U.S. defence news

[bring_it_on]

Air Force Experiment Tests Future Concepts

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2004 -- The Air Force is hosting an experiment at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., through Aug. 5 to test capabilities that may help win the war on terrorism.

The Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2004 is the fifth in a series of such experiments that test new technology, concepts and procedures to give combined air- and space-operations centers an added edge.

Previous years' experiments validated new technologies and concepts and quickly placed them into air-operations centers. Many concepts pioneered in these experiments proved themselves in combat over Afghanistan and Iraq, said Air Force Lt. Gen. William T. Hobbins, deputy chief of staff for warfighting integration.

The general commanded the 2002 experiment. The changes initiated then allowed members of air-operations centers to quickly transfer information among all nodes in the system. The improvements shortened the time it took to get information from the ground to aircraft.

Now the service is working on capabilities suggested by experiences in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Improving communications, improving intelligence dissemination and giving total battlespace awareness are at the heart of the experiment, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, 8th Air Force commander and the chief of this year's experiment.

This year, the Army is playing a large part in the experiment. The Army and Air Force are cooperating on the Army Close Air Support/Situational Awareness program. Officials hope this will help reduce instances of fratricide, both from Army air defense and from Air Force close-air support.

Cooperation among services is typical. The combined air and space operations center contains Air Force, Navy and Marine personnel.

The CAOC, as it is called, ran the air war over Iraq -- sending air-tasking orders to any number of U.S. and allied aircraft. This year's experiment stressed the fact that allies will be a part of any operation.

Personnel from Britain, Canada and Australia are integral to the experiment, Carlson said. They are cleared for all aspects of the experiment and will take part in the after-action review. "We want to make sure they take back these lessons to their leaders," Carlson said.

In addition to the Army Close Air Support/Situational Awareness program, other aspects being tested are:


The Data Link Automated Reporting System. This provides automated descriptions of flight status, fuel, weapons availability and strike information.

Gridlock. Done in coordination with the National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency, this system will automate and speed up locating targets from a variety of sensors.

Machine-to-Machine Weather. The experiment will test the ability to use automation to ensure weather information is automatically included in any battlefield picture.

Tactical Targeting Networked Technology. This is a wideband network that will be incorporated into the Joint Tactical Radio System.

Initial Single Integrated Space Picture. This will incorporate information from national, military and commercial satellites for use by commanders.

Network-centric Collaborative Targeting. This will seek to incorporate information and intelligence from a myriad of sources to allow commanders to make accurate targeting decisions.
Others that will be tested include the Battle Control Center, the Joint Synchronized Common Operational Planning Environment, the Visualization of Expeditionary Sites Tool, the Satellite Interference Response System, Effects- based Operations/Predictive Battlespace Awareness Prototype, and Project Suter III.

SOLE power’ present during experiment

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123008347
JEFX breaks new ground in expeditionary info collection

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123008357

JEFX 04 execution phase ends in success

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123008377

[bring_it_on]

Integrated network of combat capability will create a new, network-centric approach to air warfare and achieving battlespace effects.

The Air Force is expected in September to announce the winner of a three-way competition to supply information-integration technology for its next-generation command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) aircraft.

Industry teams led by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and NGC are vying for the contract for the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) subsystem for the E-10 Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A). The aircraft will combine data collected from a broad array of sensors to provide a consolidated picture of the battlespace and constitute an on-board command-and-control (C2) center as well.

The E-10 is envisioned as a family of aircraft designed to complement, and possibly eventually replace or combine, missions now done on the Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) and Joint Surveillance Targeting Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft, which focus on air targets and ground targets, respectively. The Air Force also is considering a derivative of the E-10 to replace the Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft. All of those functions would be hosted on derivatives of one platform.

The E-10 will carry an advanced radar designed to work in concert with other systems to detect, track and coordinate attacks on cruise missiles and ground targets. The radar will be more powerful than what is currently on JSTARS and bring significant multi-mission capabilities to joint forces.

Air Force ISR aircraft typically send data to command-and-control centers, where the targeting decisions are made. But the BMC2/E-10 program will combine ISR and C2 in one aircraft, bringing the Air Force closer to the goal set by Chief of Staff General John P. Jumper of reducing the kill chain—finding, fixing, tracking, targeting, engaging and assessing—to less than 10 minutes. The mission of the E-10 is to prosecute the entire kill chain from start to finish from the aircraft.

Early- to mid-September is the expected award date for the contract to design the BMC2 subsystem for the E-10A. The BMC2 will manage data collected by the E-10’s radar systems as well as data from various other air-, ground-, sea- and space-based sensors. This integration of theater-wide ISR sensors will give operators a greater ability to identify and take action against multiple air and ground threats.

Multi-Platform Radar

The E-10, which is a modified Boeing 767-400ER, will be equipped with Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar. BMC2 and MP-RTIP will focus strongly on identifying and targeting cruise missiles, in addition to ground-moving targets.

“When you have a low-altitude cruise missile zipping along at Mach 0.8 or 0.9, and you have all the ground clutter, it’s very difficult to target,” said Hank Davis, director of horizontal integration and program assessment for Boeing’s newly formed Network-Centric Operations Programs and Technologies group. “So the radar development is addressing that part of it. We would cue the radar to look into areas of high probability of missile launches or missile flights, so to do that you have to be seamlessly integrated with other systems off board the aircraft to tell them where to look.”

The E-10A program has three sole-source components: a weapon system integrator, which is the overall program manager (NGC); an airframe producer (Boeing); and a radar sensor producer (led by NGC teamed with Raytheon). The fourth component, currently in competition, is the BMC2 subsystem.

A contract for the E-10A weapon system integration pre-system development and demonstration stage was awarded in 2003 to the three current contenders. The E-10A weapon system SDD is to begin in fiscal 2005. Earlier this year, the program was re-phased due to a combination of a reduction in funding and a delay in the E-10A Milestone B decision directed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The re-phased program remains on track, however, to deliver cruise missile defense and surface surveillance capability to the warfighter, in the form of four operational E-10A aircraft, by 2013. The E-10 fleet eventually could number as many as 50, consisting of the E-10A, E-10B and E-10C, but the latter two are not yet funded.

The E-10A will provide a key element of the cruise missile defense mission as well as a ground surveillance capability, with a potential E-10B providing an air surveillance capability and the E-10C a signals intelligence capability. Although opportunities may emerge to combine multiple sensors on a single platform, the Air Force is currently focused on delivering the E-10A capability to meet Defense Planning Guidance, while evaluating the technical challenges, such as co-site interference, associated with placing multiple sensors and antennas on one aircraft.

As a result, there currently are no plans to combine sensors on the aircraft. There could be a separate aircraft for each sensor, hence the A, B and C variants.

Unprecedented Data Fusion

The U.S. military currently has a huge command and control network, as well as a vast intelligence network of sensors such as UAVs, JSTARS, AWACS and ground- and sea-based sensors. But those pieces often do not interoperate with each other as well as they should, and stovepipes abound. So the E-10 is designed to fuse together data from those multiple intelligence sources to an unprecedented degree, all within the same aircraft.

While AWACS and JSTARS aircraft contain powerful sensors, they do not have the desired capability to perform much of the command-and-control operations and some of the time-critical targeting work. To get that done, they work with the Air Operations Center (AOC) and other C2 elements. So the goal of the E-10 is to give operators a powerful on-board sensor and to take that a step further by integrating it and other sensors with an on-board C2 capability. This will allow operators not only to gather, fuse and correlate critical information, but also to turn it into an action plan.

The BMC2 system will manage the data coming from the MP-RTIP radar and other sensors. It presents this data to operators, who thus are able to move through the decision cycle much faster and in a much more automated way than currently.

If an enemy rolls out a mobile Scud launcher, for example, the MP-RTIP radar will identify it and present the information to the operator, who will then be able to go through a highly automated and integrated decision cycle. The operator will be able to coordinate with multiple assets, all from one workstation.

“It’s like a quarterback on the field in the middle of the action, making decisions on the fly,” said Lockheed Martin spokesman Matt Kramer. “Say the AOC is the coach, putting together the air-tasking order every day—the kind of the play that’s called when you go out onto the field. Sometimes you get on the field and they’re looking like they’re going to blitz, so the quarterback has to call a different pattern from what the coach suggested. That’s kind of what the E-10 will be able to do.”

The MP-RTIP radar is built in such a way that it’s able to locate, track and target cruise missiles as well as ground moving targets (GMT).

“We’ve looked very closely at how can we make sure that the system we’re delivering is flexible enough to handle both cruise missiles and ground targets,” said Kramer. “For example, we’ve got a prototype system in Colorado Springs that we call Spiral Zero BMC2. Using the same system on the same screen, if a cruise missile pops up, we take it through the designated process, and if a tank or other GMT pops up, we take it through a very similar process. It’s all done with the same capability. As long as you build the system right and have that time-critical targeting capability, you can manage cruise missiles and ground targets just the same.”

The Air Force’s requirements for the program include an open-systems architecture, which enables interoperability, portability and scalability. Another stipulation calls for software re-use, which entails using existing codes and existing software in the architecture so that the Air Force does not have to invest in entirely new applications.

In NGC’s mock-up of the E-10, the company evaluates its open-systems architecture in what it calls the crew area virtual environment (CAVE). “We took a large portion of our re-use software, put it in the open-systems architecture in the CAVE environment, and with realistic scenarios validated the functionalities and capabilities we had in our solution,” explained Marc Lindsley, director of business development for NGC’s Integrated Systems division. “We spent a lot of time in our design evaluating what across the kill chain can be totally automated, and where the exact points are to give a decision maker the opportunity to make the right decision.”

Even though cruise missile defense is a prime mission, Lindsley continued, other time-sensitive targets have to be accommodated as well. “We believe our end-to-end solution, coupled with taking the open-systems architecture and using the CAVE overlay with our CWIN [cyber warfare integrated network], gives the best technology to the Air Force and the lowest risk.”

Software Architectures

While each industry team expects to meet the Air Force requirements for the BMC2, there are a number of subtle differences among the proposals. The distinguishing factors lie mostly within the software architectures and information management structures that allow data to be shared among machines and between on-board operators and off-board operators.

