US military news, discussions and history

[AMDR]

Air Force Getting Closer to Testing Hypersonic Weapon, Engineers Say
Air Force Getting Closer to Testing Hypersonic Weapon, Engineers Say | Defense Tech

The U.S. Air Force is making progress in developing a hypersonic weapon based on the success of an experimental scramjet program, engineers said.

The service in 2013 conducted its fourth and longest flight of the so-called X-51 WaveRider. After separating from a rocket launched beneath the wing of a B-52 bomber, the hypersonic vehicle built by Boeing Co. climbed to 60,000 feet, accelerated to Mach 5.1 and flew for about three and a half minutes before running out of fuel and plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

At that speed, which is equivalent to about 3,400 miles per hour, a missile could travel from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta in just several minutes — making it a potentially powerful weapon against enemy air defenses.

“We are the Air Force. What do we want to do with this technology? We want to weaponize it,” Ryan Helbach, an official with the Air Force Research Laboratory, said last week during an exhibition at the Pentagon to showcase various military research projects. “The follow-on program to this is the High Speed Strike Weapon effort. It’s taking a lot of the lessons learned and the technology and moving to a weapons acquisition.”

The hypersonic missile program comes as the U.S. faces increasing competition from China and other countries working to capitalize on the defense technology.

“Certainly, the U.S. is not the only country involved in developing hypersonic weapons,” Mica Endsley, the Air Force’s chief scientist, said in a recent interview with Military.com “They (China) are showing a lot of capability in this area. The advantage of hypersonics is not just that something goes very fast but that it can go great distances at those speeds.”

She added, “For example, currently today to get from NY to LA is a five hour flight in a commercial aircraft. With a hypersonic weapon, you could do that same thing in about 30 minutes. You can go great distances at great speeds.”

The nine-year, $300 million X-51 program was designed to demonstrate that the military could build a scramjet capable of accelerating, ingesting hydrocarbon fuel, and actively cooling in flight, Helbach said. Unlike a traditional engine, a scramjet, or supersonic combusting ramjet, has very few moving parts and relies on an air-breathing propulsion system to travel faster than the speed of sound.

But it needs a kick, like a boost from a rocket, to get there. So the WaveRider was first propelled by a solid rocket booster, a surface-to-surface missile called the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, to about Mach 4.5, then separated and activated its scramjet engine built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. (A weaponized version of the vehicle would use another missile, not a ground system design.)

“There are no moving parts in the flow path, so that means there are no compressor blades to suck in the air, so we need something to get us up to above Mach 4 in order to get the compression into the engine,” Helbach said.

The Air Force program, which had a couple of failed tests, came several years after a similar NASA effort called the X-43, which in 2004 shattered speed records when it flew at nearly Mach 9.7, or about 6,600 miles per hour, for 10 seconds. But the engine couldn’t withstand the temperatures involved.

“The engine basically melted because it got so hot,” Helbach said. “They didn’t actively cool it. So for our program, we actively cooled the engine, which means that along the outside of the engine, we cycled the fuel around it to suck out the heat from the engine, heat up that fuel, and then inject it into the combustor for the scramjet engine.”

The X-51 was designed to start its engine using ethylene and transition to a hydrocarbon fuel called JP-7 — the same type of endothermic fuel employed by the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

“It basically means you can dump a lot of heat into that fuel,” Helbach said. “When you crack the fuel, it actually makes it more combustible. It increases the amount of combustion you can create from the fuel.”

For the follow-on weapons program, the Air Force has teamed with the Pentagon’s research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to shrink the technology into a hypersonic weapon that could fit on most of the bomber fleet, according to Kenneth Davidson, manager of the hypersonic materials development at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

“If you look at the X-51, the size is slightly too big to put it on our current bombers,” he said. “It was made as a demonstrator. There’s no weapon in it. There are no sensors on board for controlling the guidance. So we’re looking at making it more durable, getting the guidance control developed so that it can become a weapon system, developing the ordnance.”

Carrying a small, conventional warhead, a hypersonic weapon could be used as a stand-off missile, so the military could strike targets at a safe distance without putting pilots and aircraft at risk.

