fredag 30. august 2024
F-35 - Technology Refresh-3 er enda ikke klar - A&SF Daily
An F-35A, in flight above the Mojave Desert in California, January 6,
2023. A developmental test team from the 461st Flight Test Squadron conducted
the first flight of an F-35 in the Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) configuration at
Edwards Air Force Base, California. The 50-minute flight, which took the jet to
35,000 feet at speeds just shy of the speed of sound above the desert, marked
the start of an extensive flight test campaign. TR-3 provides the computational
horsepower to support modernized Block 4 capabilities. The F-35 Joint Program
Office is the Department of Defense's focal point for the 5th-generation strike
aircraft for the Navy, Air Force, Marines, and our allies. The F-35 is the
premier multi-mission, 5th-generation weapon system. Its ability to collect,
analyze and share data is a force multiplier that enhances all assets in the
battle space: with stealth technology, advanced sensors, weapons capacity, and
range. The F-35 has been operational since July 2015 and is the most lethal,
survivable, and interoperable fighter aircraft ever built.
Lockheed
Delivers ‘More Robust’ Software for New F-35s—But Not Full TR-3 Yet
Aug. 29, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak
Lockheed Martin has begun delivering software for
Tech Refresh 3-equipped F-35s that will allow pilots to train more
comprehensively for future missions, the Joint Program Office announced Aug.
29. The software is not yet the full TR-3 capability, though, and Lockheed is
being docked some of its final delivery payments accordingly.
The JPO and Lockheed “have reached an agreement
for the acceptance and delivery” of TR-3-enabled aircraft “with robust training
capability,” a program spokesperson said. He said the JPO and Lockheed have
agreed to “terms and conditions” for deliveries and software releases but did
not elaborate.
As many as 100 F-35s had been in storage for up to
a year before deliveries resumed in
mid-July. They had been completed but not delivered because the TR-3
upgrade—processors, displays, and other improvements—has not been fully tested.
To get deliveries moving again, the F-35 partners agreed early in the summer to
accept a “truncated” version of the TR-3 software, and JPO director Lt. Gen.
Michael Schmidt determined the software was safe for flight in July.
The TR-3 is the basis for the F-35’s Block 4
upgrade, which includes more than 80 improvements chiefly having to do with
electronic warfare, navigation and communications, and weapons.
The spokesperson was not immediately able to say
what functions the new software will permit, but Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said
on an earnings call in April that the truncated software will mean the jets can
“get … in the hands of squadron, wing, and regional commanders so that they can
start training their pilots on them and training their maintenance
organizations, and also get the base infrastructure, spare parts, tools, everything
else.” He said the jets “could be deployed into actual combat operations” if
called on.
“In the statement we sent out in July,” the JPO
spokesperson said, “we explained that the TR-3 aircraft initially being
delivered had ‘initial training capability,’ and that ‘more robust combat
training capability’ would be delivered in August. The ‘more robust combat
training capability’ is now being delivered.”
As part of the agreement, the JPO will withhold a
portion of final aircraft delivery payments until “TR-3 combat capability is
qualified and delivered.” That amount will be about $5 million per aircraft,
the spokesperson said. An F-35 costs about $82 million each, according to the
latest contract.
The full TR-3 software package is still not
expected to be fielded until early next year.
flightradar24
V-22 hendelser kunne gått alvorlig galt - Air & Space Force Daily
På de tidspunkt disse hendelsene fant sted, visste flygerne at fokus var på deres håndtering av maskinen. Allikevel inntreffer disse alvorlige hendelsene. Jeg har ingen kunnskap om hvordan utelgelsen av flygende personell foretas til denne åpenbart utfordrende flytypen. Tipper at "noen" kikker nærmere på det. (Red.)
New Reports: Two Osprey Mishaps in One Week
A pair of new accident investigation board reports demonstrate how easily a simple mission can go wrong. In the span of five days last August, members of the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., caused accident damage in excess of $2 million each.
