7 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — The Air Force will pay up to $55.5 million for Boeing to redesign the KC-46's boom, but it will cost more than that to field a fix to the problem.
According to a Aug. 2 contract announcement, the award will pay for a “system level hardware and software critical design review of the boom telescope actuator redesign,” and Boeing will receive $21 million of the proposed award value immediately. But because the contract has yet to be definitized, Boeing could receive up to $55.5 million once terms of the deal are cemented.
And since initial award only covers the redesign of the boom — not the costs of testing, fabricating and retrofitting the new booms on existing aircraft — it stands to reason that the Air Force will owe additional money to Boeing to completely fix the issue.
Unlike the other remaining critical deficiencies on the KC-46 program, the Air Force has agreed to foot the cost of fixing the boom problem, as it is a change in the service's initial requirements.
Boeing's current boom design meets international standards for thrust resistance, and the Air Force accepted that design at Milestone C in 2016, when the KC-46 was cleared for production. But later flight tests demonstrated that the boom produces too much thrust resistance to refuel the A-10, necessitating a change in design.
In January, an Air Force official told Defense News the process of redesigning and manufacturing the new booms could take about two years.
The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s over the life of the program. After years of delays due to technical issues, the service signed off to accept the first tanker in January, which was then delivered to McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., later that month.
The KC-46 made its first flight for the initial operational test and evaluation phase on June 4 at McConnell AFB.
Boeing is on the hook to pay for the other major critical deficiency: a redesign of the Remote Vision System, a collection of cameras and sensors that allow the boom operator to steer the boom into the fuel receptacle of the receiving aircraft.
The service became aware of this problem after pilots experienced difficulties directing the boom during refueling, sometimes scraping the surface of the receiver aircraft — a mistake that could compromise the low observable coating of stealth aircraft.
Despite this issue, the Air Force has decided to accept KC-46 tankers so that pilots can begin training with the new aircraft. However, the service is withholding up $28 million per plane in order to incentivize Boeing to move quickly on a redesigned RVS. About $360 million has been withheld so far, according to Defense One.
14 novembre 2024 | International, Aérospatial
These systems enable precise, real-time coordination for tracking operations in space for effective responses to threats
5 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Eric Felley La votation à peine digérée, le lobbyiste Thomas Borer invite déjà des parlementaires à une rencontre la semaine prochaine avec les Américains du Super Hornet. Malaise dans la commission. Les urnes sont encore tièdes d'une mince victoire pour l'acquisition des avions de combat que déjà s'active à Berne le lobbyisme pour influencer les élus sur le choix de l'avion: le Rafale de Dassault, l'Eurofighter d'Airbus, le F-35 de Lockheed Martin ou le Super Hornet de Boeing. Et les défenseurs de ce dernier ont semble-t-il tiré les premiers. En début de semaine déjà, certains conseillers nationaux, membres de la Commission de la politique de sécurité, avaient reçu une invitation pour venir se renseigner à propos de leur engin. Cette invitation leur est parvenue par quelqu'un de bien connu à Berne, l'ancien ambassadeur devenu lobbyiste de haut vol, Thomas Borer. Dans un courrier envoyé par mail, il invite certains parlementaires à rencontrer le directeur des ventes et du marketing des avions de combat à l'international chez Boeing, qui est responsable du processus d'achat en Suisse. Il semble que des élus de tous les partis l'ont reçu, même chez les socialistes et les Verts, opposés à l'achat. «Ils n'ont aucune pudeur, s'agace l'un d'entre eux. J'ai renvoyé aussitôt pour dire que je ne viendrai pas». Ancien pilote de F/A-18, le directeur des ventes de Boeing, Alain Garcia, «aimerait prendre le temps de parler avec vous sur l'offre de Boeing et de répondre directement à vos questions», écrit Thomas Borer. Les parlementaires pouvaient choisir entre mardi 6 octobre ou mercredi 7 octobre pour le rencontrer. D'après nos sources, la grande majorité d'entre eux ont refusé. S'abstenir de tout contact avec les avionneurs La Commission de la politique de sécurité, dans sa composition d'avant les élections de 2019, avait convenu que ses membres devaient s'abstenir de tout contact avec des avionneurs. Certains socialistes avaient été remis à l'ordre parce qu'ils étaient allés visiter un constructeur en Italie, pour chercher une alternative aux quatre concurrents qui sont en lice. La nouvelle commission, sous la présidence d'Ida Glanzmann-Hunkeler (PDC/LU), n'a pas encore pris de décision à ce sujet. Sa prochaine réunion a lieu les 26 et 27 octobre prochains. En interpellant les parlementaires seulement quelques jours après la votation, Thomas Borer est fidèle à sa réputation de fonceur. Mais au Parlement, ce n'est pas peut-être pas la meilleure façon d'agir. L'ancien ambassadeur a déjà troublé la quiétude des Chambres fédérales dans le cadre de ses activités de lobbyiste pour le Kazakhstan. Une enquête avait été ouverte contre lui par le Ministère public de la Confédération (MPC) et le conseiller national Christian Miesch (UDC/BL) suite à des soupçons de corruption passive et d'acceptation d'avantages. Mais l'affaire a été classée sans suite en juillet 2019. https://www.lematin.ch/story/avions-de-combat-boeing-passe-a-lattaque-426165817866