“You could then attack defensive targets, those heavily defended or the time-critical targets in a very timely manner — if it’s a moving target, before it can move,” Davidson said. “And then ultimately, these would have a sensor so that they can track a moved target — not necessarily something that is moving, but if the target moves or it gets into the area, they can see the target and hit it very, very accurately.”

The High Speed Strike Weapon is affiliated with other demonstration projects being developed by DARPA, including the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept and the Tactical Boost Glide, both of which have test flights scheduled for 2018 or 2019.

“Our goal is to make sure the Air Force has the knowledge in 2020 or over the next five years to be able to make acquisition decisions using this technology,” Davidson said. “Our goal is to provide a capability to stand off, launch these vehicles off the aircraft to hit time-critical dependent targets … And ultimately from a manufacturing standpoint, it’s got to be affordable.”

 

[Transhumanist]

What It's Like To Fly In The Military's Crazy V-22 Osprey

“Oh yeah, they’re going to have an Osprey,” the NYPD K-9 unit policeman told me when I arrived at the Lower Manhattan Heliport at 4:30 AM. “Those things haven’t been too reliable. A lot of crashes lately. Good luck.” Two hours later, we were lifting off the ground.

I had gathered on the wind-swept, desolate pier with Tavarish, a handful of other journalists, reigning Miss USA Nia Sanchez, and Dean Cain (yes, that Dean Cain) to participate in this year’s New York City Fleet Week festivities, and they were already off to a nerve-wracking start. I had been telling myself for a week that I’d be fine. That the multitude of crashes incurred during the V-22 Osprey’s development, and another one just last week that killed one Marine and injured 21 others, didn’t mean that our Osprey would be going down too.

But they did hand us a helmet, a life vest, and an oxygen tank, just in case.

(Full Disclosure: The United States Navy wanted us to fly in an MV-22 Osprey so badly that after a little more than a year of intermittent begging and pleading for any sort of Fleet Week embark, they finally acquiesced to us hopping on board a helicopter to ride out to the USS San Antonio about a week before we were set to go. Little did we know that the aircraft we were about to get on is almost, but not entirely, completely unlike a helicopter.)

In case you’re not familiar with the Osprey, it’s borne of a very simple need. Helicopters can take off and land vertically, and they can hover as well. That’s really all well and good, until you realize that slapping a propeller on the top of an aircraft and lopping the wings off tends to make it as slow as a DMV line. So if you want an aircraft to move fast, it’s got to be an airplane.

There’s an old saying, however. A plane makes sense because it clearly obeys the laws of physics, wings and all. A helicopter doesn’t make any sense, because it just beats the laws of physics into submission. The Osprey is an attempt at combining those two things.

Back in the 1980s, the US military wanted something that could land like a helicopter, and go quickly like a plane. Eventually the solution was to basically have an airplane with two enormous engines fixed to the wingtips. For take off and landing, the engines and propellers would point vertically, beating the air into submission so that it can do all sorts of things in a vertical fashion, as well as hover.

But when it wants to get going, the entire engine and propeller assemblies rotate downwards, making sure all the thrust goes horizontally. The wings provide the lift, just as it would on any other airplane. In short, the whole process ends up looking a lot like this, except, you know, in the air:

The end result is a massively complex system, but one that can top 300 miles per hour at 15,000 feet.

And because of all that speed, the incredibly polite Navy reps that were guiding us through the day informed us we’d be boarding our US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey last. The issue arose as it would take six UH-60 Seahawk helicopters, and one Osprey to get the entire media group out to the San Antonio, a huge amphibious transport ship that you can think of as much like an enormous floating parking garage, capable of carrying enough troops to take an entire beach. Unfortunately, the San Antonio and its accompanying destroyers, the USS Stout and the USS Barry, could only spare three Seahawks to ferry all of us.

So while the Seahawks (a navalized version of the Blackhawk) made two trips, us fortunate souls awaiting the Osprey would have to wait a little longer.

(Not that the guy running the heliport seemed happy that one would be arriving at all, mind you, as apparently the massive downwash generated by the enormous 38-foot rotors was vastly greater than the Navy’s workhorse Seahawks, which made the heliport’s fuel boxes blow open the last time a V-22 came through, with President Obama’s entourage.)

Which was fine, as when you already live your day-to-day life with the same anxiety as a Woody Allen character, you want more time to contemplate your seemingly inevitable demise on what everyone kept joking about was a very unreliable aircraft.

