22 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

F-35 Propulsion Upgrade Moves Forward Despite Uncertainty

Steve Trimble July 21, 2020

An F-35B completed the first landing at sea on the USS Wasp in 2013. The Joint Program Office is considering thrust upgrades to increase the F-35B's “bring-back” payload to a carrier.

Credit: MCSN Michael T. Forbes II/U.S. Navy

Stabilizing the production system and securing a funded, long-term upgrade plan are now the main objectives for Pratt & Whitney's F135 propulsion system for the Lockheed Martin F-35.

Although first delivered for ground--testing 17 years ago, the F135 remains a lifeline in Pratt's combat aircraft engines portfolio for new-development funding. The U.S. military engines market is entering an era of transition with great uncertainty for the timing of the next major combat aircraft program.

Enhancement Package replaces “Growth Option”
New F-35 propulsion road map due in six months

The transition era begins with the likely pending delivery of Pratt's most secretive development project. In 2016, the U.S. Air Force named Pratt as one of seven major suppliers for the Northrop Grumman B-21 bomber. The Air Force also has set the first flight of the B-21 for around December 2021. That timing means Pratt is likely to have delivered the first engine for ground-testing. At some point within the next year, Pratt should be planning to deliver the first flight-worthy engine to Northrop's final assembly line in Palmdale, California, to support the Air Force's first B-21 flight schedule.

As the bomber engine development project winds down, the propulsion system for the next fighter aircraft continues to be developed, but without a clear schedule for transitioning to an operational system.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) is sponsoring a competition to develop an adaptive engine that can modulate the airflow into and around the core to improve fuel efficiency and increase range. The AETP competition is between Pratt's XA101 and GE's XA100 designs, with the first engines set to be delivered for ground-testing by the end of this year or early next year.

As 45,000-lb.-thrust-class engines, the first AETP designs are optimized for repowering the single-engine F-35, but the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) has established no requirement to replace the F135 for at least another five years. A follow-on effort within the AETP is developing a similar engine for a next-generation fighter, but neither the Air Force nor the Navy have committed to a schedule for transitioning the technology into an aircraft-development program. That leaves Pratt's F135 as the only feasible application for inserting new propulsion technology for a decade more.

After spending the last decade focused on completing development of the F-35 and upgrading the software, electronics and mission systems, the JPO is developing a road map to improve the propulsion system through 2035.

As the road map is being developed, program officials also are seeking to stabilize the engine production system. Pratt delivered about 600 F135s to Lockheed through the end of last year, including 150—or about 25%—in 2019 alone. The JPO signed a $7.3 billion contract with Pratt last year to deliver another 509 engines in 2020-22, or about 170 a year.

Although Pratt exceeded the delivery goal in 2019 by three engines, each shipment came an average of 10-15 days behind the schedule in the contract. The fan, low-pressure turbine and nozzle hardware drove the delivery delays, according to the Defense Department's latest annual Selected Acquisition Report on the F-35. Lockheed's production schedule allows more than two weeks before the engine is needed for the final assembly line, so Pratt's late deliveries did not hold up the overall F-35 schedule, says Matthew Bromberg, president of Pratt's Military Engines business.

F135 deliveries finally caught up to the contract delivery dates in the first quarter of this year, but the supply chain and productivity disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have set the program back. About five engines scheduled for delivery in the second quarter fell behind the contractual delivery date, Bromberg says. The pressure will grow as a loaded delivery schedule in the second half of the year adds pressure on deliveries, but Pratt's supply chain managers expect to be back within the contract dates in the first quarter of next year, he says.

The F-35 program's political nature also has caused program disruptions. The Defense Department's expulsion of Turkey from the F-35 program last year also banished the country's supply chain, which contributed 188 parts to the F135. In particular, Alp Aviation produces the Stage 2, 3, 4 and 5 integrally bladed rotors (IBR) for the F135.

