13 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial

Rolls-Royce développe un démarreur électrique pour le futur chasseur de la Royal Air Force

Depuis 2014, Rolls-Royce développe un démarreur électrique qui devrait être intégré au moteur du Tempest, le futur avion de combat de la Royal Air Force britannique. Le tout devrait prendre moins de place et générer de l'énergie de manière plus intelligente, ce qui permettra à l'appareil d'optimiser ses consommations, tout en étant moins gros que l'actuel Eurofighter Typhoon.

Le Tempest, futur avion de combat de la Royal Air Force britannique devrait comporter nettement plus d'éléments électriques que son prédécesseur, l'Eurofighter Typhoon. Dans cette optique, Rolls-Royce a confirmé être en train de développer, pour l'appareil, un nouveau système de démarrage des turboréacteurs, électrique et intégré.

Le constructeur planche sur le projet depuis plus de cinq ans. Dès 2014, il met au point un générateur de démarrage électrique, entièrement intégré au cœur d'un moteur à turbine à gaz. Le programme du démonstrateur est baptisé "Embedded Electrical Starter Generator", ou E2SG.

Moins de place pour un appareil moins gros

"Le générateur électrique embarqué permettra de gagner de la place et fournira une importante quantité d'énergie aux futurs chasseurs", explique dans un communiqué Conrad Banks, ingénieur en chef du programme chez Rolls-Royce. Les générateurs actuels génèrent de l'énergique à l'aide d'une boîte de vitesses située sous le moteur. Un élément qui requiert un certain espace. N'en ayant plus besoin, le Tempest pourra être plus petit et donc plus furtif.

En 2017, le projet est entré dans sa deuxième phase. Un second générateur électrique a été intégré à l'autre partie du turboréacteur. Le réseau électrique de l'appareil est désormais capable de stocker de l'énergie et une fonction intelligente gère l'alimentation de tous les systèmes. Baptisé Power Manager, il "utilise des algorithmes et prend des décisions intelligentes en temps réel pour répondre à la demande électrique de l'avion, tout en optimisant d'autres facteurs, comme la consommation de carburant ou la température du moteur, pour prolonger la durée de vie des composants", détaille le communiqué.

Une troisième phase devrait bientôt voir le jour, avec l'intégration d'un nouveau système de gestion thermique et l'électrification d'autres composants. Rolls-Royce prévoit également la présentation prochaine d'un démonstrateur taille réelle qui comprendra toutes les innovations susmentionnées.

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/rolls-royce-developpe-un-demarreur-electrique-pour-le-futur-chasseur-de-la-royal-air-force.N919119

Sur le même sujet

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    24 mars 2020 | International, C4ISR

    The Pentagon wants to see new ground station prototypes

    By: Mike Gruss The Pentagon is asking industry to help build ground stations it needs for multidomain operations and for sending targeting data to military networks used to fire weapons. In a March 18 notice to industry, the Pentagon's Silicon Valley outpost, the Defense Innovation Unit, said leaders there are interested in a prototype ground station that can quickly process sensor data from military satellites and improve battlefield awareness. “The goal of the program is to reduce sensor to shooter latency via automated metadata correlation to provide time-dominant intelligence for delivery of desired effects (e.g. Long-Range Precision Fires),” the notice read. The program would include a two-year competition. Industry would have to deliver two working mobile ground stations in January 2022 for use in a government exercise. Those ground stations would have to prove they offer a reduced latency direct downlink of data/imagery from commercial space sensors and military or intelligence satellites. Because the sensors will generate a flood of data, the prototypes would also need to rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning. The DIU effort is working in parallel to the Army's TITAN ground station program, which will process aerial and terrestrial sensors. In October, Brig. Gen. Rob Collins, program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, said the Army has roughly 100 tactical ground stations, 13 operational ground stations and “a few” other dissemination vehicles. Army leaders have said TITAN will allow for the conduct of deep targeting in a contested environment and enabling “cross-domain fires with [artificial intelligence-]shortened kill-chains.” The system is supposed to be a primary tool for a new unit working with the Army's Multi-Domain Task Force known as I2CEWS, which stands for intelligence, information, cyber, electronic warfare and space. Responses are due April 3. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2020/03/20/the-pentagon-wants-to-see-new-ground-station-prototypes/

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  • US Air Force Could Struggle to Grow Its Fleet

    18 février 2019 | International, Aérospatial

    US Air Force Could Struggle to Grow Its Fleet

    By Jon Harper The Air Force hopes to ramp up to 386 squadrons by 2030, but it could face challenges just to maintain its current size. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the service would need significantly more funding annually than it has received in recent decades simply to replace aging airframes. The Air Force has about 5,600 aircraft, many of which are nearing the end of their service life, the nonpartisan research group noted in a recent report, “The Cost of Replacing Today's Air Force Fleet.” CBO estimates that replacing the planes in the current fleet one-for-one would cost an average of $15 billion a year (in fiscal year 2018 dollars) in the 2020s. That figure would rise to $23 billion in the 2030s and then drop back down to $15 billion in the 2040s. In comparison, appropriations for procuring new aircraft averaged about $12 billion per year between 1980 and 2017, and just $9 billion between 2010 and 2017, the report noted. “In CBO's projection, the procurement costs of new aircraft ... would rise to and remain at levels considerably above historical averages,” it said. Fred Bartels, a defense budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation's Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, said the Air Force is at risk of shrinking due to fiscal constraints, especially as other services such as the Navy seek to beef up their own force structures in the coming years. Even if the Air Force doesn't decline in size, modernization and force level increases could be delayed, he noted. “I can see the growth being slowed down a little bit here and there.” To maintain force structure, the Air Force might have to resort to life-extension efforts, he said. But that creates its own set of problems. “Your aircraft cost even more to operate because you're ... [holding] together a 50-year-old airplane,” Bartels said. “You're just creating different challenges all the time and you're increasing your [operation and maintenance] costs, which in turn decreases the availability of resources that you have to procure a new platform. So you end up in that vicious cycle.” Delaying modernization also puts the U.S. military at risk of falling behind the technological curve as it faces advanced adversaries. “You can't expect the same aircraft to still represent air superiority 30 years from when it's first released,” he said. The Air Force has been conducting an assessment to determine its force structure and modernization needs for the 2020s. Officials have concluded that the service would need 386 squadrons by 2030 to fulfill the requirements of the latest national defense strategy, which was released last year. It currently has 312 squadrons. The final results of the study are expected to be delivered to Congress in March. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson said the service will present a strategy-driven assessment, not a “budget-driven strategy.” “The force that we think we need for the war fight that we think we need to be prepared for, is that 386 [squadrons],” he said during an interview with National Defense at the Reagan National Defense Forum in December. “We're going to continue to ... have that dialogue with both the House and the Senate.” http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/2/14/air-force-could-struggle-to-grow-its-fleet

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