“That information management structure is critical,” said Davis. “The risk entailed in how you do that is one that will be watched very closely. You have to have information assurance-type software and concepts that are proven and can be certified. We have pioneering-type architecture that will provide this transformational capability. Machines will talk to machines, people will be able to collaborate on decision making in a very tight timeline. We have a significant amount of experience from that and a lot of lessons learned from other programs such as Future Combat Systems, which can be readily applied to this type of an advanced system.

“This architecture is going to have to operate in a combat environment where you don’t have a reliable Internet,” Davis continued. “The networking has got to be very robust so that it can sustain itself in this type of airborne environment, and where you are dealing with minutes and seconds.”

“The capabilities are extraordinary compared to existing capabilities,” remarked Lindsley. “There are aircraft that have combined sensor and C2 capabilities in the inventory right now. But considering the capabilities on board this aircraft—the men and women doing the operating, the software and the MP-RTIP sensor—and its connectivity with the rest of the network in the warfighting constellation, the synergy is going to be very powerful.”

“So not only is the E-10 crew taking sensor data and decision-making and passing that sensor data to other nodes in the constellation, it’s also getting all that information piped aboard, and enabling them to take the on-board sensor of MP-RTIP and combine it with the off-board sensor information to make better decisions. So it’s a total synergy that works both ways. It’s a big leap ahead,” Lindsley said.

BMC2 Teams

Boeing is providing the program management and leadership, leading the systems engineering team and the integration of computer processing hardware and software and the communications subsystem. Its team members are:

• General Dynamics: sensor exploitation, information management and information assurance.

• BAE Systems Mission Solutions and Communications, Navigation and ISR Systems: combat operations management and planning, imagery mapping and support management of network-based communications.

• NGC Electronic Systems: sensor control functions, with a particular emphasis on the MP-RTIP radar.

• Alphatech: tracking and fusion solutions and decision support tools, along with target acquisition and recognition capability.

• Booz Allen Hamilton: modeling and simulation capability, along with trade expertise.

• CollaborX: support for Air Force and Joint CONOPS.

Lockheed Martin has multiple divisions supporting BMC2, led by its Integrated Systems and Solutions business area. It is partnering with the following companies:

• Raytheon: communications, ISR and unmanned aerial vehicle control systems integration.

• Science Applications International Corp.: modeling and simulation.

• L-3 Communications: network-centric collaborative targeting systems engineering.

• Alphatech: radar exploitation support and time critical targeting systems engineering.

• Concurrent Technologies Corp.: visualization support.

Five sectors of NGC are working on the project including Integrated Systems (overall program manager for the team, also providing systems engineering, modeling and simulation, ground-moving target indicator exploitation, precision aimpoint generation and mission applications); Electronic Systems (data fusion and exploitation); Information Technology (airborne battle management, mission planning and computing infrastructure expertise); Mission Systems (communications and network engineering); and Space Technology (ensures the team’s BMC2 solution leverages the capabilities and advantages of space-based assets). Other team members include:

• Harris Corp. Government Communications Systems Division: communications and imagery exploitation.

• General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (formerly Veridian): security engineering, modeling and simulation and human factors engineering.

• Cisco Systems: mobile networking information processing solutions, commercial off-the-shelf hardware and expertise in international computing standards.

• Oracle: database technology and expertise in managing critical information in a system-of-systems environment.

• Zel Technologies: experience in military C2, battle management and intelligence operations.

• Alphatech: software and algorithm development expertise in the key areas of weapons/target pairing, GMTI tracking/exploitation and multi-intelligence fusion.

• L-3 Communications West: multi-platform common data link solutions.

• L-3 ComCept: network-centric collaborative targeting.

[bring_it_on]

Light-speed Raytheon AESA Radar Navigates Smoothly Through Flight Tests


CHINA LAKE, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A revolutionary Raytheon radar that scans the skies at nearly the speed of light is navigating through flight tests aboard the U.S. Navy F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet in anticipation of operational readiness by September 2006.
In its first year of developmental flight testing, the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system has successfully completed more than 80 flights aboard three Super Hornet aircraft from test squadron VX- 31 "Dust Devils" at the Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake. The first seven of the radar's many operating modes were successfully demonstrated on the first attempt in flight: real-beam map; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); air-to-air search; air-to-air track; passive; sea-surface search; and ground-moving target.

"The Navy is extremely pleased to see the APG-79 radar in action," said U.S. Navy F/A-18 Program Manager Capt. Donald "BD" Gaddis. "After its first year in flight test, we're just beginning to see the system's true potential. So far, the radar is demonstrating amazing situational awareness for Super Hornet aircrew," he said.

When the APG-79 enters service in 2006, Super Hornet aviators for the first time will be able to conduct air-to-air and air-to-ground operations simultaneously. The agile AESA beam, traveling at almost the speed of light, can be redirected instantaneously from one target to another for maximum mission flexibility on cruise. The system also allows the aircraft to detect and track multiple targets at much greater distance. This advantage permits the crew to persistently observe targets and launch weapons from their maximum range, both significant protective measures.

The APG-79 AESA system represents a giant leap forward in technology that significantly improves warfighter capabilities compared to the current Super Hornet radar, according to Wes Motooka, vice president for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, whose organization produces the system.

"Because our AESA radar uses solid-state technology with no moving parts, its performance and reliability far exceeds systems that scan mechanically," Motooka said. "And its ability to connect with on-board and off-board sensors using MIDS and Link 16 will assure the Super Hornet's role in network-centric operations," he said.

The radar was developed in record time by a team at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) that worked with the Navy and prime contractor Boeing, which builds the aircraft. The program has met every major acquisition milestone to date.

"The APG-79 AESA system represents some of the finest hours in Raytheon's 80-plus-year history," SAS President Jack R. Kelble said. "Everything in this system, from the array in the front, through the software that operates the radar, to the processor in the back, is new. We're extremely pleased with the radar's performance so far."

The APG-79 is the first entirely new airborne radar built by Raytheon in three decades. The new system will equip the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the E/A-18G, an electronic attack variant. The radar also meets requirements in all facets of the Navy's transformation initiative, SeaPower 21.

Raytheon Company's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) designs, develops and manufactures advanced systems for precision engagement; missile defense; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., SAS has 11,000 employees and additional facilities in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss.; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations.

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN - News), with 2003 sales of $18.1 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 78,000 people worldwide.

[bring_it_on]

Global Hawk UAV Passes 2,000 Combat Hours


FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW, U.K.: The U.S. Air Force's RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial reconnaissance system recently achieved a significant program milestone by surpassing 2,000 combat flight hours. This accomplishment, achieved while supporting the global war on terrorism, adds to a long string of successes for the system, which is produced by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC).

The Global Hawk system now has accumulated more than 4,000 total flight hours since its first flight occurred in February 1998.

"These milestones reflect the dedication and commitment of the entire Global Hawk industry team to meeting the warfighters' needs," said Carl O. Johnson, vice president and Global Hawk team leader for Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. "The system's ability to carry out reconnaissance missions in all types of operations has allowed it to accumulate nearly half of its flight hours in support of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq."

In addition to three combat deployments, Global Hawk has been deployed to Florida, Australia and Germany.

In April 2001, a Global Hawk made aviation history when it completed the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean by an unmanned powered aircraft, flying from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to the Royal Australian Air Force Base, Edinburgh, South Australia. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized that flight as the longest (8,650 miles or 13,840 kilometers) by a full-scale unmanned aircraft. In August 2003, Global Hawk became the first unmanned aerial vehicle to receive authorization from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly in national airspace.

As the Global Hawk prime contractor, Northrop Grumman has received more than $2.3 billion in related design, development, testing and production contracts.

Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems is a premier aerospace and defense systems integration organization. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., it designs, develops, produces and supports network-enabled integrated systems and subsystems optimized for use in networks. For its government and civil customers worldwide, Integrated Systems delivers best-value solutions, products and services that support military and homeland defense missions in the areas of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; space access; battle management command and control; and integrated strike warfare.

[bring_it_on]

First-ever coordinated UAV flight makes history

8/13/04 – EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The day started at 3:15 a.m. and despite a series of delays due to wet runway testing, two Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System X-45As took off from Edwards and made history with the first-ever UAV coordinated flight Aug. 1.
During the 55-minute flight in Edwards' airspace, the two UAVs, laterally separated by two miles of airspace, joined up in a pre-programmed formation and flew autonomously while supervised by an operator.

"The two UAVs flew autonomously, which essentially means the two aircraft were able to fly under the operator's supervision on their own in a pre-programmed position. They were able to communicate with each other in order to know their respective positions using a system of sensors," explained Rob Horton, J-UCAS lead operator. "Having the X-45As fly autonomously decreases the operator's workload so that eventually we'll be able to focus more on air battle management and the big picture during missions."

The UAVs use a navigation system called 4-Dimensional Navigation, which gives the aircraft the ability to fly with a programmed location in space at a designated time, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

One crew chief said the historical flight was an "interesting experience."

"It was a fairly long day with intensive airfield coordination to dry-off the runway, but everything was a go for the vehicles - communications were up and running," said Staff Sgt. Mike Fountain, J-UCAS aerial vehicle one crew chief. "Maintainers are in charge of ensuring the vehicles are ready for flight - we do what we can to get the job done."

The J-UCAS team is moving on to block three and four testing that will involve more autonomous flights with simulated threats designed to develop how the UAVs interact together during tactical flights, said Mr. Horton.

"We've just begun implementing the new software onto the UAVs, and we'll start testing the new software with ground checks," said Mr. Horton.

Ultimately, operators will be able to spend more time on air battle management and less time worrying about operating the aircraft, added Mr. Horton.

"I commend the J-UCAS team for their historical accomplishment, and am excited to see how far they can advance UAV abilities and technology," said Maj. Gen. Doug Pearson, Air Force Flight Test Center commander. "The UAV concept will change the way the military fights wars, and the accomplishment of the J-UCAS team is one step closer to this warfighting transformation."

The J-UCAS team is part of a joint DARPA, Air Force Flight Test Center and Navy effort with Boeing and NASA Dryden.