As of early July, about 128 parts now made in Turkey are ready to transition to other suppliers, of which about 80% are based in the U.S., according to Bromberg. The new suppliers should be requalified to produce those parts in the first quarter of 2021 and ready to meet production rate targets for Lot 15 aircraft, which will begin deliveries in 2023.

“The overriding objective was to move with speed and diligence along the transition plan and ensure we are ready to be fully out of Turkey by about Lot 15,” Bromberg explains. “And we are on track for that.”

As Pratt transfers suppliers, the company also has to manage the effect on potential upgrade options. Alp Aviation, for example, had announced a research and development program to convert the finished titanium IBRs to a more resilient nickel material.

For several years, Pratt has sought to improve the performance of the F135 above the baseline level. In 2017, the company unveiled the Growth Option 1.0 upgrade, which is aimed at delivering modular improvements that would lead to a 5% or 6% fuel-burn improvement and a 6-10% increase in thrust across the flight envelope. The Marine Corps, in particular, was seeking additional thrust to increase payload mass for a vertical landing, but the proposed package did not go far enough to attract the JPO's interest.

“It missed the mark because we didn't focus our technologies on power and thermal management,” Bromberg says.

A year later, Pratt unveiled the Growth Option 2.0. In addition to providing more thrust at less fuel burn, the new package offered to generate more electrical power to support planned advances in the aircraft's electronics and sensors, with the ability to manage the additional heat without compromising the F-35's signature in the infrared spectrum.

Last fall, the JPO's propulsion management office teamed up with the Advanced Design Group at Naval Air Systems Command to analyze how planned F-35 mission systems upgrades will increase the load on the engine's thrust levels and power generation and thermal management capacity. In May, the JPO commissioned studies by Lockheed and Pratt to inform a 15-year technology-insertion road map for the propulsion system. The road map is due later this year or in early 2021, with the goal of informing the spending plan submitted with the Pentagon's fiscal 2023 budget request.

As the studies continue, a name change to Pratt's upgrade proposals reveals a fundamental shift in philosophy. Pratt's earlier “Growth Option” terminology is gone. The proposals are now called Engine Enhancement Packages (EEP). The goal of the rebranding is to show the upgrades no longer are optional for F-35 customers.

“As the engine provider and the [sustainment] provider, I'm very interested in keeping everything common,” Bromberg says. “The idea behind the Engine Enhancement Packages is they will migrate into the engines or upgrade over time. We don't have to do them all at once. The [digital engine controls] will understand which configuration. That allows us again to be seamless in production, where I would presumably cut over entirely, but also to upgrade fleets at regularly scheduled maintenance visits.”

Pratt has divided the capabilities from Growth Options 1 and 2 into a series of EEPs, with new capabilities packaged in increments of two years from 2025 to 2029.

“If you go all the way to the right, you get all the benefits of Growth Option 2, plus some that we've been able to create,” Bromberg says. “But if you need less than that and you're shorter on time or money, then you can take a subset of it.”

Meanwhile, the Air Force continues to fund AETP development as a potential F135 replacement. As the propulsion road map is finalized, the JPO will decide whether Pratt's F135 upgrade proposals support the requirement or if a new engine core is needed to support the F-35's thrust and power-generation needs over the long term.

Previously, Bromberg questioned the business case for reengining the F-35 by pointing out that a split fleet of F135- and AETP-powered jets erodes commonality and increases sustainment costs. Bromberg also noted it is not clear the third-stream technology required for the AETP can be accommodated within the roughly 4-ft.-dia. engine bay of the F-35B.

Now Bromberg says he is willing to support the JPO's decision if the road map determines a reengining is necessary. “If the road map indicates that they need significantly more out of the engine than the Engine Enhancement Packages can provide, we would be the first to say an AETP motor would be required,” Bromberg says. “But we think a lot of the AETP technologies will make those Engines Enhancement Packages viable.”