And let me assure you, in the most sarcastic way possible, that gallows humor is hilarious.

But how often do people get to ride on one of these things? I figured the huge opportunity outweighed the small risk, the same way a blue whale outweighs a mouse. There was no way I wasn’t going through with this.

After we watched the Seahawks come and go in the early dawn skies, it was finally our turn. An incredibly professional Marine officer had just begun to give us the rundown on how exactly our safety equipment would work, when we heard the WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP from the Osprey.

As loud as three Seahawks were, the Osprey easily put them to shame.

Because of all the noise, I couldn’t really hear much at all. We were given the life jacket, which went around our necks and which inflated with the pull of something, a helmet, which was supposed to protect our heads in the event of something, and a small bottle of oxygen connected to a hose which was connected to a mouthpiece, which we were supposed to use in the event of something as well.

I didn’t quite hear how to use it, but I do distinctly remember hearing the words “30 to 45 seconds of breathable air” before having to run. Let’s just hope that the something never would come to occur, and we’d never end up having a bit of a splash, as I’m pretty sure I would have spent 30 to 45 seconds dying in my own brain before finally snapping out of it, realizing I was maybe still alive, and then maybe trying to figure out how to get the damned bottle to work.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to figure it out, but it was time to get on board anyways. I squished my head into the helmet, which had attached noise suppressors which made the world around me go relatively silent, save for the muffled WHOMP WHOMP of the rotors. I scurried out onto the helipad, where the sheer drama of the thing immediately struck me. An Osprey doesn’t quite look like any other flying vehicle in the world, and yet, there it was, sitting in front of me with its twin blades spinning in the air.

Also, there was about a bunch of other journalists as dorky as myself taking pictures as I ran towards it, but that didn’t really take away from how awkward it looks on the ground.

I clambered up the open rear ramp, and suddenly realized what an absolute mess it was in side. Not because the Marines who run it are anything but virtually spit-shined and polished, in their own way, but the MV-22 is built for nothing if not utility. Bundles of exposed wires and cables cluttered the ceiling, pipes ran along the sides, and parallel sets of canvas seats lined the walls.

I hopped into an open seat, and immediately started fumbling with the seat belt. It’s not some five-point super-safety harness either, just a canvas lap belt, like you’d find in an old van. One of the Marines watching over us told me how to tighten it and checked to make sure that it was clasped.

I’m sure it was safe.

But I didn’t really have time to tediously contemplate anymore, as this thing was going. There wasn’t any time to dawdle with it. All of us dorks were all helmeted, lifejacketed, and seat belted in. I waited for them to close the rear hatch, and get going. I know I looked like an adorable nerd in all the gear I had on, but I didn’t care. They were about to close that big hatch, and we were about to set off in a vehicle that I had barely contemplated ever coming close to before.

Except they didn’t close what looked like a gaping hole in the back of the Osprey. We were just going anyways, with the back door wide open. And while that may sound nuts, and your mother would freak out at the notion of you flying out the back, it really was the complete opposite. As there’s only two real windows to speak of in the back of the aircraft, it was our one view onto the world throughout the trip.

And damn, what an awesome and incredible view it was, as Manhattan receded below. Lifting off in an Osprey doesn’t quite feel like lifting off in a regular airplane. It’s almost entirely vertical, with no real horizontal push back into the seat, or in this case sideways, as we were sitting along the walls. You just go.

The noise, even with the big earmuffs pressing into your jawbone so hard it hurts, is massive. Just the screaming, grinding, constant cacophony that is the valiant war cry of human-built machinery over the laws of physics. The whole thing vibrates and bumps and shakes along, like you’re on a constant gravel road in a car an old pickup with nothing out back.

It’s great.

A few things were surprising, however. As there aren’t really any good views out a window, you don’t really notice the engines rotating. Intellectually, you know it must be happening, but above the noise of the engines themselves you don’t actually hear any mechanical whirring, as I expected, when they move into place for horizontal flight. The only thing you really hear and feel over everything else is the big THUNK from the landing gear shoving up into the belly of the aircraft.