Investigators faulted crew members for both crashes, which included a botched parking job at Inyokern Airfield, Calif., and an accidental engine shutdown that led to an uncontrolled rapid descent and crash at Melrose Air Force Range, N.M. Neither crash appared to be systemic, a relief to supporters of the Osprey, which has been under increased scrutiny following a series of deadly mishaps in recent years.
Få med deg resten av artikkelen her:
torsdag 29. august 2024
E-3 Sentry jobber ut fra Rygge - The Aviationist
NATO’s E-3
Sentry AWACS are Now Operating from Norway’s Rygge Air Base
August
29, 2024 Military Aviation
A NATO E-3 Sentry AWACS arrives at Norway’s Rygge Air Station in connection with Nordic Response 2024. (Image credit: Onar Dignes Ase/Forsvaret)
The AWACS, described
as NATO’s ‘eyes in the skies’, usually employed Ørland as forward base, however
this time it was decided to deploy the aircraft to Rygge, with at least two
E-3s already operating from there.
The Norwegian
military announced last
week that its Rygge air base, in the southern part of the country, will begin
frequently hosting NATO’s E-3 Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control
System) aircraft. This is owing to the unavailability of the runway at Ørland
in western Norway, which led to Rygge being chosen, the statement from the
Norwegian Armed Forces said on Aug. 22, 2024.
Interestingly, the
notice came a day prior to the threat alert at the NATO air base in Geilenkirchen,
in far-western Germany, on Aug. 23, which saw personnel being evacuated until
the alert was deactivated. The base is home to the NAEW&CF (NATO Airborne
Early Warning and Control Force) E-3A Component.
Subsequent reports by
German media said that the alert was owing to indications of “preparatory
actions for a likely Russian act of sabotage,” although a NATO spokesperson
later denied. “The word Russia was never mentioned,” said the spokesperson to
Reuters. “We talked about a threat caused by drones.”
E-3s from the
NAEW&CF had already operated from Rygge during the Nordic Response 2024
exercise, held from Feb. 26 to Mar. 15. Flight tracking data three days after
the announcement, on Aug. 25,
also showed an E-3 Sentry (callsign NATO40) operating between Rygge and Denmark
over the North Sea. Again on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, two
E-3s (callsigns NATO01 and NATO06) were circling the length from northern
Norway over the Norwegian Sea to northern Germany in two separate routes,
operating from Rygge.
Sjekk hele saken her: https://tinyurl.com/4p9z837b
Ukraina - Den første F-16 er tapt i havari - The Aviationist
Breaking: One
Of The First F-16 Jets Transferred To Ukraine Has Crashed
August
29, 2024 Aviation Safety, Military Aviation, War in Ukraine
Ukrainian Air Force F-16.
The Ukrainian Air
Force has lost one of the first six F-16 jets it has recently received.
A Ukrainian Air
Force F-16 fighter jet was lost in a crash on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, a U.S.
official told the Wall Street Journal. Preliminary
information suggests the jet was not brought down by enemy fire: the crash is
believed to have been caused by pilot error.
Sjekk hele saken her: https://tinyurl.com/3kkzn6rp
Herc har fylt 70 - Stars & Stripes
Akkurat som våre første P-3B Orion, er den født hos Locheed Burbank, Los Angeles. (Red.)
Air Force celebrates 70
years of the C-130 Hercules while preparing for its next phase
By
Alexander Banerjee
Stars and Stripes • August
28, 2024
Archived photo of the YC-130 Hercules during its
ferry flight from Burbank, Calif., to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Aug.
23, 1954. (U.S. Air Force)
Seventy years since its first flight on Aug. 23,
1954, the C-130 Hercules has remained one of the most durable and versatile
military aircraft in history. It has traversed every continent and been used by
over 70 nations, and there is no sign its importance will diminish any time
soon.