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6 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

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Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $4,168,441; fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,530,838; and non-DOD participant funds in the amount of $3,126,330 will be obligated at time of award, $6,699,279 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY I-Solutions Direct Inc., doing business as I-Solutions Group, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a maximum $34,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for commercial metal products. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S .Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is an 18-month bridge contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Pennsylvania; Arizona; California; Idaho; Montana; Nevada; Oregon; Utah; Washington; and Wyoming, with a Dec. 8, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8E5-20-D-0007). The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a maximum $28,147,925 firm-fixed-price delivery order (SPRPA1-20-F-0011) against a three-year basic ordering agreement (SPRPA1-17-D-003U) for follow-on consumable performance based support for the P-8A program. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a three-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Missouri; Texas; and Washington, with a June 30, 2023, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. SRCTec LLC, Syracuse, New York, has been awarded a maximum $17,986,641 hybrid firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPRBL1-20-R-0006 for the procurement and repair of the radar system and cylinder supporting the AN/TPQ-50 Counterfire Target Acquisition Radar System. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year base contract with one five-year option period. Location of performance is New York, with a June 29, 2025, ordering period end date. Using customer is the Defense Department. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Army working capital funds and other procurement funds as necessary. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland (SPRBL1-20-D-0047). Technical Sales Equipment LLC, Cincinnati, Ohio, has been awarded a maximum $10,557,718 firm-fixed-price contract for computer numerically controlled, horizontal and vertical turning center milling machines. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year contract with one 13-month option period. Locations of performance are Ohio and Georgia, with a July 26, 2021, ordering period end date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4A8-20-C-0006). L-3 Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, has been awarded a maximum $8,232,575 firm-fixed-price delivery order (SPRPA1-20-F-CL0N) against a five-year basic ordering agreement (SPRPA1-20-G-CL01) for antenna assemblies in support of the Triton weapon platform. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a two-year ten-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Utah, with an April 30, 2023, performance completion date. Using military customer is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. SAE Inc., Logan, Utah, has been awarded a maximum $7,674,928 firm-fixed-price contract for automatic robotic wing measurement and de-fastener systems. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a two-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Utah, with a Feb. 15, 2022, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4A8-20-C-0008). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2243147/source/GovDelivery/
15 novembre 2017 | International, Aérospatial, Sécurité

ICAO Council endorses new Global Aviation Security Plan
The 36-State ICAO Council. In endorsing the very first Global Aviation Security Plan today to improve international coordination, reponse, and planning relating to threats to civil aviation passengers, aircraft and facilities, the Council encouraged the ICAO Secretariat to continue refining and improving it on the basis of close continued cooperation with States and security stakeholders globally, and with due attention to all applicable implementation assistance and capacity building requirements in ICAO's Regions. Montréal, 15 November 2017 – The ICAO Council took an historic step in endorsing the very first Global Aviation Security Plan to improve international coordination, response, and planning to counter threats to civil aviation passengers, cargo, aircraft and facilities. “This new strategic document will assist ICAO Member States in their aviation security coordination with other States and applicable security agencies, as well as helping to nurture security cultures and capabilities, place greater focus on the role of new technologies and innovations, and refine related frameworks for oversight and quality assurance,” affirmed ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu. A set of indicators and target dates have also been established, and all associated targets and outcomes will be regularly reviewed and adjusted, taking into account all new and emerging aviation security threats. “The Council has encouraged the ICAO Secretariat to continue refining and improving this critical living document, on the basis of close continued cooperation with States and security stakeholders globally, and with due attention to all applicable implementation assistance and capacity building requirements in ICAO's Regions,” Dr. Aliu further commented. Subsequent to its first review of the new Global Aviation Security Plan in June 2017, the Council authorized its transmission to ICAO Member States and international organizations for comment. Ninety-six percent of those replies indicated agreement with its scope and purpose, as well as the related strategies and global targets, which will continue to be refined. “The ICAO Secretariat has developed this strategic document on an accelerated basis to answer the call of ICAO's Council and Member States and the respective commitments and actions of national governments will now be essential to its overall impact and value,” commented ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu. “This new Global Aviation Security Plan will now take its place alongside ICAO's existing Global Plans for aviation safety and system-wide capacity and efficiency, and importantly it directly responds to various resolutions and expectations regarding aviation security and terrorism which have been expressed to ICAO by the United Nations Security Council.” The ICAO Global Aviation Security Plan calls for action at the global, regional and national levels by States, industry and other stakeholders in raising the level of implementation of Annex 17 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation – Security. Secretary General Liu further confirmed that a roadmap outlining 94 tasks, accompanying 32 actions under five key priority outcomes, will be central to the new Global Plan's roll out. These lay the groundwork for objectives over the next three years until the 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly in 2019. In line with its contribution to the Global Counter-terrorism Strategy of the United Nations, ICAO will continue to coordinate with the Security Council and its various committees on all priorities relevant to aviation and border security, and bring together the private and public sector partners who help ensure our network remains at the dependable service of societies and economies. https://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/FR/ICAO-Council-endorses-new-Global-Aviation-Security-Plan.aspx
20 avril 2018 | International, Aérospatial

