US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

asif iqbal said:

So what does these tankers offer than the current KC-units don't? Range and play load better?

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Jura said:

On Aerial Tankers:

Posted on InsideDefense.com: June 2, 2014

The Air Force projects Boeing could be liable for more than $1 billion in cost overruns on the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker program, about $250 million higher than previously estimated, according to an April report to Congress.

The revised overage stems from a risk assessment last year led by Maj. Gen. John Thompson, the KC-46 program manager, in collaboration with Boeing. The assessment projected the cost to execute the "fixed price incentive firm" engineering and manufacturing development contract for the new aircraft would most likely be $5.864 billion, up from a 2012 estimate of $5.615 million.

"This estimate incorporated an assessment of contract cost and schedule performance, as well as cost risks from the May 2013 Integrated Risk Assessment conducted between the KC-46 Division and Boeing," states the 53-page KC-46A Selected Acquisition Report, dated December 2013 and sent to Congress in April.

In February 2011, the Air Force awarded Boeing a $3.6 billion contract to begin the development of four KC-46A tanker prototypes. The contract set a $4.3 billion target price and included a provision stating that the government would pay 60 percent of any cost overruns up to a ceiling price of $4.831 billion, with Boeing to pay the rest. The Air Force's new $5.8 billion estimate would require Boeing to absorb more than $1 billion of cost overruns above the contract ceiling price.

Boeing, which is developing the new aerial-refueling tanker based on the company's 767 commercial airliner, estimates the cost to complete the contract will be $5.1 billion, a prediction the company advanced in 2011 and is sticking to, according to the Pentagon report.

The Air Force, however, for a third consecutive year is projecting that the total cost would be significantly higher. In 2011, the Air Force predicted the development contract would exceed the cost ceiling by $453 million; in 2012, the estimate grew to exceed $784 million. The new $1 billion estimate is twice the sum the Air Force originally tabulated.

At press time, a Boeing representative could not be reached for comment on the figures in the Pentagon report.

In 2011, Boeing was selected over EADS North America -- winner of the 2008 aerial refueling tanker competition that was later undone by federal auditors -- to build a 179-aircraft fleet to replace the aging Air Force's KC-135 tanker fleet.

After losing to Boeing, EADS North America executives accused Boeing of winning with an "extremely low-ball offer," a charge seconded by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who was frustrated that the government faced $600 million in cost overruns in the development contract (DefenseAlert, July 14, 2011).

The Air Force also projects possible schedule delays for two planned milestone events, according to the report to Congress. A "schedule risk assessment" conducted by the KC-46A program office, Boeing and the Defense Contract Management Agency in May 2013 projected a "2.6-month" delay for the first flight this summer and a nearly three-month delay of Boeing's March 30, 2017, goal for "required assets available" -- which are not contractually due until August 24, 2017. The analysis determined that Boeing had a "better than 90 percent chance" of meeting the August deadline, according to the report.

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Pentagon deal to free more hostages with Bergdahl nixed
Jun. 5, 2014 - 04:57PM

By Oren Dorell
USA Today
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Congress & DOD
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Taliban videos show missing couple
The deal to free Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban detainees held by the U.S. military nixed a Department of Defense effort to include other U.S. citizens held by the Taliban and its allies, according to a top congressional aide.

The Department of Defense was putting together a plan to include Caitlan Coleman of York , Pa., her baby who was born in captivity and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, in a deal to free Bergdahl, said Joe Kasper, chief of staff to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

Among Americans held captive is Warren Weinstein, a contractor from Rockville, Md., who was abducted in 2011 in Pakistan and is detained by al-Qaida militants aligned with the Taliban.

“The DoD was looking at this in the whole scope of things, to deal with these people as well,” Kasper said. “Instead of five for one, why not five for five?”

In a June 2 letter to President Obama, Hunter said the Defense Department plan, which Hunter said did not have time to materialize before negotiations headed by the State Department gained Bergdahl’s release, did not include a prisoner exchange.

“Now a situation has been created whereby prisoner exchanges – specifically disproportionate exchanges – are viewed by the Taliban and other aligned forces as achievable,” Hunter said.

The deal for Bergdahl’s release “was the best, probably last chance to get him home,” said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman. Harf cited a statement by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying, “We’ve been talking for a long time about a potential prisoner swap and what that might look like.”