“It’s the greatest airplane ever built, and it’s
stained honorably with American blood, sweat and tears,” Gen. Mike Minihan,
commander of Air Mobility Command, said in an Air Force news release.
onsdag 28. august 2024
KLM med nye seter i A321neo - Aviation24.be
Aviation 24.be
KLM debuts new RECARO R1 and R2 seats on A321neo inaugural flight
KLM’s first Airbus A321neo took its inaugural flight on August 27, 2024, featuring a fully RECARO-equipped cabin with R1 and R2 seats. The seats, delivered by RECARO Aircraft Seating as part of a long-standing 25-year partnership with KLM, offer enhanced passenger comfort and sustainability features.
The customised seats include a debossed KLM logo, a BYOD holder, USB-C power ports, and enlarged tables exclusive to KLM’s Economy Class.
The aircraft is configured with 36 R2 seats in Business Class and 191 R1 seats in Economy. Sustainability is improved through lightweight synthetic leather covers and redesigned backrests that reduce weight.
This collaboration highlights both companies’ commitment to passenger comfort and innovation.
SAS ute av konkursbeskyttelse - Aviation24.be
Aviation24.be
SAS successfully emerges from restructuring, poised for a new era as Scandinavia’s leading airline
SAS has successfully completed its restructuring process, emerging from Chapter 11 in the US and a Swedish company reorganisation, backed by a $1.2 billion investment.
The airline now stands as a financially strong and competitive entity, with a reinforced capital structure and a commitment to transformation and sustainability. New principal owners, including Castlelake, Air France-KLM, Lind Invest, and the Danish State, have appointed Kåre Schultz as the new Chairman of the Board.
Throughout the restructuring, SAS restructured over $2 billion in debt, optimised its fleet, and secured agreements with key stakeholders. The airline has seen a positive trend in passenger demand, with a 6.5% increase in travellers compared to the previous year, and recorded its highest monthly profitability in July 2024.
SAS is now set to join the SkyTeam alliance, continuing its legacy as Scandinavia’s leading airline with a focus on sustainability and growth in a competitive market. The transition marks a new chapter for SAS as it continues its transformation under the guidance of its new leadership and investors.
Noe nytt fra Vertical om eVTOL
flightradar24
Paraglidere til US Army? - AW&ST
Denne saken er omtalt i Forsvarets forum, men her mer utfyllende. (Red.)
The Debrief: Powered Paragliders Emerge As Popular U.S. Troop Transport Idea
Steve Trimble August 26, 2024
Among the panoply of new technologies propelled into development by an intense military rivalry with China, one of the latest may come as a surprise: the humble powered paraglider.
On Aug. 20, the U.S. Army revealed plans to develop the Personal Air Mobility Systems (PAMS), forecasting that a phalanx of motorized trikes attached to parachutes could one day stealthily insert airborne troops behind enemy lines.
The PAMS solicitation, however, marked only the U.S. military’s latest move into powered paragliders.
Eight days before, Marine Corps headquarters published a “powered paraglider interim policy message.” The draft policy statement supports the Augmented Parachute System (APS), which is the Marines’ equivalent of PAMS.
“This system will fill a registered capability gap for the Reconnaissance and Marine Special Operations communities,” the interim policy guidance says. “Each APS will transport one Marine with combat equipment inside the weapon engagement zone and provide a competitive advantage.”
The U.S. military, however, is a global latecomer to the powered paraglider fad.
Chinese special forces flew a powered paraglider with a small rubber boat onto a river in a public 2002 demonstration, according to Army Training and Doctrine Command’s guide to air and air defense systems. Iran, India, Pakistan, Cuba and Lebanese Hezbollah also have dabbled with the technology, the Army document says.
A group of Hamas fighters breached the Israeli border on Oct. 7 last year onboard motorized paragliders. Photos and videos showed crew members firing small arms as they entered Israeli airspace.
Powered paragliders may seem an unlikely vehicle for a military assault mission. The parachute lines are susceptible to being entangled on takeoff. The simple vehicles are limited by high winds. And the open cockpits offer little protection from the elements and, not least, hostile fire.