[bring_it_on]

Raytheon Awarded Tomahawk Block IV Full-Rate Production Contract

ring into a five-year procurement contract to replenish Tomahawk inventory at the most affordable cost. The legacy program Tomahawk missile is the Navy's weapon of choice for critical, long- range precision strike missions against high value, heavily defended targets. The Block IV costs about half the price of a newly built Block III missile.

Raytheon Company, with 2003 sales of $18.1 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 78,000 people worldwide.

[bring_it_on]

-2 Stealth, Radar Upgrades Near Key Milestones

The U.S. Air Force's B-2 Spirit bomber is expected soon to achieve key milestones for improving its stealth and radar technology, sources said Aug. 13.

The first operational B-2 equipped with a new type of exterior coating is slated for delivery to its home base, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., within a week or so, according to officials at Northrop Grumman Corp., which built the bomber and is handling the coating effort. The aircraft actually is the second B-2 to receive the alternate high-frequency material (AHFM), but the first plane was a test asset, used at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The Air Force plans to apply the new coating to its 19 other B-2s as they are brought to Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, Calif., for other work. Because about three planes are expected to make that trip each year, it will take about seven years to put the new coating on the entire fleet, Northrop Grumman officials said.

By replacing more than 3,000 feet of radar-absorbing tape now used to fill gaps in each aircraft's outer surface, such as those near maintenance access panels, the robotically applied AHFM is supposed to make it significantly easier to keep the B-2 flying. Every time routine maintenance is performed, the tape has to be removed and then reapplied and allowed to cure, so replacing it with AHFM will reduce the time it takes to do a maintenance job from several days to several hours.

Harry Heimple, manager of government requirements for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, told The DAILY that the new coating has been fully tested to ensure the aircraft's low observability is not impaired.

"In fact, we believe the customer is going to be extremely happy about that," Heimple said.

Meanwhile, a source close to the B-2 program said a contract award is expected by fall for the next phase of a radar antenna replacement effort. The new antenna, which Raytheon Co. will build and Northrop Grumman will install, initially is designed to resolve a radio-frequency conflict with commercial aircraft, but it also will make it easier to upgrade the radar's performance in the future, the source said.

The active electronically scanned antenna (AESA), now in a component advanced development phase, is supposed to move into a system development and demonstration phase. Installation of the new antenna on the B-2 fleet is slated for completion by 2011.

[bring_it_on]

F/A-22 Raptor Production In Marietta

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archi...a22/index.html

[bring_it_on]

Raptors Sharpen Talons

The F/A-22 Raptor test fleet at Edwards AFB, California, recently completed several important weapons tests. On 30 January, three missiles were launched within seconds of one another from two different aircraft. An AIM-9 was launched with the aircraft traveling at Mach 1.2, an altitude of 5,000 feet, with a 100-degree-per-second roll rate. In another part of the sky, two guided AIM-120 shots were completed by two pilots using the Raptor's intraflight datalink. The shots came while the aircraft were at Mach 1.3 at 30,000 feet looking down at the targets.

Photo By Kevin Robertson

[bring_it_on]

First Falcon STAR F-16 Delivered

Maintainers at the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah, recently handed off the first F-16 to undergo an upgrade that promises to make the fleet operational beyond 2020. The revamped F-16, redelivered to the 148th Fighter Wing, Minnesota Air National Guard, is part of the Structural Augmentation Road Map program, or Falcon STAR. The Falcon STAR program involves modifying thirteen different structural components, including wing fittings, and reworking skin areas. Falcon STAR modifications are applied to existing aircraft and added to all new F-16s to compensate for aircraft stress caused by increased-usage rates and heavier gross weights. Once modified, the aircraft will meet its designed service life of 8,000 flight hours.


I Can See You

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team successfully launched the first phase of the F-35 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System early risk-reduction flight test program recently at the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aircraft Division at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The next-generation EO DAS, developed by a Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems-led team, provides the F-35 with key capabilities that include missile warning, navigation forward-looking infrared, and infrared search and track capability. The flight test program uses a BAC 1-11 flying test bed and captures data using prototype versions of the F-35 DAS sensors. DAS sensors also will be flown in a centerline pod on an F-16 to record data in a dynamic fighter environment.



New Software Makes Life Easier For F/A-22 Team

The 43rd Fighter Squadron, the Raptor schoolhouse at Tyndall AFB, Florida, will soon be using a new automatic computer software tracking program that checks the progress of F/A-22 students, what stage of training they have completed, and what is scheduled for them next. At the heart of the new system, called the Combat Crew Training Management System, is a room housing two interactive white boards, active plasma display, a bank of computers, flight scheduler function, and data operator. One of the features of the system is that it automatically notes if a pilot needs to reschedule a flight or a simulation training session.




S-3 SLAM-ER Shot

While detached to NAS Fallon, Nevada, earlier this year, S-3 and F/A-18 crews from VS-32 and VFA-82 aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) cooperated for the first AGM-84K Standoff Land-Attack Missile Expanded Response missile firing using airborne retargeting to strike a target that had not been prebriefed on 6 May. All targeting information was received in flight via datalink. This shot marked the first SLAM-ER live fire event controlled by a fleet S-3B. The target was a simulated surface-to-air missile radar site located on the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Sea Target Range off the California coast.


We Have Control

A P-3C crew from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division launched, took control of, and recovered a Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle for the first time during a fortyfive minute technical demonstration at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, on 19 December. The P-3 crew fully controlled the UAV and its sensors, and vectored the Fire Scout to a simulated target where it fed streaming video back. The Orion then relayed the motion video from the Fire Scout, along with video gathered from its own onboard electro-optical sensor, to a ground station. This rebroadcast of sensor data from a UAV to a ground station demonstrated a key network-centric communications concept



T-50 Production Go-Ahead

The Republic of Korea awarded Korea Aerospace Industries a production contract for twentyfive T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic advanced jet trainers in mid-December. The contract covers the aircraft, alternate mission equipment, integrated logistics support elements, and production start-up costs. The aircraft will be built at KAI's aircraft production facilities at Sachon, South Korea, where it is currently being tested. The first production T-50 will be delivered in late 2005. Korea Aerospace Industries is the prime contractor for the T-50 full-scale development program, with Lockheed Martin as the principal subcontractor. The Republic of Korea Air Force is conducting the flight testing. The T-50 now will transition from the only supersonic trainer in development to the only one in production.

[bring_it_on]

Sandstorm Outperforms Pack in DARPA Grand Challenge

Sandstorm, the modified Humvee co-sponsored by Boeing, traveled the furthest of any of its competitors in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Grand Challenge. Competitors vied for $1 million in prize money if their autonomous vehicles could complete a rugged 210-mile course from Barstow, Calif., to Primm, Nev.

Sandstorm was designed and built by the Red Team led by Carnegie-Mellon University. The team’s sponsors included Boeing and others. It traveled 7.4 miles in the shortest time before it ran into problems. It was also the first to qualify for the race. Most of the 15 qualifiers made it less than one mile before stalling, overturning or running off the course. Sandstorm got caught on a boulder and its right front axle and front tires were damaged during its effort to free itself and it could not continue.

DARPA said it will repeat the event in 2006 for $2 million in prize money.

Members of the Red Team said they will be back. “This was about taking risk and this team didn’t hold anything back,” said Boeing’s Jim Guffey.

“We look forward to winning that prize.”

[bring_it_on]

C-17 testers airdrop Army Stryker mobile gun system

by 1st Lt. Brooke Davis
Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs

8/19/2004 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- An aircrew from the C-17 Globemaster III combined test force here successfully airdropped a mobile gun system for the first time during a feasibility test Aug. 13. The system fits the Army's Stryker engineer squad vehicle.

The Army is testing the 52,500-pound system to possibly equip the armored vehicle to meet operational needs.

"There is a present need to have airdrop capability for the mobile gun system, and we performed the feasibility test to see if the impact of an airdrop is consistent with static impact testing the Army has already completed," said Alec Dyatt, 418th Flight Test Squadron C-17 CTF flight test engineer.

Before the airdrop here, the Army performed static airdrop impact tests to build a honeycomb cargo carrier for the system to absorb energy generated by a 12-foot drop, Mr. Dyatt said.

During those tests, the Stryker was equipped with strain gages to measure the forces on the vehicle after a 12-foot drop, Mr. Dyatt said.

The purpose of the feasibility airdrop was to verify if the extraction system was adequate, demonstrate the system could be extracted safely and verify there was sufficient clearance in the C-17 for it to be extracted, said Dan Jones, a 418th FLTS systems engineer.

"We built up to this test by dropping a cargo container that contained steel plates with the same mass properties as the mobile gun system (on Aug. 11)," Mr. Jones said.

The cargo container is equipped with 10 100-foot diameter parachutes that allow the container to hit the ground with the same force as if it had been dropped from 12 feet, Mr. Jones said.

During the airdrop, the cargo was pulled out of the aircraft with three 28-foot parachutes that are attached to the cargo platform, Mr. Jones said. After leaving the aircraft, 10 100-foot parachutes open, allowing the cargo to drift to the ground at about 28 feet-per-second.

"The next step after the feasibility test is to have the Stryker vehicle undergo full developmental testing, which will conclude when the Army performs three operational extractions," said Maj. Landon Henderson, 418th FLTS C-17 test director and test pilot.




EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An Army Stryker engineer squad vehicle equipped with a mobile gun system is airdropped Aug. 13 from a C-17 Globemaster III from the 418th Flight Test Squadron here. (U.S. Air Force photo by Kevin Kidd)

[bring_it_on]

Lockheed Martin wins ACS

The U.S. Army has awarded a Lockheed Martin team an $879 million defense contract to develop the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS), a next generation airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and target identification system. ACS will replace current ISR aircraft, including the Army's Guardrail Common Sensor, the Airborne Reconnaissance Low aircraft and the Navy's fleet of E-P3 aircraft. Under the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract awarded today, the Lockheed Martin team will combine and enhance the capabilities of the current systems on these platforms into a single ISR mission package on an Embraer ERJ-145 platform. The contract has a potential value of over $7 billion over the life of the expected 20-year program.
Specifically, under the SDD phase of the contract the team will deliver five certified, mission ready airborne ISR systems, with initial testing planned for 2006. The balance of the effort would be performed under a follow-on low rate initial production contract anticipated in 2007, followed by a full rate production contract in 2009. Lockheed Martin's ACS design features an unprecedented sensor-computer integration that will pinpoint threats in real-time. ACS will provide instantaneous access to decision-quality intelligence from manned, unmanned and space-based ISR systems. It will provide U.S. Army and U.S. Navy commanders with persistent surveillance, allowing them to “see” a complete representation of the battlespace. The ACS sensor suite will fly onboard a militarized Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft. This platform is well suited to the demanding, high duty cycle environment for ACS, and as a commercial platform offers a worldwide support infrastructure and low life cycle costs. In addition to Embraer, Lockheed Martin's team includes Argon Engineering, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Harris, L-3 Communications and Raytheon.

