the European nation's military in one its largest defence export deals.
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31 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
The Corps’ HIMARS are going airborne as Marines bring them to targets via KC-130s
By: Shawn Snow The same innovative rocket artillery unit that fired HIMARS from a ship is once again mixing things up, but this time they're doing it with aircraft. The tactic is called HI-RAIN, which is short for HIMARS Rapid Infiltration, where the Corps takes its precision-guided rocket artillery system, stuffs it in a KC-130 and flies it to a location to destroy a target. Once on the ground, the HIMARS crew offloads the system and strikes a target and then rapidly exfils from the target site. The Corps says HI-RAIN is the progression of an aerial artillery raid capability they already have, which can be done with sling loaded M777 howitzers hauled by the Corps' heavy lift helicopters like the CH-53. The MV-22 Osprey is also capable of lifting the M777. Aerial artillery raids provide battlefield commanders flexibility by inserting a long-range fire capability beyond a captured beachhead or behind enemy lines to quickly destroy a target. But the HIMARS will greatly extend the Corps' range of that existing raid capability, which should prove useful should the Corps find itself stretched thinly across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean in a fight with a sophisticated adversary like China. A Marine HIMARS unit known as 5th Battalion, 11th Marines, recently executed a HI-RAIN mission on Dec. 7 as part of an annual exercise with the 1st Marine Division dubbed Steel Knight. For the exercise, Marines with 5/11 loaded two HIMARS systems onto two KC-130 aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station, Camp Pendleton, California, and flew to Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. Once on the ground, the a HIMARS unit fired one M31A1 GMLRS – Unitary precision rocket, striking a target approximately 15 km away. The GMLRS round is short for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System. HIMARS are capable of striking targets several hundred kilometers out, the short range was due to range limitations, Marine officials said. The Corps says 5/11 began aerial embarkation testing with KC-130s in 2014, and since then have carried out many HI-RAIN missions across the U.S. from Alaska to Arizona, all during training exercises. Other Marine HIMARS units are honing the same skill. The Corps is also capable of carrying out artillery raids inserting howitzers via helicopter. In August, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, carried out the first lift in an austere environment in Australia of an M777 howitzer using an MV-22 Osprey. The Marines of 5/11 are known for their innovative experimentation firing HIMARS from the deck of the amphibious transport dock Anchorage in fall 2017. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/28/the-corps-himars-are-going-airborne-as-marines-bring-them-to-targets-via-kc-130s