But some military planners see advantages that outweigh the drawbacks.
“A militarized powered paraglider platform is envisioned to provide both low-altitude (nap-of-the-earth and/or contour-level flight) infiltration and exfiltration capability to increase survivability and avoid detection by the enemy,” the Army’s PAMS request for project proposals (RPP) says.
The PAMS also could operate as high as 10,000 ft. if necessary, the solicitation adds.
“This new PAMS will also significantly reduce the cost to deliver/transport warfighters over traditional means,” the RPP says. The document offers no elaboration, but alternatives include paratroop airdrops from fixed-wing aircraft, plus transport by helicopters.
The Army’s solicitation seeks a powered paraglider capable of flights with a maximum range of up to 300 km (186 mi.), carrying up to 400 lb.
The Army’s PAMS and the Marines’ APS may benefit from recent military-funded experiments.
Earthly Dynamics, for example, announced on July 25 an Army-funded demonstration of an air-launched paraglider system, with the uncrewed vehicle dropped from a small, fixed-wing transport. UK-based Survice Engineering, meanwhile, adapted the British Parajet P55 into an uncrewed powered paraglider system. Triton Systems Inc. also received a contract worth up to $1.5 million for a powered paraglider system from the Navy.
As the PAMS and APS programs move forward, certain policy issues may arise. For example, the maximum weight in the Army’s PAMS solicitation exceeds the 254-lb. limit in the FAA’s ultralight category. That means to integrate into civil airspace during peacetime, the military’s powered paraglider operators will require a sport pilot license, a category that requires half the flight time as a private pilot’s license.
But the technology offers a new option for ground troops. In areas that pose practical or existential challenges to flying rotorcraft and fixed-wing transports, there may still be a way to launch airborne assaults.
Drone - Sukhoi blir ganske avanserte i Russland - AW&ST
The S-76(D) prototype first flew in July.
Sukhoi says the Russian Defense Ministry has given it the go-ahead to begin producing the S-71 air-launched UAV that has recently undergone significant design changes to reflect Russia’s operational experience in Ukraine.
The S-71 exists in two versions to pursue moving targets, the Sukhoi Design Bureau states in a publication commemorating its 1939 founding. One version, designated the S-71K (code-named Kovyor, or “Carpet”), operates like a guided air-to-ground missile, and the other is a more advanced autonomous uncrewed air vehicle (UAV) called the S-71M Monokhrom.
The company says it adapted the S-71’s current designs from the original 2019 specification to increase range and reduce its radar cross-section, drawing on lessons from the battlefield. The vulnerability of Russian aircraft and UAVs to Ukrainian air defenses has spurred both a desire for greater range and enhanced survivability with the S-71. But the intensity of the fighting has also demonstrated a need for scale, leading Sukhoi to abandon its goal for a multimission system and simplify the design to make mass production easier.
Sukhoi began S-71 captive-carry trials at Russia’s flight research center in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, on April 18. Sukhoi’s chief test pilot, Sergei Bogdan performed the first flight alongside S-71K and S-71M drones suspended under the wing of Russia’s newest fighter, the Su-57.
The S-71 features a trapezoidal fuselage for low observability, with a foldable swept wing and inverted V-shape all-moving fins. It is powered by a single TRDD-50 turbofan, the same engine used on such systems as the air-launched Kh-59M and Kh-101 missiles. The S-71 has an air inlet on the rear and can reach a speed of Mach 0.6 as well as an altitude of up to 8,000 m (26,000 ft.). Sukhoi also said it has moved production of control and guidance systems in-house.
The S-71K deploys Russian cluster munitions. The more capable S-71M features electro-optical sensors to enable day and nighttime operations or thermal imaging range; the platform can also search, detect and engage targets using targeting data stored onboard. Sukhoi says the system can be used with an operator in the loop to guide and validate the UAV-selected target or guide the weapon to its aimpoint. Among the S-71M’s several warhead options are a high-explosive, shaped charge. The S-71K is designed for external carriage by the launch aircraft, while the M version can also be carried in the weapons bay of an Su-57 fighter or S-70 Okhotnik combat UAV.
