Aviation Week reports that deliveries of the Boeing KC-46 tanker to the US Air Force “are still paused amid an ongoing problem with the aircraft’s fuel tanks, though the company’s defense chief says he is still committed to meeting the overall 2023 goal.” Getting to that goal “of 15 aircraft this year means a lot of pressure.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: US Air Force
Test Pilots Say B-21’s Odd Windows Not a Problem
Air Force Times reported, “The test pilots who will be the first to fly the B-21 Raider, the Air Force’s next stealth bomber, are now working with Air Force and Northrop Grumman officials to draw up a game plan for its first flights next year.” However, “one thing that’s not weighing on their minds, the pilots stressed to reporters before the bomber’s Dec. 2 rollout at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California: The shape of the B-21′s windows and the field of view they will allow pilots.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)
B-21 Bomber to Debut
Reuters reports that Northrop Grumman “is set to roll out the first plane in a new fleet of long-range stealth nuclear bombers for the United States Air Force at a ceremony in Palmdale, California[,] on Friday.” Similar in shape to the B-2, a “flying wing” design already “in the Air Force’s inventory, the B-21 ‘Raider’ will also be able to deliver nuclear weapons around the world because of long-range and mid-air refueling capabilities.” Each B-21, which can “deliver both conventional and nuclear bombs, was projected to cost approximately $550 million each in 2010 dollars, or about $750 million in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars.” The Air Force “planned to buy at least 100 of the planes and…replace B-1 and B-2 bombers.” Northrop beat out a team composed of The Boeing Company “and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) when it won the 2015 contract to make the bomber alongside suppliers including engine maker Pratt & Whitney (RTX.N), Collins Aerospace, GKN Aerospace, BAE Systems (BAES.L) and Spirit Aerosystems (SPR.N).”
Learn More (Reuters)
Bombardier Delivers First Global 6000 for US Air Force BACN Program
Aviation International News reported that Bombardier “handed over the first Global 6000 modified for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) program under an order announced in June 2021. Valued at up to $465 million, that contract was a follow-on to earlier agreements under which the company had delivered four Globals for the BACN program.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
US Air Force Takes Delivery of First MH-139A Test Helicopter
Aviation International News reported that Leonardo and The Boeing Company “have delivered the first of four MH-139A Grey Wolf test helicopters to the U.S. Air Force as the service looks to replace its aging fleet of UH-1N Hueys.” The MH-139A Grey Wolf’s primary mission “will be to protect intercontinental ballistic missile bases and transport U.S. government officials and security forces.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
Video
First MH-139A Grey Wolf Flight, 25 August 2022.
(NC Military; YouTube)
US Air Force Shifts Focus from ARRW to Scramjets
Aviation Week reports that a “secret test of a hypersonic cruise missile demonstrator and a budget setback for a troubled boost-glide missile prototyping program highlights a growing divergence in the U.S. Air Force’s plans for a future class of missiles that can maneuver at speeds faster than Mach 5.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
US Air Force Pilots Test Fly Alia eVTOL
Aviation Week reports that two US Air Force pilots “have become the first to conduct crewed test flights of an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft under the service’s Agility Prime program.” The two pilots flew “Beta Technologies’ Alia prototype on March 9 from Plattsburgh International Airport, New York.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
US Air Force May Replace E-3G Sentry by 2023
Air Force Times reports that the US Air Force “said this week a contract to buy a replacement for the aging E-3G Sentry…could come in fiscal 2023.” The US Air Force released a RFI Tuesday, asking “how a potential contractor would deliver at least two prototype aircraft to replace the AWACS, including ground support and training systems, within five years of an expected 2023 award.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)
F-15EX Fires Missile for the First Time in Test
Air Force Times reports that the F-15EX Eagle II on Friday successfully fired “an AIM-120D missile at a BQM-167 target drone over the Gulf of Mexico.” The F-15EX, “which was taking part in an air-to-air weapons system evaluation program known as Combat Archer, found the drone with its sensors, tracked it and fired the missile at it.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)
US Air Force Could Be Flying Air Taxis by 2023
Aviation Today reports that AFWERX Director Col. Nathan Diller said that the US Air Force’s Agility Prime program has been investing in electric air taxis and could have them in use by 2023. The vertical takeoff and landing capable air taxis potentially could be used to evacuate downed aircrew.
Full Story (Aviation Today)