And because you can’t really see out the back once the Marines had raised the bottom half of the rear hatch, you mostly rely on your gut to feel what’s happening. You feel yourself moving up and down, yawing this way and that, banking hard (or what felt hard for me, as the smallest plane I’ve ever been in is a CRJ regional jet, but I’m sure wasn’t actually very hard at all), and slowing down as the pilots saw fit.

But even what you could see out the half-open back hatch was a crazy sight, with the Freedom Tower shrinking in the distance, and the beaches and sprawl of New Jersey following it.

I wish I could say it was an uneventful half hour ride, that it all went smoothly and then got kind of boring, but that would be lying.

Because after about a half hour, when we were unsure of exactly where we were beyond the vague notion of “somewhere off the coast of New Jersey,” we heard the Marine yelling something that sounded a lot like “WE’RE GOING TO MAKE A COUPLE OF LOW PASSES.”

The back hatch was lowered fully once more, and out it, you could see a vast ship.

The USS San Antonio.

Surrounding it was a veritable picket fence of destroyers, Coast Guard vessels, and even the odd NYPD boat making sure no one got too close. But we were about to land on it.

We swooped three times over the ship, each time getting closer, each time picking out more details from its slab sides, to its two Bushmaster cannons, to all the people walking around the deck. One of the Marines got an even closer look, lowering a hatch on the starboard side of the Osprey, and sticking what looked like damn near three-quarters of his body out.

After the third and final swoop, my gut got a big sinking feeling as we slowed to what felt like a slow crawl. Out the back, all I could see was a wide swath of churned water emanating from the propellers of the San Antonio.

I turned to my left, to look out the still-open side hatch, when I just glanced what seemed to be a guy clad entirely in purple standing just to our right. Before I could finish wondering how someone was standing outside our Osprey, we landed on the deck with a big thud. It almost felt like a regular airplane landing, except the sort you’d do with a new, trainee pilot, despite probably being incredibly soft considering we were in some sort of bizarre plane-helicopter hybrid gently setting down on a pitching, rolling, and moving ship.

A few seconds more, and we were given the signal to undo our belts and head out the back. The propeller downwash was incredibly powerful, to the point where it almost felt like it would knock you over.

But we were aboard. And holy hell, what a ride. If a weird plane-helicopter hybrid thing beats the laws of physics, then I don’t want them.

 

[Transhumanist]

Flying though international airspace? A provocation.

Issuing a warning to an aircraft in international airspace? A-Ok



Vietnam, The Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, the screws slowly tighten around China's neck.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Pentagon plans long-range missile defense radar in Alaska

The U.S. Defense Department on Friday announced plans to deploy a new long-range radar in central Alaska that would help the U.S. missile defense system better discern potential enemy missiles launched by Iran or North Korea and increase the capacity of interceptors in the ground in Alaska and California.

Raytheon Co, Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp are competing to build the new radar, which is expected to cost just under $1 billion.

The new radar would begin defensive operations in 2020, pending completion of required environmental and safety studies, the department said in a statement.

It said the new long-range discrimination radar (LRDR) will help the multi-layered U.S. ballistic missile defense system better address potential countermeasures that could be launched by potential foe to confuse U.S. defensive systems.

Missile Defense Agency Director James Syring and other senior Pentagon officials told Congress in March that the new radar was critically important to help defend against the increasing capabilities by North Korea and Iran to launch missiles at the United States.

The radar would likely be placed at Clear Air Force Station, an Air Force Space Command radar station located in central Alaska, but the final decision would be made after completion of the environmental studies.

Riki Ellison, founder of the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said placing the new radar in central Alaska rather than in the Alaskan Aleutian islands would allow the system to keep an eye on threats from both North Korea and Iran.

He said it would also considerably cost less to build the new radar in Alaska, which could free up funding for an additional radar in Hawaii.

The Missile Defense Agency is moving ahead with the design and development of the long-planned new radar. It launched the competition in January and is expected to award a contract by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal 2015 year.

UPDATE 1-Pentagon plans long-range missile defense radar in Alaska| Reuters

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Starwars one step closer: DARPA’s ‘death ray’ to begin field tests — RT USA

Starwars one step closer: DARPA’s ‘death ray’ to begin field tests

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has received government permission to field test its HELLADS laser weapon system.

“The technical hurdles were daunting, but it is extremely gratifying to have produced a new type of solid-state laser with unprecedented power and beam quality for its size,” DARPA program manager Rich Bagnell said in a statement cited by the agency’s website. The testing is set to start this summer.