Sukhoi patented the S-71M UAV configuration in November 2023. The attack vehicle can be carried in the internal weapons bay of the Su-57 fighter or S-70 Okhotnik combat UAV. Credit: Sukhoi
Sukhoi has also been working on a vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) UAV that it plans to unveil formally at the Army 2024 exhibition in mid-August in Kubinka, near Moscow. The S-76 Atlas transport UAV originated from a 19-seat aircraft for local airlines and morphed into an uncrewed cargo version with a payload capacity of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb.) and a range of 4,000 km (2,485 mi.). Potential customers requested something different: airport-independent goods transport at far lower cost than using a helicopter.
Sukhoi says that 28,000 settlements in Russia depend on helicopter connectivity and are impossible to reach by land for much of the year, prompting an effort to devise a VTOL system that delivers small payloads at 30-40% less cost than using an Mi-8 helicopter. The UAVs are intended to fly autonomously along routes designated and monitored by an operator who can control up to 12 aircraft. Sukhoi says Russia’s postal service, oil and gas companies as well as regional authorities of the Far East of the Russian Federation have expressed interest in the capability.
The company in September 2023 secured a patent for the S-76 Atlas industrial design after about two years of work on the concept. The vehicle features eight electrically driven lift motors with twin-blade propellers. Sukhoi had planned on using electric engines from Slovenian provider Emrax, but sanctions imposed on Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 required a switch to propulsion systems sourced from domestic suppliers Baranov TsIAM Institute and PISh Future Motors. Sukhoi says the Russian motors provide similar capability. During its cruise phase, the S-76 Atlas is powered by a petrol engine with a pusher propeller.
The S-76 Atlas has a 2 m3 (71-ft.3) cargo hold. It can transport up to 200 kg of cargo and deliver the payload within a radius of 500 km without refueling at the destination. The maximum takeoff weight of the Atlas is 1,500 kg.
To reduce technical risks, Sukhoi built an S-76 test system to validate VTOL performance using a simple frame with electric motors. It first flew last Dec. 7. That same month, Sukhoi completed the construction of an S-76(D) demonstrator. In a video published in late July, the S-76(D) prototype lifted off the ground and rose 1-2 m before landing.
High North News kommer ut ukentlig - Her et eksempel
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Helikopterhavari i 2022 i USA skyldtes dårlig vedlikehold - AVweb
NTSB Cites Lax
Maintenance in UH-1B Fatal Crash
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Final Report was issued today on the fatal West Virginia crash of a Vietnam War-era Bell UH-1B helicopter on June 22, 2022. According to…
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Final Report was issued today on the fatal West Virginia crash of a Vietnam War-era Bell UH-1B helicopter on June 22, 2022. According to the report, the accident was caused, in part, by inadequate inspection procedures by the operator, Marpat Aviation, and a lack of FAA oversight. All six occupants died when the UH-1B “Huey” hit power lines during an attempted forced landing following a loss of engine power.
The accident flight was the last scheduled passenger trip of the second day of the annual “Huey Reunion” at Logan County Airport (6L4). The helicopter was licensed in 2014 under the “Experimental Exhibition” category and members of the public could go for rides during the event for payment. The NTSB report said the FAA provided “basically no oversight” of Marpat’s maintenance operations. The board found that Marpat likely would have discovered the fatigue cracks in the engine component that caused the power loss if it had conducted more comprehensive inspections. The board also wrote that the FAA “lacked guidance” for inspectors to provide routine surveillance of aircraft operators with experimental airworthiness certificates, such as the one held for the UH-1B involved in the accident.
The NTSB noted that the FAA had revised its maintenance standards for ex-military aircraft with experimental airworthiness certificates in 2015, but the aircraft in question was not required to meet the newer standards based on the date of its certification.