[bring_it_on]

Air Force Awards Lockheed Martin $14.7 Million Contract for Second Pacific Alaska Range Complex Radar

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) received a $14.7 million contract to add a second AN/TPS-77 transportable radar system to the U.S. Air Force's inventory for the Pacific Alaska Range Complex (PARC), the nation's largest contiguous supersonic training area.
Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will provide the Air Force with an AN/TPS-77 radar, along with associated supplies, equipment and services, to improve safety and surveillance in 68,000 square miles of military training airspace over the 90,000-acre PARC area. The first PARC radar, also produced at Lockheed Martin's facility in Syracuse, NY, is scheduled to be deployed on a rocky, barren mountaintop located in the Alaska Range east of Fairbanks.

Both radars will operate within radomes - domed shelters that protect radar arrays from harsh environments - and be powered by on-site generators. The Air Force will control the radars remotely from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks.

"With the transportable AN/TPS-77 added to its inventory, the Air Force also gains additional mission flexibility," said Dr. Denny Beres, vice president, airborne and land-based radars at Lockheed Martin in Syracuse. "With a straightforward software upgrade, the AN/TPS-77 has the inherent capability to provide tactical ballistic missile tracking as well."

The AN/TPS-77 is the latest configuration of the world's most successful 3-D solid-state radar design. This L-band, tactical radar provides continuous high-quality 3-D surveillance on aircraft targets at ranges out to 280 miles and at elevations up to 100,000 feet. The second PARC radar will represent the 25th AN/TPS-77 off the production line.

The AN/TPS-77 shares commonality with the AN/FPS-117 radar with regard to maintenance activity and Line Replaceable Units (LRUs). There are 127 AN/FPS- 117 systems operational in 14 countries. Many have operated for years completely unmanned in remote areas and in a wide range of operational environments.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services

[bring_it_on]

Single Station To Control Multiple UAVs In AF Demo

The U.S. Air Force later this year plans to show that it can control multiple unmanned aircraft from a single ground station, an ability that would help boost the contribution of such vehicles to network-centric operations, according to Lt. Col. Eric Mathewson, chief of Air Combat Command's UAV division.

Ground testing of the multicontrol system, which will allow one pilot to fly four unmanned aerial vehicles at the same time, is slated to begin in November. The flight portion of the demonstration will start in December or January, Mathewson said in a Sept. 2 telephone interview from ACC headquarters at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

"These aren't aircraft which are, if you will, dormant," he said. "These are aircraft which are actively engaged in a mission. ... The human-machine interface is much enhanced in this multiaircraft control system, and I think there are going to be great benefits from that development process."

One beneficiary would be network-centric operations, which, he said, are being aggressively pushed by ACC.

He said UAVs alone will be significant contributors to this new kind of warfare because they carry sensors and "have the connectivity to disseminate what they're seeing at any given moment." This means "you can task them directly to execute an ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] mission.

"Or, in conjunction with a strike mission or a close air support mission, they're still gathering intelligence as they're transiting airspace. Instead of having downtime, you can actually access, once again, a sensor ... so when you talk about network-centric warfare, this would be the embodiment of certainly one aspect of it."

Being able to control a number of UAVs from a single station would multiply the effect. "It's an exciting possiblity," Mathewson said. He said the demonstration, to be run in California, is being carried out under directives of Air Force Secretary James G. Roche, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper and ACC Commander Gen. Hal M. Hornburg.

"It's being done in conjunction with" General Atomics Aeronautics Systems Inc.'s MQ-1 Predator, Mathewson said, but lessons will be applicable to the larger and more capable MQ-9 Predator-B follow-on and other UAVs.

The Air Force has two prototype MQ-9s, each weighing 7,200 pounds, and three 10,000-pound vehicles, Mathewson said. "We're really pleased" with the performance of these UAVs, he said.

There haven't been any surprises with the MQ-9, "and I think, really, everything to do with RPAs [remotely piloted aircraft] is good news," he said. "I mean, this is remarkable in that we've been able to move to an aircraft which will be able to fly higher, transit the airspace faster at better airspeed, be an all-weather hunter-killer and still remarkably provide the incredible persistence that we've come to really appreciate with RPAs."

He said Air Combat Command is evaluating industry responses to a request for information on a fleet of hunter-killer RPAs it released in July (DAILY, July 29). Predator-B is a candidate for this mission, and "we have looked at other ideas as well," Mathewson said.

The next major milestone for Predator-B is initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E), which starts in 2007. Production would follow in 2008 or 2009.

It wasn't clear how this would fit with the hunter-killer effort. "We would hope that the timing [of the Predator-B program] would work out just as it is," Mathewson said. "We don't foresee it [the hunter-killer initiative] could change our timing. We don't foresee any showstoppers."

Winning approval

In any case, the MQ-9 Capability Development Document, which must be approved before IOT&E can begin, has been through the Air Force Oversight Requirements Council (AFROC) process and is expected to win approval of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) by the end of October, Mathewson said.

Cyndi Wegerbauer, a spokeswoman for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., said the two prototype Predator-Bs "have been used to evaluate various sensor packages including weapons and unique mission concepts."

She said the Air Force has procured a total of 13 Predator-Bs, "of which 11 are fully configured hunter-killer production versions," meaning they carry a 20-inch stabilized gimbal which houses either a Wescam or Raytheon multispectral targeting sensor (long-lens cameras, IR plus laser designator and/or range finder) plus three hardpoints on each wing for external carriage of sensors [and] weapons. "These are not for testing; these are operational aircraft," she said.



http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/new...s/uav09034.xml


X-45 crew sees dawn of new technology, aircraft

/27/04 – EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The two Boeing Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System X-45As garaged here have achieved several significant milestones in test and development. Just ask Tech. Sgt. Michael Cook and Tech. Sgt. Waylon Nez. They've witnessed every one of them.
These two Air Force maintainers have overseen and performed both major and daily maintenance tasks on the aircrafts since the program's infancy.

"Sergeant Nez and I have been onboard with this project since it started out here four years ago," Sergeant Cook, 412th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron J-UCAS weapons section chief, said. "In fact, we actually unpacked the planes from the box and helped put the things together. It's really been a lot of fun."

Sergeant Nez, 412 AMXS, J-UCAS logistic test manager, agreed, adding that, though work each day is a fun and exciting endeavor, the seven Air Force maintainers, Boeing employees and Air Force operators are tasked with ensuring the end product is a viable, usable and cost-effective aircraft for the Air Force.

"One of the unique aspects of this program is the fact that the Air Force maintainers have been here with us since day one," Dave Abel, Boeing crew chief, said. "This is to give the Air Force the opportunity to have input into the testing and development process so that the kinks can be worked out before the final model goes into production."

"The Air Force technicians are here to look ahead long term and to do our evaluations to make sure the X-45 is capable of performing the way the Air Force needs it to," Senior Master Sgt. Dale Mullins, 412 AMXS, J-UCAS maintenance superintendent, said. "We are making suggestions during each stage of the test and evaluation process so that improvements can be made to the plane at this level in order to save time and money in the future. We're here, in a joint effort with Boeing, to design it the right way from the beginning."

Practically speaking, this means Sergeant Mullins, Sergeant Cook and Sergeant Nez, along with team members Staff Sgt. Michael Fountain, Staff Sgt. Troy Altevers, Staff Sgt. Christopher Harsh and Staff Sgt. Gabriel Patton, prep the X-45 for flight and testing.

"We have the most hands-on job in this process," Sergeant Cook said. "Since we will be testing for a lengthy period of time, it is our job to make sure the plane is ready to go. From fixing tires to diving into the engine or changing antennas, if hardware stuff needs to be fixed, we're the ones who take care of it."

The constant vigilance and preflight and post flight work of the maintainer crew here has paid off in a big way.

"We just keep setting milestones," Sergeant Nez said. "Last spring we pushed technology to a new level when our team here successfully completed a guided weapons drop. That was a big milestone, and now we are constantly changing and working with Boeing engineers to design the best aircraft of this type that we can."

"This is the future," Sergeant Cook continued. "Unmanned aerial vehicle testing is prepping the Air Force for what it will look like in 50 years, and anytime you get to come in at the beginning of a cutting edge program like this one, it's exceptional. This is absolutely the best job I've ever had."

[bring_it_on]

.S. Army Shadow(TM) Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Pass 10,000 Flight Hours and 2,500 Sorties in Operation Iraqi Freedom


HUNT VALLEY, Md., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- U.S. Army RQ-7A Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) systems have achieved new, major milestones of flight, surpassing 10,000 flight hours and 2,500 sorties while performing surveillance and reconnaissance for coalition warfighters in Operation Iraqi Freedom

The record marks for cumulative flight hours and sorties were achieved in mid-August.

"The performance of Shadow systems in support of our soldiers has been outstanding," said Steve Reid, Shadow TUAV program director for AAI Corporation, prime contractor for the Shadow TUAV program. "The air vehicles, ground control stations, and support systems have delivered when called on in the harsh combat environment of Iraq. We are very proud of the Shadow systems and the soldiers who operate them so well."

AAI has delivered 19 Shadow TUAV systems: 15 to U.S. Army and National Guard operational units and four to the Army's TUAV training center at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona.

Fielding of Shadow TUAV systems was recently accomplished by Maryland and Pennsylvania National Guard units in training at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.

Production and delivery of the 100th RQ-7A Shadow TUAV air vehicle was completed in July 2004. Soon thereafter AAI began delivering a new model Shadow TUAV, designated the RQ-7B, with slightly larger wings, a modified tail assembly, and an extended flight endurance capability.