Inde: Airbus et Lockheed Martin au coude à coude pour vendre leurs avions de chasse
Airbus et Lockheed Martin tentent de s'implanter en Inde afin de décrocher des commandes d'avions. Objectif, bénéficier des 620 milliards de dollars investis dans la défense sur la période 2014-2022 par l'Inde pour renouveler son armée. La décision de l'Inde de ne pas commander d'avions Rafale à Dassault en 2018, révélée par La Tribune, a enflammé la concurrence chez les principaux avionneurs. Deux géants font figure de favoris : Airbus, producteur de l'Eurofighter Typhoon, et le géant américain Lockheed Martin, qui construit le célèbre F-16, révèle le média économique américain Bloomberg. L'Inde a annoncé en 2014 vouloir investir 620 milliards de dollars en huit ans. Mais derrière ce marché faramineux pour les entreprises, les conditions sont drastiques. New Delhi demande en effet à ce qu'au moins 30% de ses importations en matière de défense soient produites sur son sol. Un transfert de technologie réclamé par la classe politique indienne, qui serait à l'origine de l'annulation de la commande géante de Rafale français (100 à 200 appareils) selon La Tribune. Plusieurs entreprises ont, depuis, décidé de s'implanter sur le territoire indien, dans l'espoir de décrocher une commande. Airbus, qui n'a pas remporté de contrat militaire en Inde depuis plus de cinquante ans, comme le rappelle le média américain, forme notamment des fabricants de pièces pour ses avions commerciaux. Une manière de faire qui permet de s'adapter aux normes et règlements locaux, dont se sont inspirés les concurrents de l'avionneur européen, Lockheed Martin, Saab ou encore Boeing. Chacun a fait le choix de la production locale pour taper dans l'œil de Narendra Modi, le Premier ministre indien. Du commercial au militaire. Limite à cette stratégie, la qualité de formation de la main d'œuvre indienne, cantonnée principalement aux postes de monteurs et ajusteurs. Airbus a compris la situation et a nommé, en 2016, l'homme public indien Ashish Saraf, au poste de chef de la production en Inde. Il s'agit de la seule compagnie étrangère à avoir un tel poste dans son organigramme. Un signal fort émis en direction du gouvernement indien. Airbus entend « adapter au domaine de la défense ce que la compagnie fait déjà pour l'espace commercial afin d'être plus performant, que ce soit pour les hélicoptères ou les avions militaires », a déclaré Pierre de Bausset, directeur d'Airbus Group en Inde, dans un discours prononcé à Hyderabad, ville du sud de l'Inde, en mars. Face à ce positionnement stratégique, Lockheed Martin a contre-attaqué explique Bloomberg. Pour vendre 110 avions de combat F-16, une commande estimée à 15 milliards de dollars, il a promis de migrer la production de ce parc aérien en Inde en cas d'accord. Le pays deviendrait de fait l'un des plus gros producteurs d'avions de combat au monde. https://www.lopinion.fr/edition/international/inde-airbus-lockheed-martin-coude-a-coude-vendre-leurs-avions-chasse-146872

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