High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) has been in development since 2003. It is intended for use as a protection system for aircraft.

“Enemy surface-to-air threats to manned and unmanned aircraft have become increasingly sophisticated,” DARPA states on its website. “High power lasers can provide a solution to this challenge, as they harness the speed and power of light to counter multiple threats.”

READ MORE: Next-gen US drone: Now equipped with ‘death ray’ laser

The statement adds however, that the laser could also be used for attack: “Laser weapon systems provide additional capability for offensive missions as well—adding precise targeting with low probability of collateral damage.”

To deploy that in practice, though, DARPA says the weapon must be made smaller and lighter than currently possible – and America’s drones will have to stick with relatively imprecise missiles for the time being.

The goal of the HELLADS project is to build a laser with 150 kilowatts of power, weighing under 750 kilograms, and with a size less than 3 cubic meters.

In mid-April, DARPA’s contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), unveiled the HEL Generation 3 laser. It meets these size specifications and is fitted with a module generator system, which enables it to produce 75 to 300-kilowatt beams.

Developers believe it can be mounted on GA-ASI’s new Avenger drone. The drone’s jet engine is capable of producing enough energy to recharge the laser’s battery in flight, essentially giving the weapon infinite ammunition.

 

[AMDR]

Looks like UCLASS is now known as the RAQ-25A to NAVAIR. I don't know whether that will be the official designation when UCLASS finally rolls out. This isn't my forte

"The aircraft is being referred to as the RAQ-25A by the Naval Air Systems Command."
- Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System (UCLASS)

Still, I have a feeling that's a name we're going to hear a lot over the next couple of decades

 

[SvenSvensonov]

US Sending B-52s To Sweden As Russian Bombers Skirt Swedish Airspace

America is in tit-for-tat military escalations on two fronts: China in the east and Russia in the west. On Thursday, Russian bombers flew directly towards the Swedish coastline, abruptly turning away at the last moment. This came as it was announced the US will be flying B-52s to Sweden for a major exercise.

The Russian bombers, swing-wing supersonic Tu-22M Backfires, flew over the Gulf of Finland and then swung around to the south, right off the southern end of Oland. Although Russia has been flying strategic aircraft throughout the region on a regular basis, a highly provocative event occurred over Sweden last fall when a formation of Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft are said to have actually penetrated Swedish airspace. This, along with other flagrant events, have resulted in Sweden viewing Russian aircraft operating near its shores as threats. As such, they are usually accompanied by Swedish JS39 Gripen fighters that launch on alert whenever they approach.

The move to send B-52s, America’s venerable nuclear-capable strategic bomber, a Cold War icon, to Sweden for drills marks the closest forward deployment American bombers have made to Russia’s tense border with Europe. Another long-range B-52 mission took place last April, but did not include direct simulated attacks as part of a allied exercise hosted by a foreign nation, nor did it venture anywhere near as far east as the Sweden’s Baltic Sea coastline.

The B-52s are participating in an exercise called “Baltops,” which will include 4,500 personnel, 50 ships and 50 combat aircraft. Two of these aircraft will be B-52H Stratofortresses which will fly from the US mainland on June 13th to execute one of the jet’s latent mission sets: laying down large strings of naval mines.

The use of naval mines is largely viewed as an area denial tactic and sends a unique signal to Russia, whose naval bases on the Baltic could be temporarily put out of commission by the deployment of such weaponry. For this exercise, the B-52s’ long-range mine-laying mission is said to simulate rebuffing a marine invasion of Sweden’s southern shores. This is also a uniquely pointed scenario considering Sweden’s frantic phantom submarine hunt that put the country on edge last fall.

The B-52 is capable of deploying an array of naval mines, ranging in size from 500lbs to 2,000lbs. It can carry 50 of the 500lb class weapons, 30 of the 1,000lb class and 20 of the 2,000 class. It may be able to carry even more mines in the future as upgrades to its internal bomb rack systems mature.

Beyond the tactics and weapons the B-52s will be using during Baltops ‘15, Independent Sweden’s increasingly close cooperation with NATO is meant to send strong signals to Russia. Among these messages is that the more you poke and prod, the tighter strategic military alliances in the region will become, which represents a collective deterrent to Russian aggression.