Harf said she was unable to comment on Coleman’s situation because of privacy concerns.

Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday that he’s “not comfortable commenting on what a congressman says that reveals classified information.”

Breasseale said he’s “totally unaware” of any intelligence analysis that concluded the Bergdahl Taliban swap would cause “a raised threat” to other U.S. personnel.

Bergdahl’s release last weekend has prompted renewed calls from the families of other U.S. detainees in Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Cuba to ask why the United States has not obtained their loved ones’ freedom as well.

Kasper said he has been able to confirm twice in the past week, through contacts in South Asia, that Coleman is still alive.

Coleman’s family provided the Associated Press with a video that shows a black-clad Coleman sitting by her husband, who’s wearing a long untrimmed beard. Two videos were e-mailed to Coleman’s father in July and September by someone claiming to have ties to the Taliban.

Coleman calls on “my president, Barack Obama,” to help. “I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband, child and I to safety and freedom,” she says.

Coleman and Boyle went missing in late 2012 while traveling through Russia, Central Asia and Afghanistan. She was seven months pregnant at the time. Their last e-mail was sent Oct. 8, 2012, from an Internet cafe in Kabul, according to the Associated Press. Afghan authorities told their parents they were abducted in Wardak, a Taliban haven, the AP reported.

Other Americans held for political reasons in other countries include:

■ Alan Gross, 65, is serving a 15-year sentence in a Cuban jail for bringing communication equipment to help Jewish communities connect to the Internet. He was detained in December 2009.

■ Kenneth Bae, 45, a Korean-American missionary and tour operator, is serving a 15-year sentence in a North Korean labor camp, accused of trying to topple the country’s government. He was detained while leading a tour in November 2012.

■ Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor, is serving an eight-year prison term, accused of trying to undermine Iran’s national security by helping set up Christian prayer groups in people’s homes. He was detained in Iran in summer 2012.

■ Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in August 2011 on charges he was spying for the CIA while visiting his grandmother in Iran. His family denies he was a spy.

■ Robert Levinson, an American private investigator and former DEA and FBI agent, disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island in March 2007. U.S. officials suspect he was abducted by Iranian security operatives. Investigations by the Associated Press and The Washington Post concluded he was working indirectly for the FBI. U.S. officials deny he was employed by the U.S. government, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says his country does not have information about him.

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U.S.: China military capability grows amid tensions
Jun. 5, 2014 - 05:52PM |

The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — China shows growing capability to project military power beyond its shores, the Defense Department said Thursday.

In an annual report to Congress, the Pentagon said China is developing and testing new types of missiles, expanding the reach of its navy and upgrading its air force. China is also investing in military capabilities in cyberspace, space and electronic warfare.

The report said China’s military modernization was driven primarily by potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait, but also by its expanding interests and influence abroad, and increased tensions in the East China and South China seas. In November, China conducted its largest naval exercise to date in the Philippine Sea.

China has been engaged in territorial disputes with several of its neighbors, including U.S. allies Japan and the Philippines. China is currently locked in a tense, offshore standoff with the Vietnam.

In a long-standing U.S. criticism of China’s military expansion over the past two decades, the Pentagon criticized China’s lack of openness about its strategy, which it said has caused concerns in Asia.

“Absent greater transparency from China and a change in its behavior, these concerns will likely intensify as the PLA’s military modernization program progresses,” the report said, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.

China’s government in March announced a 12.2 percent increase in military spending to $132 billion. That followed last year’s 10.7 percent increase to $114 billion, giving China the second-highest defense budget for any nation behind the U.S., which spent $600.4 billion on its military last year.

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Dunford picked to be next Marine Corps commandant
Jun. 5, 2014 - 03:05PM |

By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff Writer Marine Corps Times
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Marine Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Dunford has been nominated as the next commandant of the Marine Corps.

The Defense Department announced today that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had nominated Dunford, who currently commands coalition troops in Afghanistan as head of the International Security Assistance Force, to be the 36th commandant.

“I'm humbled to be nominated as the 36th Commandant of the Marine Corps,” Dunford said in an emailed statement from ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Dunford, 58, previously served as the 32nd assistant commandant of the Marine Corps under Gen. Jim Amos from 2010 to 2012.

