Tag: military aviation

Air Force AMC Seeking Plan for Launching 100 UAVs from Single KC-135

Aviation Week reported, “The U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command (AMC) wants a plan within two months to launch 100 UAVs from a single aging KC-135 Stratotanker.” The goal was “one of several efforts outlined by AMC Commander Gen. Mike Minihan in an internal memorandum to commanders that was posted to multiple social media networks and confirmed by Aviation Week on Jan. 27. … The memorandum, the first of eight monthly orders from Minihan to commanders, outlines an aggressive timeline for the Air Force’s mobility fleet to be prepared for a possible conflict with China in 2025.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Australia to Replace C-130Js with Super Hercules

Aviation International News reports, “Australia has selected the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules for its Project Air 7404 Phase 1 requirement, the country’s Department of Defence announced on November 1.” Government approval will be sought for the purchase in 2023. Australia currently uses 12 C-130Js which began operation in 1999, with the newer Super Hercules being the “only option that meets all of Australia’s capability requirements and assures Defence’s medium air mobility capability without introducing substantial cost, schedule, and capability risk.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

NASA Tests Mars Crash Landing

CNET News reported that NASA JPL is testing Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD), which uses a crumple cone to lessen the effect of impact on future Mars landing craft. “JPL shared a video on Thursday showing SHIELD in action during a drop test from a 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) tower. The device takes a hard landing at 110 mph (177 kph) into a thick steel plate to mimic the worst conditions it might experience during a Mars arrival.” A SHIELD system could be an improvement on the current parachute and thruster to slow landing designs used in Mars landing craft. “If the lander ends up working under Mars conditions, it could potentially be used for other interesting places in the solar system, including moons.”
Full Story (CNET News)

B-21 Debut Set for December 2

FlightGlobal reported that Northrop Grumman said it would debut its B-21 Raider on December 2. “Northrop won the $21.4 billion engineering and design contract for the new strategic bomber in 2015.” Currently, there are six B-21s in testing and final assembly.
Full Story (Flight Global)

KC-46 Flies First Combat Refueling Sortie

Aviation Week reports that the Boeing KC-46 “has flown its first combat refueling sortie as part of an exercise to employ the tanker downrange before it is officially operational.” A KC-46 deployed to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar “fueled up two Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles” on August 29.
Full Story (Aviation Week)

DOD May Allow F-35 Deliveries to Resume Within Weeks

Aviation Week reported that the “U.S. Defense Department may allow Lockheed Martin F-35 deliveries to resume within weeks, pending the outcome of legal, security and airworthiness reviews launched after the discovery of a Chinese supplier of a metal alloy in one component.” The Hill reported that Under Secretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment William LaPlante “said an investigation is underway and ‘moving quickly’ to look into how an alloy made in China ended up in magnets in the turbomachine pumps of the Lockheed Martin-produced F-35.” According to The Hill, “both the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed have insisted that the Chinese-sourced alloy was magnetized in the United States and does not give any other country access to sensitive information, adding that there are no safety issues.” LaPlante told reporters, “They’re looking at two things – one, impact on security, if any, and impact on air worthiness or safety, if any. … Right now, so far it doesn’t appear to be either of them.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Full Story (The Hill)

Aviation Week Profiles US Air Force Modernization Programs

Aviation Week reports on the US Air Force’s major modernization programs. The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider “will be the U.S. Air Force’s next generation, long-range stealth bomber, replacing the company’s B-2 Spirit and the Rockwell B-1B Lancer. The Air Force and Northrop now expect the public rollout of the bomber to take place this year, ahead of its first flight next year. Six of the aircraft are in production at the secretive Plant 42 complex in Palmdale, California, and the first airframe recently completed loads calibration testing.” The most important “modernization project in the Air Force’s tactical aircraft portfolio is also its most secretive, with limited on-the-record information about the sixth-generation fighter that will replace the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.” The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are all in the running to develop the new fighter aircraft. The US Air Force remains committed to the F-35 Lightning II program and is intent on procuring upgraded engines for the aircraft. Orders for the F-15EX Eagle II have been reduced to 80, and there are plans to request $321.9 million in 2024 for procurement of the T-7A Red Hawk trainer. The US Air Force plans to make a decision on further procurement of the KC-46A Pegasus by next spring and is to accelerate development of “its next-generation ‘KC-Z,’ with a preliminary analysis of alternatives planned to start in 2024 – well ahead of its original schedule of 2030.” Production of the LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM is expected to begin in 2026, and the US Air Force expects to introduce the Lockheed Martin AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile and several new cruise missiles in the coming years.
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Air Force Special Operations Command Grounding Fleet of Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft

The Hill reports the US Air Force Special Operations Command “has grounded its entire fleet of CV-22 Ospreys due to two recent safety incidents involving the aircraft’s clutch.” The decision “stems from an ‘increased number of safety incidents’ involving the Ospreys, including two in the past six weeks and a total of four since 2017.” The decision to ground the aircraft “follows two accidents that killed nine Marines earlier this year involving the Marine Corps’ MV-22B version of the aircraft.”
Full Story (The Hill)

France Retires Mirage 2000C

Aviation Week reports that the French Air Force “has retired the Dassault Mirage 2000C from operational service, leaving just three variants of the delta-winged fighter in French service.” The Mirage 2000C was formally retired at the end of June but will make a final appearance at this year’s Bastille Day flyby celebration.
Full Story (Aviation Week)