With all this in mind, it looks like it is going to be a chilly summer on the Baltic Sea...

 

[F-22Raptor]

US Sending B-52s To Sweden As Russian Bombers Skirt Swedish Airspace

America is in tit-for-tat military escalations on two fronts: China in the east and Russia in the west. On Thursday, Russian bombers flew directly towards the Swedish coastline, abruptly turning away at the last moment. This came as it was announced the US will be flying B-52s to Sweden for a major exercise.

The Russian bombers, swing-wing supersonic Tu-22M Backfires, flew over the Gulf of Finland and then swung around to the south, right off the southern end of Oland. Although Russia has been flying strategic aircraft throughout the region on a regular basis, a highly provocative event occurred over Sweden last fall when a formation of Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft are said to have actually penetrated Swedish airspace. This, along with other flagrant events, have resulted in Sweden viewing Russian aircraft operating near its shores as threats. As such, they are usually accompanied by Swedish JS39 Gripen fighters that launch on alert whenever they approach.

The move to send B-52s, America’s venerable nuclear-capable strategic bomber, a Cold War icon, to Sweden for drills marks the closest forward deployment American bombers have made to Russia’s tense border with Europe. Another long-range B-52 mission took place last April, but did not include direct simulated attacks as part of a allied exercise hosted by a foreign nation, nor did it venture anywhere near as far east as the Sweden’s Baltic Sea coastline.

The B-52s are participating in an exercise called “Baltops,” which will include 4,500 personnel, 50 ships and 50 combat aircraft. Two of these aircraft will be B-52H Stratofortresses which will fly from the US mainland on June 13th to execute one of the jet’s latent mission sets: laying down large strings of naval mines.

The use of naval mines is largely viewed as an area denial tactic and sends a unique signal to Russia, whose naval bases on the Baltic could be temporarily put out of commission by the deployment of such weaponry. For this exercise, the B-52s’ long-range mine-laying mission is said to simulate rebuffing a marine invasion of Sweden’s southern shores. This is also a uniquely pointed scenario considering Sweden’s frantic phantom submarine hunt that put the country on edge last fall.

The B-52 is capable of deploying an array of naval mines, ranging in size from 500lbs to 2,000lbs. It can carry 50 of the 500lb class weapons, 30 of the 1,000lb class and 20 of the 2,000 class. It may be able to carry even more mines in the future as upgrades to its internal bomb rack systems mature.

Beyond the tactics and weapons the B-52s will be using during Baltops ‘15, Independent Sweden’s increasingly close cooperation with NATO is meant to send strong signals to Russia. Among these messages is that the more you poke and prod, the tighter strategic military alliances in the region will become, which represents a collective deterrent to Russian aggression.

With all this in mind, it looks like it is going to be a chilly summer on the Baltic Sea...

The noose around the Russian and Chinese necks keep getting tighter.

 

[AMDR]

You are never safe....

 

[F-22Raptor]

I just wanted to take a moment on this Memorial Day weekend to say thanks to all of the men and women who have fought and died in service of the United States of America. May God bless them and their families!

 

[IrbiS]

An 18th Wing F-15C based at Kadena Air Base, Japan releases flares from the ALE-45 dispenser over the Pacific

F/A-18F of 'Daredevils' Sqn. dropping 10 JDAMs

Dust Devils 215, F/A-18F Super Hornet launches an AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile during developmental testing of the Block II version

Dust Devils’ Super Hornets loaded with live GBU-31 JDAMs

The AV-8B now uses the BRU-70 digital improved triple ejector rack (DITER) that enables the aircraft to carry three GPS-guided weapons on a single station. A DITER can be fitted to the outer pylons (as shown) giving the aircraft four GPS-guided compatible stations.

 

[AMDR]

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Hmm...the Blue Angels are buzzing my office window.

Must be a photo shoot.

Edit: Blue Angels will fly over Boston today - Massachusetts news - Boston.com

They are flying pretty low.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Virginia-class Sub John Warner Successfully Completes Initial Sea Trials

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced May 26 that the newest Virginia-class submarine, John Warner (SSN 785), successfully completed its initial sea trials on May 23.