AAI Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation (NYSE: UIC - News), is a company focused on the design and production of defense and training systems. In addition to unmanned aerial vehicle systems, its products include training and simulation systems, automated aircraft test and maintenance equipment, and logistical/engineering services for government- owned equipment.

For more information, visit http://www.aaicorp.com.

[bring_it_on]

Darpa Readies UCAR Downselect

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/new...s/09064top.xml

[bring_it_on]

Guinness World Records Certifies NASA's Aircraft Speed Record



http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publ...e_001822.shtml

[bring_it_on]

Lockheed, Bell combine on combat copter

Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter have reached a milestone in a joint effort to develop an unmanned combat helicopter for the Army.

In a relatively low-budget experimental program funded by the Pentagon, the Lockheed-Bell team is competing for a contract to develop prototypes of an armed helicopter that, without a pilot or other crewman, could scout and attack enemy forces.

Lockheed announced last week that it had completed a preliminary design review. Officials from the companies said they are confident that they have the right proposal to win additional funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Lockheed-Bell team is competing against a group headed by Northrop Grumman and Sikorsky Aircraft, which is owned by United Technologies.

DARPA, the Pentagon's in-house think tank that provides funding for exotic new weapons research and development, is expected in October to name a winner that will receive funding to build two prototype aircraft for testing.

"We feel very confident ... that we will be the team selected," said Jon Rudy, Bell's program director.

The Lockheed-Bell program is being directed by Lockheed's Systems Integration division in Owego, N.Y., which designs and installs high-tech communications and weapons systems in helicopters.

Bell's Xworkx development group in Fort Worth is designing the basic aircraft, but it is working with engineers and technical experts from Fort Worth-based Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.'s Skunk Works and Dallas-based Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. Bell, based in Fort Worth, is a unit of Textron Corp.

Dan Rice, Lockheed's program director in Owego, said the goal is to produce an armed, unmanned, high-speed helicopter that could be directed by controllers on the ground or from nearby aircraft but would operate with a great deal of autonomy.

Although many components for the system will come from commercially available, off-the-shelf technology, "we are pressing the limits of technology" in some key areas, Rice said.

The team aims to produce unmanned helicopters that could seek, find and attack enemy forces without endangering pilots, directed by a controller in a separate aircraft, operating out of the range of enemy fire.

Last year, DARPA awarded the Lockheed team $9.4 million and the Northrop team $8.7 million to produce detailed design work and conduct technology demonstration.

If the project goes forward and receives additional funding, the Pentagon hopes to begin fielding the unmanned helicopters by around 2012. The goal is to develop an aircraft that could be purchased for $4 million to $8 million, well below the cost of existing manned attack helicopters.

It is not clear how many of the aircraft the military would be interested in over time, or where they would be built.

Bell's design, as shown in an artists' drawing, resembles no helicopter the company has produced. It features a small swept wing and no tail rotor. It would also use engine power, as well as the conventional helicopter rotor, to generate thrust.

The result would be an aircraft about the same size and weight (5,000 pounds) as Bell's commercial 407 helicopter but significantly faster. The unmanned aircraft, even loaded with electronics systems and weapons, would likely have a cruise speed of about 160 knots, compared with 133 knots for the 407.

One of the key technology breakthroughs, Rice said, has been demonstrating the feasibility of using turbine engine thrust, directed by nozzles, to perform the role of a tail rotor in controlling the direction of the aircraft.

"We've done full-scale ground tests of the nozzle system so we've got a great deal of confidence in this system," Rice said.

The new technology, which would be quieter and safer than a tail rotor as well as providing additional thrust for speed, could be adapted for use on commercial helicopters in the future, said Bell's Rudy.

Bell's role in the design effort should pay off in other ways as well. "It's bringing a lot of new technology on board," Rudy said


Northrop Grumman To Continue Work On X-47B J-UCAS Program

Northrop Grumman has been awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue work on the X-47B portion of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) demonstration program. Valued at up to $1.04 billion over five years for the program's operational assessment phase, the award includes initial funding of $30 million.


An X-47B unmanned vehicle
The J-UCAS program is an effort by DARPA, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to demonstrate the technical feasibility, military utility and operational value of networked, unmanned, air-combat systems to suppress enemy air defenses, perform electronic attack, conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and perform precision strike attacks.

In this phase, Northrop Grumman will produce and flight-test three X-47B unmanned demonstration vehicles with associated mission-control stations and logistical support elements. Flight demonstrations are expected to begin in 2007.

Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector leads a J-UCAS team that includes Lockheed Martin, and Pratt & Whitney. Work will be performed at facilities in El Segundo, Palmdale and San Diego, Calif., and East Hartford, Conn.

"Our J-UCAS effort builds upon Northrop Grumman's longstanding experience in developing successful unmanned combat air systems by applying expertise from across the company and the rest of our industry," said Christopher M. Hernandez, vice president and general manager of Unmanned Systems, a unit of the Integrated Systems sector.

"Northrop Grumman's leadership in unmanned systems includes combat-proven assets such as the Air Force's RQ-4 Global Hawk and the Army's RQ-5 Hunter. Both systems are in service supporting the global war on terrorism."

The three objectives of the J-UCAS operational assessment program are:

to demonstrate the technical feasibility of developing a family of network- centric J-UCAS systems - managed by a common operating system - for operation from land or an aircraft carrier;

to assess the joint operational utility of the J-UCAS concept in the mission areas of suppressing enemy air defenses, strike, electronic attack and penetrating surveillance and reconnaissance;

and to develop production system concepts for the Navy and Air Force.
"Consistent with DARPA's objective of fielding demonstrators with warfighting potential, the X-47B promises to be a highly capable air warfare system, well suited to support the full spectrum of military operations," said Scott Winship, Northrop Grumman's J-UCAS program director.

"It will be very stealthy and thus highly survivable. It will carry a wide variety of sensors with a large internal weapons payload and be fully networked into the military's emerging joint operational architecture."

"Aerial refueling will allow it to provide persistent coverage deep into the battlespace from long distances."

The J-UCAS common operating system, flexible architecture and modular air vehicle design will allow the X-47B to support emerging joint missions.

"These X-47B demonstrators are the first step toward a new, transformational era of combat aviation where we can quickly and affordably adapt an airframe design to a particular mission, wrapped around a common core architecture," Winship said.

[bring_it_on]

Lockheed Martin landed a $2 billion Pentagon contract to build 22 more F/A-22 Raptor fighter jets for the Air Force, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

The contract "definitizes" terms of an agreement struck in May between Lockheed Martin (LMT) and the Defense Department to build the aircraft - referred to as Lot 4 - at a fixed price, with delivery slated for October, 2006.

Excluding test planes, the order brings to 45 the number of F/A-22s already built or under assembly for the military.

The F/A-22 program aims to replace the F-15 as the nation´s premier air-to-air fighter aircraft. Initially, the program called for 339 of the planes, produced at a rate of 36 a year by 2013.

But the program has been scaled back to about 220 aircraft amid budget concerns and growing sentiment in Washington that current global security risks no longer merit maintaining such costly fleets of fighter planes as they did during the Cold War era.

The first squadron of fully operational F/A-22s is scheduled to be in place by late 2005.

News of the contract landed after the closing bell on Wall Street, where Lockheed Martin shares closed Thursday down 65 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $51.43.

[bring_it_on]

Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile System Completes Successful Intercept Test

The U.S. Army announced that it has conducted a successful intercept test flight of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., today at approximately 7:15 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Preliminary test data indicates two targets were intercepted and mission objectives were achieved.

Objectives of this mission included demonstrating the performance of a PAC-3 missile with hardware changes that improve producibility and reduce missile cost. The test also demonstrated the system's capability to detect, track, engage and intercept a short-range tactical ballistic missile target and a low-altitude cruise missile target. The targets for the mission were a Patriot-as-a-Target (PAAT), a Patriot legacy missile modified to represent a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM); and an MQM-107 subscale drone aircraft, representing a cruise missile.

Soldiers of the 1-7, 2-43 and 3-2 Air Defense Artillery, Fort Bliss, Texas, participated in today's test.

All Test Objectives Met in Test of Sea-based Interceptor Missile Maneuvering System

The capability to maneuver an interceptor missile towards its target is vital to having a successful defense against ballistic missiles. As part of the Missile Defense Agency's continuous development and testing program to field effective defenses against ballistic missile attacks, we successfully completed a very important ground test on July 26, 2004 involving an advanced interceptor missile maneuvering system that could enable an interceptor missile launched from a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser or destroyer to more effectively "steer" itself directly into the path of an enemy missile warhead before it can hit its target with a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon. Traveling at several thousand miles per hour, the steering system must have the capability to adjust the interceptor's flight path very quickly in terms of both speed and direction while tracking the target so that it can directly collide with the target warhead. This is the cornerstone of "hit to kill" technology, which uses only kinetic energy to destroy the target, and doesn't rely on explosives. The recently completed test of the Throttleable Divert and Attitude Control System (TDACS) for the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) sea-based interceptor missile will help MDA to apply this advanced technology not only to sea-based missile defense, but will also help us in our research and development program for other missile defense technologies, including missile interceptors that can someday destroy hostile missiles shortly after they are launched, in what we call a ballistic missile's "boost phase".

[nirav]

Will Projection Displays Give F-35 an Edge?


The Joint Strike Fighter flight deck display will set precedents for sheer size, controllability and ease of use. Will the calculated bet on projection display technology pay off for this major multinational program in the long term?


By James W. Ramsey


Prime contractor Lockheed Martin and avionics provider Rockwell Collins are placing a calculated bet that their new flight deck projection display technology for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will result in a better, lighter and less expensive aircraft.

And despite some doubts from other quarters (see sidebar, page 20), the U.S. and UK defense departments are moving ahead with plans to fly 15 projection display-equipped fighters beginning in the summer of 2006 in the JSF program's system development and demonstration (SDD) phase. The F-35 is to be produced in three variants—conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL), carrier-based, and short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL). Almost 2,600 of the aircraft are slated for the U.S. Air Force (USAF), Navy and Marines (USMC), and the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy (for schedule, see sidebar, page 18).