30 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. Mounted on a pair of heavy trucks, the Terrestrial Layer System – Echelons Above Brigade (TLS-EAB) will do long-range jamming for high-level HQs – and fry the circuits of incoming enemy missiles as well. WASHINGTON: The Army officially asked industry today to help take a big step towards repairing the Army's long-neglected EW corps and countering Russian and Chinese jamming – and it'll have an unexpected missile defense dimension as well. Boeing and Lockheed are still building rival prototypes for the Army's next-generation cyber/electronic warfare vehicle, the Terrestrial Layer System set to enter service in 2022. The new system, known as TLS-EAB — will be TLS's much bigger brother. The service has set a pretty brisk schedule, talking of fielding something by the end of 2023. The original-flavor TLS, aka TLS-BCT, will fit on an 8×8 Stryker armored vehicle and accompany frontline Brigade Combat Teams. TLS-Echelons Above Brigade will fill a pair of heavy trucks, probably Oshkosh FMTVs, Army officials unveiled today: One truck will carry sensors, transmitters, and a tethered drone or aerostat to detect enemy signals, triangulate their locations for artillery and airstrikes, and disrupt them electronically with a combination of jamming, wireless hacking, and deceptive signals. It'll be crewed by eight soldiers, four specializing in cyber/electronic warfare and four in signals intelligence. There will likely be sub-variants, for example with a division-level system designed to frequently relocate, while a Multi-Domain Task Force might accept a less mobile version with more range and power. But overall, this long-range offensive cyber/EW/SIGINT capability is essentially a supersized version of what the TLS-BCT will do, albeit operating over much greater distances. The other truck, however, adds a dimension absent from the brigade-level TLS-BCT: a high-powered but relatively short-ranged defensive EW capability to protect key sites like division, corps, and theater command posts. It'll be crewed by four electronic warfare soldiers, but there's no SIGINT on this variant. Instead, it'll have an “electronic countermeasure point defense suite” – again, using a mix of jamming, wireless hacking, and deceptive signals – to decoy or disable incoming enemy drones, missiles, rockets, and artillery rounds, many of which rely on radar for guidance and fusing. Because it's mounted on trucks, TLS-EAB can be a lot bigger and more powerful than the Stryker-mounted TLS-BCT or the drone-mounted jamming/sensing system known as MFEW-Air-Large. But it will share data with those systems, because they'll be closer to the front line and/or able to fly over obstacles to see distant threats. TLS-EAB will also link to other Army and interservice systems like the EWPMT command-and-control software and the TITAN satellite terminal. The defensive suite, in particular, will get warning of incoming threats from air & missile defense networks – which we can presume includes the Army's forthcoming IBCS – to “national technical means,” such as spy satellites. Now, the three Army colonels who briefed the AOC CEMAlite conference this afternoon didn't provide any details on what kind of incoming missiles the TLS-EAB defensive suite is meant to stop. Actually jamming an inbound hypersonic or ballistic missile might be prohibitively hard since those weapons fly so fast – Mach 5 and up – and may only be in range for seconds. But if you deceive the enemy's reconnaissance and targeting systems into shooting at a decoy instead of the real target, it doesn't matter how fast their missiles are — they'll still miss. It's also worth noting that the Army hasn't locked down the formal requirements for this system – a draft Abbreviated Capabilities Development Document (ACDD) is in the works – and the service intends to leave plenty of leeway for industry to propose out-of-the-box ideas. “These are our initial concept ideas and not intended to constrain or limit the industrial solution space,” said Col. Jennifer McAfee. “Please think of this is a starting point in a long and mutually beneficial conversation.” That said, all proposals need to rely on an Army-sponsored software framework known as Photon and a set of technical standards known as CMOSS. Both are intended to let the service plug and play components from different vendors instead of getting locked into one company's proprietary solution that's not compatible with other people's innovations. There's also an official Software Development Kit (SDK) to let companies integrate their sensors into the Army-standard systems. What the Army rolled out today was a draft concept of operations (CONOP) for TLS-EAB, explained the Army project manager, Col. Kevin Finch. Looking ahead, he outlined an ambitious schedule: January 2021: The Army will hold an initial industry day for interested vendors (TBD whether it'll be in-person or online). February-March 2021: Individual vendors will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with Army officials. Meanwhile the service will put together a draft Request For Proposals (RFP) and circulate it for industry feedback. June 2021: a second industry day. July 2021: the release of the final RFP and the official launch of what's known as a Middle-Tier Acquisition process. Fall 2023 (first quarter of federal fiscal year 2024): the First Unit Equipped (FUE) will receive prototype TLS-EAB vehicles. If TLS-EAB can stick to that 2023-2024 timeline, it'll enter service along with a host of new long-range Army systems, from howitzers and hypersonics to intermediate-range missiles and missile defense lasers. But between the budgetary hit from COVID and the upcoming election, it's far from certain the Army can afford it all. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/army-wants-new-mega-jammer-in-2023-tls-eab/