Sea trials are aggressive operational tests that demonstrate the submarine’s capabilities at sea. John Warner, the first Virginia-class submarine to be named for a person, is being built as part of a teaming arrangement between HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division and General Dynamics Electric Boat.

“Alpha sea trials represent the first underway test of the quality of the craftsmanship that went into the construction of this great vessel and the skill of the crew that operates her,” said Jim Hughes, Newport News’ vice president of submarines and fleet support. “Both the ship and the crew performed incredibly well, resulting in extremely successful trials that enable the ship to advance directly into its next set of tests. The John Warner is now well on its way to being another successful and early Virginia-class delivery.”

All systems, components and compartments were tested during the trials. The submarine submerged for the first time and operated at high speeds on the surface and underwater. John Warner will undergo several more rounds of sea trials before delivery to the Navy by Newport News.

“The sea trials were a huge success,” said CDR Dan Caldwell, the submarine’s prospective commanding officer. “The ship is in great material condition, and I could not be more proud of the way the crew performed. They have worked tirelessly for the last two years preparing to take this ship to sea, and it showed during sea trials. We look forward to completing the ship’s delivery and joining the operational fleet.”

Construction of John Warner began in 2010. The boat is 99 percent complete and on schedule to deliver in June — more than three months ahead of its contracted delivery date.

SEAPOWER Magazine Online

 

[Transhumanist]

F-35B Passes Shipboard Night Flying Phase During Operational Trials

A half dozen F-35Bs are deployed aboard the USS Wasp for Operational Test phase one of shipboard F-35 trials and the first order of business was to test the F-35B and its pilots ability to operate from a Gator Navy flattop in the dark of night.

Each pilot had to takeoff and land aboard the Wasp four times at night in order for the test to be considered a success. During which, they could not use the aircraft’s advanced electro-optical and night vision systems to do so. Instead, they had to rely on a more traditional sensor for making a successful landing, the unaided human eye.

Maj. Michael H. Rountree Jr. who is the senior landing signal officer (LSO) for OT-1 and assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, explains:

“We use the night pattern for unaided recovery... We are not approved to use the night vision camera, or distributed aperture system in the ship environment yet. We are simply using the naked eye to get us onto the ship. We fly an approach that funnels us into a good position to take over and land the jet visually... I went out there for the first time to fly at night and everything went smoothly... With the controls and interface between the pilot and aircraft so seamless and the task loading so low, this aircraft is really a joy and a pleasure to fly.”

You can get an idea of just how easy the F-35B is to control during vertical flight mode in the video below:

There is little doubt that the F-35B’s amazing avionics and its ability to automatically hang in mid air without the traditional ‘balancing act’ that AV-8B Harrier pilots have had to to master for decades to achieve similar results should make the F-35B a much more docile aircraft to operate from the boat. Although, it would be interesting to know how much work it would take to see the Harrier upgraded with a digital flight control system that can offer the same simplicity of operation as the F-35B. Although, actually doing so wouldn’t make much sense now as investing in a platform that will be retired in the not so distant future makes little sense. Still, pairing such a capability with the Harrier, even later in its operational life, may have been able to save lives and aircraft.

Regardless of the F-35B’s incredible ability to take the traditional flying workload off the pilot’s shoulders, night flight operations aboard the tight confines of a Helicopter Landing Dock is a dangerous affair. Communication and situational awareness are key for all those involved as risk is greatly increased when compared to daytime operations.

Considering that this is the first time the F-35B will be operating from the deck using its short takeoff and vertical landing capability in an operational manner, the unknown is a major factor as well and things can go very wrong very quickly when you are talking about a still largely experimental 20 ton fighter jet hovering on a pillar of air above a steel deck with people working nearby.

Sgt. Daniel Beaston, a mechanic with VMFAT-501, describes how different night can be from day when it comes to operating a $150M+ fighter jet from a couple acres of steel floating in the middle of the ocean.

“At nighttime, you have a lot more risk, so safety is paramount. You must constantly keep your head on a swivel and be especially watchful. It is also important to maintain communication between yourself and the pilot... The smallest breakdown in communication at night can be extremely disastrous and everything can become complicated.”

The F-35 will continue its OT-1 ship trials as the USMC marches closer to declaring the jet operationally capable this summer. We will keep you updated as to how these potentially volatile tests aboard the USS Wasp continue to advance.