"In the late '90s, we made a strategic decision that projection display technology was going to be a discriminator in cockpit advancement when it came to the mid-2000s," says Tom Frey, F-35 pilot systems integrated product team (IPT) lead for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, Texas. Rockwell Collins, in San Jose, Calif.—formerly Kaiser Aerospace prior to its acquisition in 2000—was chosen to provide the F-35's multifunction display system (MFDS).

Using "reflective light" technology borrowed from the commercial TV industry, the Lockheed-Collins team is providing two adjacent 8-by-10-inch display surfaces built as one 8-by-20-inch viewing area—the largest display area in a fighter aircraft to date. "And we're at least 100 pounds [45 kg] lighter because of the way we've integrated our cockpit," Frey maintains. Employing touch screens (the first on a large-format display) and voice recognition, the team has been able to integrate many cockpit control functions typically found on switches into the displays themselves.

"In our simulations, this is the first cockpit I have worked on where the pilots haven't asked for more display area," claims Frey, who also worked on the F/A-22 cockpit. "A lot of it has to do with how efficiently we have set it up for the pilots to use," he says. Frey heads a team that includes nine cockpit engineering disciplines, ranging from ejection seats to flight controls. Another performance advantage touted for the projection display is brightness. It improves sunlight readability by a factor of two to three over conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) units in other fighters, Frey claims.

Avionics projection display technology originated in the 1980s, and some prototype displays were flown in several European aircraft. Currently, Thales Avionics provides projection-based head-up displays (HUDs) for Mirage and Rafale fighters and Airbus aircraft, as well as projection helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) for helicopters. But only recently has this technology been chosen by U.S. contractors. Rockwell Collins flew its first projection display system—a 6-by-6-inch reflective micro-LCD, projection-based "smart display"—on an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in May 2002. However, future Boeing F/A-18 avionics block builds do not call for a projection display system.

Although not originally slated for the Lockheed Martin F/A-22, the Air Force's new air superiority fighter, a projection display unit has replaced the aircraft's original 8-by-8-inch, centrally mounted tactical LCD display. For the F-35, "more advanced, fourth-generation technology is being used," Frey says. "And if you take a look at projection displays compared to LCDs, you find this technology is coming to market and is going to be successful in fighter cockpits in a much shorter time span than LCDs ever were," he says.


Rockwell Collins MFDS

The total package Collins will provide for the F-35 includes the two 8-by-10-inch MFDs, a pilot interface module, and, for each display, a low-voltage power supply, lamp, cooling fan and igniter, and display processor—used to process all display management functions. Collins designed and will build the display processor.

These elements all plug into a backplane, or interconnect, that interfaces with the aircraft. On the front of the integrated MFD assembly is the pilot interface module that contains multiple pieces, which are combined to provide the reflective surface for the projection system. The primary surface is a chemically tempered glass substrate. Special optical coatings are applied to make the glass reflect the light in the right direction—towards the pilot's eyes. Collins procures the glass and coatings but builds the touch-screen electronics.

"The MFDS is the primary pilot-vehicle interface, used in conjunction with other JSF systems, including the helmet-mounted display system and voice commands from the pilot, to manage the JSF systems," explains Terry Harris, JSF/MFDS program manager for Rockwell Collins-San Jose. Tasks managed by the MFDS range from starting engines to displaying sensor data and systems status to the pilot.

Collins also developed software that is integrated into the display system by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth or by team member Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, Calif. Collins provides the key projection lens assembly piece from its Kaiser Electro-Optical division in Carlsbad, Calif., and supplies the (three-card set) display processor circuit card assembly.

Collins played a role in prime contractor Lockheed Martin's decision to use projection displays in the F-35. "Rockwell Collins-San Jose is a display house, and when we receive an RFP [request for proposal], we take a look at the technology that's available and make the best choice, based on the ultimate requirements of the customer," Harris says.

"We try to use a stair-step approach," he adds. "And we've done that by taking the initial projection display technology used on the F-18 and F-22 and migrating that to a more advanced approach for JSF. We hope to take the JSF approach to the next level beyond that."

Last July (2003) Rockwell Collins won its first international projection display system contract, inking an agreement with Shimadzu Corp. of Japan to co-develop a 4.5-by-4.5-inch reflective micro-LCD projection-based display for the F-15J fighter. The display design will use highly rugged-ized, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) projector components and technologies.


How it works

Projection display is an extension of the technology used for conference room projection systems. "It uses miniature display devices, in this case a miniature LCD to form an image, which is then magnified and projected onto a screen. "This provides us the flexibility to choose very high-resolution image devices and determine the final output display—in this case, two 8-by-10 displays," explains Tim Edwards, a technical director on Collins' MFDS program.

Like rear-projection TVs or conference room projectors, the projection equipment includes prisms, color filters, a lamp and a variety of optical components, including a projection lens to expand and illuminate the miniature LCD display device on the 8-by-10-inch screen. The resulting displays have a resolution of 1280X1024 pixels, typical of that found in a high-end laptop, or high-end desktop computer monitor, Edwards says. Depending on how the software is written, the F-35's 8-by-10-inch displays can be divided into "as many or as few [separate displays] as [the team members] choose, depending on how the Lockheed JSF team wants to view the different information needed," he adds.

To display this information, Lockheed Martin devised a concept called "portals" that allows the pilot to quickly adapt the format windows of the JSF's 8-by-20-inch display to make them smaller or larger. Pilots will be able to view sensor-supplied tactical and targeting information and threats, onboard weapons status, aircraft flight and status data, and caution and warning system alerts. While a common configuration would use four portals, each one can be expanded to take up a full 8-by-10-inch display, and then secondary window positions can be expanded or contracted—using touch, voice, or hands on throttle and stick (HOTAS) commands.

"The pilot, by touching a cyan [greenish-blue] triangle, can expand the portal vertically or horizontally and get to full 8-by-10 [display size] with one button push," explains Lockheed's Frey. The same can be done by voice. "The pilot can say `expand one'—that's the one on the left-most portal—and then, if you want to resume the same configuration, say `restore one,'" he adds. Using HOTAS, the cursor controller on the throttle is employed to "click on" the active touch icons to configure the portal. Voice and touch are designated as the primary modes of pilot input, and the cursor is the backup mode in case touch-screen and voice activation fail.

However, too much automation is not always a good thing, Frey warns. "Typically, we have found pilots really don't appreciate the display system's automatically changing formats on them. The pilot doesn't like to be surprised." He says the system does allow for major mode changes—like switching from a tactical mode to an instrument mode—with portals reconfiguring with both formats and size according to the pilot's last preference, "but other than that, we haven't found a need for additional automation, nor that it is advantageous."

While the F-35 features an 8-by-20-inch viewing area, the display system currently is limited by processing capacity to the two adjacent 8-by-10s. "We had looked at using a 9-by-16-inch HDTV [high-definition TV] format, but based on redundancy needs in the cockpit, we felt better off with two 8-by-10s built together as a single 8-by-20—you get more display surface for the same redundancy that we needed," Frey points out. The displays incorporate a zoom-in capability to make features larger.

The redundancy allows one computer to substitute for the other if it should fail. "When using voice recognition, for instance, the master display computer takes the digital voice stream coming in and does all the appropriate commands, and then the slave computer knows that, if the master goes down, it picks up those extra functionalities," Frey says.

Each 8-by-10-inch section of the 8-by-20-inch display has its own graphics processor and projection engine that create the symbology. The airplane's different sensors ship the video to the display system, which inserts it in the correct portal, Frey explains.

Using reflective LCD components direct from commercial sources obviates the need for the "unique design builds" that are required with the direct-view LCDs found in most fighters. While military transports have successfully used ruggedized commercial LCD displays, most fighter aircraft require special glass for their displays to withstand brightness and temperature ranges.

"[Projection display technology] really allows us to apply commercial technology without excessive military ruggedization or technology adaptation," Frey says. The end result? "Reduced weight, cost and size," he emphasizes.


Delivery Schedule

Previously, delivery of Collins' MFDS systems was to begin at the end of June, but that schedule has slipped to October. However, a critical design review (CDR) has been passed, and companies on the JSF team now are tooling up to begin production for the SDD phase. The displays first will be test flown sometime next year on a Lockheed Martin modified Boeing 737 called CATBird (cooperative avionics test bed), according to Frey.

The first time the cockpit equipment actually flies in a fighter is when the A-1 aircraft takes off—scheduled for August 2006. At this point in the development schedule, avionics commonality across the three JSF variants has reached 98 percent. "Our goal in the cockpit is to be 100 percent," Frey says.

Lockheed Martin currently operates a cockpit demonstrator at its Fort Worth and Arlington, Va., facilities that is "flown" by military pilots to include their inputs in cockpit systems development. However, its display system uses commercial projection engines and "does not mimic the final projection engine we will build for the MFDS," says Collins' Harris.

Smiths Aerospace, of Cheltenham, UK, is providing the F-35's standby 3-by-3-inch active matrix LCD flight display system, which independently displays attitude, altitude, airspeed, vertical velocity and angle of attack. The display system is centrally located in the cockpit front panel. And VSI Systems International, a joint venture between Collins and Israel's Elbit Systems, provides the JSFs helmet-mounted displays.

Beyond JSF, is there a market for projection displays? "We've done a lot of work with a lot of different potential customers," says Harris. "We have other things in the works, but right now JSF is certainly the largest [customer]." And, as a major supplier for commercial and business aircraft, has Rockwell Collins considered projection display systems for that market? "It's possible," says a Collins spokesman at the company's Cedar Rapids, Iowa, headquarters. "But we don't have anybody working on it yet."


Military Approval

The JSF program office endorsed Lockheed Martin's decision to choose projection display technology for the F-35. The system's use of COTS parts "provides us with the flexibility in adapting it to the space constraints that you have with the F-35 cockpit," says USAF Lt.Col. Keith Weyenberg, F-35 vehicle systems IPT for the JSF program office. "Additionally, we felt that the technology provided us with a more cost-effective upgrade path, because you can upgrade components, such as the projection engine, as their technology improves, without replacing the entire display," he says.

A key projection system advantage is that "we're able to warm up—especially in cold weather—and be operational faster, an advantage for fighter aircraft when you are sitting on alert and want to start up and get to a fight as soon as possible," Weyenberg maintains. He concurs with Lockheed's Frey that the system also offers improved brightness. "There is more contrast there than with an LCD display. It's easier to see in a cockpit that's lit up by bright sunshine."

But the most significant breakthrough is that the F-35 "will be the first aircraft that meets the services' ideal of having a display surface that also is your instrument panel," Weyenberg says. "The portal concept provides flexibility to change displays [and] select weapons or different modes for the different systems on the aircraft through touch screen or voice [commands]," he explains. "You don't have to select different modes on your CRTs, as you do on some of our legacy aircraft, or go to other switches in the cockpit."


Maintainability

The new display system promises to be reliable as well, the JSF office says. The modular approach provides fairly easy access for maintenance technicians to uncover components and replace them, if necessary.

Although unable to cite a mean time between failure (MTBF) target figure at this point, "we've given Lockheed Martin some high-level reliability requirements and they have allocated those to different components on the aircraft," Weyenberg says. "Right now, based on our design analysis, they are meeting all their reliability specifications for this [projection display] system."


Revised Program Schedule

About 2,600 F-35s are slated for the U.S. Air Force (USAF), Navy and Marine Corps (USMC) and for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. The USMC previously was scheduled to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) by 2010, the USAF by 2011 and the U.S. Navy and UK forces by 2012. An ongoing "replan process," however, may shift the USMC IOC to 2012 and the USAF and U.S. Navy IOCs to 2013. The potential impact on the UK IOC was less clear at press time in early May. First flight of the lead aircraft is likely to move from late 2005 to 2006. More information is expected after a review of the program by senior Pentagon officials in mid-June.


Passing on Projection Display Technology

Honeywell wasn't dozing while projection display technology was being developed. In fact, the major avionics supplier took a good look at it but decided it wasn't right in the foreseeable future for its commercial air transport market.

"In 2000 we started to seriously consider projection," says Kevin Young, Honeywell's director of air transport systems displays. "We made sure that we did sufficient research to understand if it was a promising technology, and if so, we needed to proceed with developing those display systems that would utilize it."

The company "picked up a program" and evaluated the different technologies required for projection display systems. Eighteen months later, Honeywell felt it had categorized both the different technologies that could be mature and the problem solving that would be required to produce a display that would meet the needs of its marketplace.

"It just wasn't going to be a viable technology for anything that was on the horizon within our time scope," Young says. Key areas of concern involved the reliability and the alleged difficulty of maintaining a projection system. He cites the relatively short life span—8,000 hours—of lamps required by projection display systems to illuminate the magnified image. "For some marketplaces [this] probably would be acceptable, but in the commercial world, [it] would be totally unacceptable," Young maintains. "Airlines expect displays to have MTBFs [mean times between failure] of 20,000 hours or higher."

Honeywell also found the cost of projection display systems it was evaluating to be higher than for flat panel active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) the company was delivering. These studies also showed that the "complexity" of the projection system, requiring lenses and mirrors, added to the system's weight.

The studies, which ended in 2001, concluded that the technology wasn't ready, Young concludes.

************************************************** *******
article via AVIONICS magazine.

[bring_it_on]

great article could u please post a copy in the f-35 thread...i guess pilots willg et to decide if the new layout really works or not.

[bring_it_on]

Boeing SLAM-ER Weapon Shows Moving Target Capability

ST. LOUIS, September 3, 2004 - Boeing [NYSE: BA] successfully conducted its first captive-carry test of a Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) missile enhanced with moving-target, network-centric software recently at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Range, China Lake , Calif.

Carried on an F/A-18 aircraft assigned to VX-31 Air Test and Evaluation Squadron, the SLAM-ER received real-time data via standard Link-16 messages that originated from an orbiting Joint STARS aircraft. Once the information was relayed automatically through the F/A-18 controlling the missile, the SLAM-ER trained its seeker on the moving target and gauged its velocity. The F/A-18 pilot then used "Stop Motion Aimpoint Update" technology to designate the precise impact point and simulate attacking and destroying a truck traveling in traffic between 40-50 mph.

"SLAM-ER will provide Naval warfighters with the first network-centric weapon capable of tracking down and eliminating moving targets," said Mike Marks, Boeing vice president and general manager for U.S. Air Force Fighter and Bomber Programs, and Weapons Programs. "This is a significant step forward in weapons development."

The SLAM-ER production software with moving target capability will be delivered to the U.S. Navy in October 2004, followed by flight tests in mid-2005, and fleet deployment in October 2005. SLAM-ER missiles have a range exceeding 150 nautical miles (278 kilometers) against land and ship targets, and can fly a pre-planned or target-of-opportunity route to the target area.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $27 billion business. It provides systems solutions to its global military, government and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; the world's largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world's largest satellite manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA's largest contractor; and a global leader in launch services.

[bring_it_on]

Holographic Weapon Sights Grip the U.S. Military Market

The U.S. Special Operations Command, Army and Marine Corps are buying holographic weapon sights and shipping them in large quantities to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The only company that makes the scopes currently has strengthened its hold on the market with multi-million dollar contracts for some 77,000 of the sights.

Eotech Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Mich., touts itself as the company that invented, designed and manufactured the first electro-optic sighting system to apply holographic technology to small and medium-sized weapons.

A hologram is a three-dimensional image formed by the interference of light beams.

The Eotech holographic weapon sight projects an illuminated reticle pattern directly on the target. A reticle is a network of fine threads or lines in the focal plane of a scope to help accurate observation.

However, no forward light is projected from the sight; it is just the appearance of light. The laser technology projects an image onto a hardened piece of glass, just as in heads-up displays in fighter jets and helicopters.

Together with Bushnell—a company known to many for its microscopes and binoculars—Eotech released a commercial version of the holographic sights in 1996. The combat version began trickling into the military at the end of 2001, said Patrick Gallagher, Eotech’s government representative.

The company first targeted SOCOM with its technology, said Van Donohue, Eotech’s vice president for marketing. In the past two years, the company has sold 5,500 sights to individual special operations units, which bought the technology with their own funds, said Donohue. A sight can cost between $300 and $350, he said.

Meanwhile, the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Crane, Ind., awarded Eotech a $16.6 million contract in May for 66,666 enhanced combat optical sights. This capability provides for lightweight, waterproof optical sighting devices for battle at close quarters, as well as out to 600 meters. The work is expected to be completed by 2009.

Eotech is presenting its holographic sights as an alternative to the “red dot” technology, already battle-tested and popular among U.S. troops. The M68 red dot sights are standard issue.

Red dot technology and the company that develops and markets it, Aimpoint AB of Sweden, are entrenched firmly in the market. The company staked its position when it was awarded the first multi-year contract for red dot sights by the U.S. Army in 1997.

The Aimpoint red dot sights are non-magnifying sights with unlimited eye relief, allowing fast target acquisition which speeds recovery in situations where follow-up shots may be necessary, according to the company. Aimpoint sights allow shooters to work in any light condition, from total darkness to full sunlight. They are also night-vision device compatible.

While red dot sights can only be used with small arms, the holographic weapon sights can be installed on machine guns, shoulder-launched and non-lethal weapons.

No matter how the shooter moves the head or eye, the reticle pattern will remain in the same place on the target. The operator can look at the target with both eyes open, while maintaining peripheral vision to potentially engage multiple targets, Gallagher said.

The HWS is compatible with night vision goggles, said Gallagher. The holographic sight functions with conventional AA batteries. It can use lithium, alkaline or rechargeable batteries, said Gallagher.

The HWS can operate at temperatures of minus 40 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. It is waterproof, and even can be used under water, said Gallagher.

The sights can survive drops from as high as 10 feet and have been tested on heavy resonance weaponry, such as the General Dynamics’ tri barrel .50 caliber Gatling gun, said Gallagher.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[bring_it_on]

Navy Will Build Electromagnetic Gun Test Site

The U.S. Navy is preparing to break ground on a program dedicated to testing the science behind electromagnetic rail guns.

The Navy will begin the construction of a new building devoted to the project this summer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Va.

The Navy said it hopes it can develop an electromagnetic rail gun by 2010, and possibly deploy it aboard the electric-powered DD-X destroyer. Rail guns require a pulse power system to get instant electrical charges needed to accelerate projectiles to hypersonic velocities. Its rapid flight time and 200-kilometer range make these guns a tempting option for future naval weapons.

Researchers at Dahlgren will be studying the power supply, pulse forming networks and the rails themselves, said Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman David Caskey.

“The basic physics have been around for 80 years,” he said. “I think things opened up when the Navy decided their next generation ship would be electric.”

If the EM gun works as promised, it would add considerable firepower to the DD-X, which already is being designed with two 155 mm guns that fire GPS-guided shells out to about 100 kilometers, half the expected range of an EM gun.

Researchers figure that the power requirements associated with electromagnetic weapons would be easier to handle on an electric-powered ship.

Advances in alternating current power systems have made generators more compact. According to Lt. Cmdr. David Allen Adams, a pulse power system needed to support a 250-nautical mile rail gun could fit into existing 5-inch gun mounts. In a recent article published by the U.S. Naval Institute, Adams wrote that electromagnetic guns are projected to have low firing rates, hovering at about six shots a minute. However, the lower flight times and massive range—two minutes for payload to reach 100 miles—makes up for that deficit.

Another benefit of EM guns is that they do not require explosive warheads, reducing shipboard hazards.

“The projectile is basically going into space,” Caskey said. “It could really change the way you look at ballistics.”

[bring_it_on]

Northrop Grumman/Raytheon Team Completes Major Risk Reduction Program for New Airborne Surveillance Radar

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Sept. 8, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- A Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC - News)/ Raytheon (NYSE:RTN - News) team has successfully integrated and tested a laboratory-based prototype of a new airborne surveillance radar planned for deployment on the U.S. Air Force's RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial reconnaissance and E-10A battle-management platforms.Known as the ``single-string'' Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar, the prototype radar provides a key risk-reduction tool for the MP-RTIP team. It has allowed the two companies to identify and resolve technical integration issues long before starting production and integration of actual flight hardware. The single-string radar developmental testing culminated in a demonstration of the MP-RTIP capability on July 30.

MP-RTIP is a family of modular, active, electronically scanned array radar systems that will dramatically improve the Air Force's ability to detect, track and identify stationary and moving vehicles, and low-flying cruise missiles. Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are jointly developing and producing the MP-RTIP radars for the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center under a six-year, $888 million system development and demonstration contract awarded in April.

Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector serves as the Air Force's MP-RTIP prime contractor, while the company's Electronic Systems sector and Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems unit share the radar development and production work.

``This demonstration proves that the team's fundamental processes for producing and integrating this new radar system are correct,'' said Dave Mazur, Northrop Grumman's MP-RTIP program manager. ``It not only raises our confidence in the way we build and test the first MP-RTIP units for Global Hawk, but also provides critical insight into the processes we'll use to integrate and test the E-10A MP-RTIP units in the future.''

According to Tom Bradley, Raytheon's MP-RTIP program manager, the single-string radar demonstration also validated the MP-RTIP program's decision to divide the radar development and integration work between two companies. ``Our success integrating radar components produced in different development and manufacturing environments with critical mission software reflects the strong collaborative spirit and commitment to success that drives the Northrop Grumman/Raytheon MP-RTIP team,'' he said.

Functionally, the single-string radar is a prototype Global Hawk MP-RTIP radar. Its name is derived from the fact that it contains only the functional elements of the radar required to demonstrate critical integration techniques and to operate it in a few select test modes. For example, it contains critical MP-RTIP hardware such as receivers, exciters and antenna elements, but uses laboratory-based systems, such as power supplies, for many of its ``support'' components.

As configured, the single-string radar contains two of MP-RTIP's primary air moving target indicator (air-to-air) tracking modes.

For the single-string test program, the MP-RTIP antenna elements were produced, assembled and tested at a Northrop Grumman's facility in Norwalk, Conn. The complete radar was then installed in a Raytheon high-rise facility near Los Angeles International Airport. The radar antenna was positioned behind a flat, window-replacing radome pointing out at a series of passive and active ``targets'' installed on a second Raytheon facility about one mile away.

Over the course of several months, the Northrop Grumman/Raytheon engineering test team actively operated the radar by transmitting radar signals to the targets, measuring signal strength at the targets, and measuring the strength of the reflected signals received by the antenna.

``The single-string radar test program produced a strong vote of confidence for the MP-RTIP radar design,'' said Russ Conklin, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems' MP-RTIP program manager. ``In terms of its beam width, beam steering characteristics, transmit power, receiver sensitivity and antenna gain, the radar consistently met or exceeded its design specifications.'' Lessons learned from the demo will help the team shorten and simplify the processes it uses to integrate and test the radars for both Global Hawk and the E-10A applications, he added.

Under the current MP-RTIP contract, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon will build six MP-RTIP radars - three for Global Hawk, three for the E-10A wide-area surveillance platform. The single string-radar, when built into a complete, fully functional system, will count as one of the three Global Hawk MP-RTIP radars.

The MP-RTIP program schedule calls for flight-testing of the first Global Hawk radar to begin in October 2006. The team will conduct the testing using a manned, Northrop Grumman-owned Global Hawk surrogate aircraft called Proteus. Flight testing of the MP-RTIP radars aboard a real Global Hawk is scheduled to begin in late 2007.

Raytheon Company, with 2003 sales of $18.1 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 78,000 people worldwide.

Northrop Grumman is a global defense company headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in systems integration, defense electronics, information technology, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding and space technology. With 125,000 employees, and operations in all 50 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.

Members of the news media may receive our releases via e-mail by registering at: http://www.northropgrumman.com/cgi-bin/regist_form.cgi

LEARN MORE ABOUT US: Northrop Grumman news releases, product information, photos and video clips are available on the Internet at: http://www.northropgrumman.com. Information specific to the Integrated Systems sector is available at: http://www.is.northropgrumman.com/index.html

[bring_it_on]

U.S. Air Force Selects Northrop Grumman Team for E-10A Battle Management Contract

MELBOURNE, Fla., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The U.S. Air Force has selected a Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC - News)-led team to develop the service's E-10A aircraft's Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) subsystem, one the most important programs in the development of Joint Network Centric Warfare in this decade.
The company's BMC2 team was selected following a 15-month competitive process for the estimated $308 million system design and development phase of the program. The BMC2 subsystem is the backbone of the E-10A program. It provides the information processing capability for the E-10A's Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar as well as the command and control functions key to the aircraft's mission. BMC2 is also capable of accessing and correlating sensor data from other sources to provide commanders with a comprehensive battlespace picture.

BMC2 will provide critical seamless real-time communications, while supporting full spectrum dominance and persistent situation awareness for the warfighter. The result will be reducing the time required to find, fix, track and target fleeting and mobile targets and other hostile forces. The subsystem's cutting edge technology will fulfill the Air Force's vision for cruise missile defense and executable decision-quality information.

"This is a key win for Northrop Grumman, one that reaffirms our position as a premier battle-management C4ISR system supplier and puts us in a good position to offer similar technology for future platforms," said Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop Grumman chairman, CEO and president. "Northrop Grumman's team has a great deal of experience ranging from operational airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to systems integration. We will deliver to the Air Force a transformational system that will play a pivotal role in the multi-dimensional battlefield."

The Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems sector leads the team, which also includes the company's Electronic Systems, Information Technology and Mission Systems sectors. Two other top-tier team members, Harris Government Systems and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, will have key roles along with support from second-tier partners located throughout the United States. These include Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif.; Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif.; Zel Technologies (ZelTech), Hampton Roads, Va.; Alphatech, Burlington, Mass.; L-3 Communications West, Salt Lake City, Utah; and L-3 Comcept, Rockwall, Texas.

The E-10A's MP-RTIP radar sensor will provide high-resolution radar imagery of ground targets and be able to track cruise missiles in flight.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense company headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in systems integration, defense electronics, information technology, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding and space technology. With 125,000 employees, and operations in all 50 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.

[bring_it_on]

Team US101 Announces 11 Ohio and West Virginia Suppliers To Support Next Marine One Helicopter

OWEGO, N.Y., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Team US101 has announced that 11 companies in Ohio and West Virginia will supply components to the American-built US101 medium-lift helicopter. Team US101 is competing to provide the president of the United States with a fleet of next-generation helicopters better known by their call-sign: "Marine One."
"We are pleased that these fine Ohio companies -- such as DuPont in Valley View -- are supporting Team US101," said Stephen D. Ramsey, Lockheed Martin's US101 vice president and general manager. "We are also proud to have a West Virginia supplier -- Star Technologies of Huntington -- participating in the US101 program. These firms, along with the other suppliers selected nationwide, will make the US101 helicopter as American as the workers who build it."

The Ohio and West Virginia companies that will supply components for the US101 helicopter are:

Auxitrol Aerospace Business Group Painesville, OH
DuPont(TM) Vespel(R) Parts & Shapes, Inc. Valley View, OH
Unison Industries, LLC Dayton, OH
Enginetics Aerospace Corporation Huber Heights, OH
Fluid Regulators Corporation Painseville, OH
Honeywell - Lighting & Electronics Urbana, OH
Pako, Inc. Mentor, OH
Star Technologies, LLC Huntington, WV
Thermagon, Inc. Cleveland, OH
Tyco Electronics Mansfield, OH
Voss Industries, Inc. Cleveland, OH


Team US101 is recognizing these suppliers at this time for their continuous support during the very rigorous Presidential Helicopter Replacement (or VXX) competition. Meanwhile, Team US101 continues to conduct risk reduction efforts prior to the U.S. Navy award decision announcement, currently expected sometime during December 2004.

These 11 suppliers are among the more than 200 suppliers in 41 states chosen to support Team US101 with key products and services necessary for the president's new Marine One helicopter fleet. Other leading American companies on Team US101 include General Electric, Northrop Grumman, ITT and Kaman. During the course of the helicopter fleet's operational service life, 90 percent of the total life cycle costs will flow to Team US101's American suppliers, creating and sustaining thousands of jobs nationwide while building these new Marine One helicopters.

"We're proud to be involved with this project," Daniel Sedor, Sr. President of Voss Industries, Inc., said. "Marine One is one of America's symbols -- easily and instantly recognized worldwide -- and we're glad Cleveland-made parts will be flying on those helicopters."

Team US101 is led by Lockheed Martin Systems Integration - Owego, which serves as the prime contractor and systems integrator for the American-built US101 aircraft, an American variant of AgustaWestland's successful EH101 multimission helicopter. The US101 team collectively brings unmatched rotorcraft expertise and experience to this program: Lockheed Martin (prime contractor and systems integration), AgustaWestland (aircraft design) and Bell Helicopter (aircraft production), while General Electric will supply each helicopter's three CT7-8E engines.

[bring_it_on]

Northrop Grumman Starts Construction On New Coast Guard Fleet

steel that will eventually be part of a 421-foot ship. The ceremony marks a shining moment in Ingall's history.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems President Phil Dur said "We are starting fabrication of our first Coast Guard Cutter with many, many more to follow. So we at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems are absolutely delighted".

The Maritime Security Cutter is also the first multi-mission Coast Guard vessel to be built in 25 years.

Rear Adm. Patrick Stillman with the U.S. Coast Guard said "Our ships generally speaking are old. Some are actually on Social Security. They would be eligible for that particular program. It's time to change that".

Expect a big change. The $250 million ship will be more powerful, can cruise at a maximum speed of 28 knots, and will come loaded with communications, computer and surveillance technology.

Dur said "This ship is going to bring high endurance, long range, good weapons capability. It will add outstanding communications, control, intelligence and reconnaissance to the Coast Guard effort".

The cutter also includes a launch and recovery area for inflatable boats and a flight deck for manned and unmanned aircraft. It promises to play a huge role, from rescuing stranded fishermen, to patrolling the waters as part of Homeland Security.

Stillman said "It is far more capable and ready to attend to the threats that terrorism now brings. It's truly a transformation of the Coast Guard. It modernizes it to a level that we frankly in the past just dreamed of".

Dream no more. The cutter should be ready to hit the water by 2007. The keel laying for the first cutter is scheduled for next April. The Pascagoula Shipyard expects to build seven more cutters in the future. The project is a partnership between Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.