During his 37-year Marine Corps career as an infantry officer, Dunford has spent considerable time in both post-9/11 combat theaters.

He commanded the 5th Marine Regimental Combat Team during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where he earned his “Fighting Joe” nickname, spending nearly two years in that theater in various roles over the duration of the war.

Since Dunford took command of ISAF and United States Forces-Afghanistan in 2012, he has overseen the shuttering of hundreds of bases and the drawdown of thousands of coalition troops as the war draws to a close.

During his tenure in Afghanistan, Dunford has made a habit of releasing condolence statements to the people of Afghanistan following humanitarian tragedies and enemy attacks, and offering good wishes during observances such as the religious feast of Eid.

Last year Dunford told Congress that he believed it was possible to win in Afghanistan, defining victory as the creation of strong and sustainable Afghan forces and a stable civil government. He has called for a force of 8,000-12,000 coalition forces to remain in Afghanistan after the end of this year, which is in keeping with the plan for a 10,000-strong contingency force that president Barack Obama recently announced.

While Dunford has avoided stirring controversy on some of the pressing legal and political issues, he did help to oversee the launch of integrated infantry training for female Marine officers during his time as assistant commandant, in keeping with a mandate from the secretary of Defense. He also worked to ensure alcohol-abuse treatment for Marines charged with DUIs and issued orders cracking down on hazing and targeting “high-risk behavior” in Marine units in order to shore up unit cohesion.

Marine Corps commandant Gen. Jim Amos hailed Dunford’s nomination today in a public statement.

“Joe is one of the most knowledgeable and talented leaders and thinkers in the military today. He has commanded and excelled at every level,” Amos said. “His tenure as commander of [ISAF] and U.S. Forces - Afghanistan over the past 18 months has been extraordinary, and is testament to the full measure of the man.”

Retired Gen. Charles Krulak, 31st commandant of the Marine Corps, said Dunford’s infantry experience would balance well with his executive experience in Washington, dating back to the 1990s when, as a lieutenant colonel, he served as an aide to then-commandant Gen. Carl. Mundy.

“I think that the Marine Corps from the youngest private to the oldest general are going to be cheering his selection and in support of it all the way,” said retired Gen. Charles Krulak, 31st commandant of the Marine Corps. “His professionalism and his character and his values were built long ago.”

Retired Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, who served as the 16th sergeant major of the Marine Corps, said Dunford would prioritize Marines and their families and excel in relating to troops in all ranks.

“He’s the damn epitome of a Marine leader,” Kent said.

Dunford’s nomination must still be confirmed by the Senate during a hearing process expected to take place later this year. If he is confirmed, he will likely be installed as the next commandant this fall.

Staff writer Andrew deGrandpre contributed to this report.

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Boeing defence chief guns for fighter deals
By: GREG WALDRONSINGAPORE Source: Flightglobal.com 11 hours ago
Boeing is optimistic about the health of its tactical fighter business, and believes its diverse portfolio of aircraft types and capabilities will serve it in good stead in the prevailing lean defence environment.

“Worldwide there is a rebalancing of social and defence needs, and this has brought pressure to bear on almost all the governments we deal with,” says Chris Chadwick, president and chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

“We’ve put a full court press on how we break from the pack of other defence companies.”

Chadwick made the remarks on the sidelines of the recent Shangri-La Dialogues event in Singapore, where he led a Boeing delegation to network with Asia Pacific defence leaders. He says it is key for defence contractors to break the cycle of escalating costs, while also delivering capabilities that customers require for the 21st century.

Chadwick expressed optimism on both of the company’s tactical fighter lines, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-15E. He pointed out that the navy has an unfunded requirement for 22 EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft. If the order is secured, the deal would allow Boeing to extend the Saint Louis Super Hornet line beyond the third quarter of 2016, when it is due to shut down.

“We feel pretty strongly that they will procure additional Super Hornets and this will allow us to extend the production line.”

He also foresees international opportunities for the twin-engined type, noting that Canada and Denmark appear to be reconsidering their commitment to the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme.

He adds that certain elements of the company’s Super Hornet ‘International Roadmap’ could be offered depending on customer requirements. First revealed in 2010, the ‘International Roadmap’ would include updates such as increasing the power of the Super Hornet’s General Electric F414 engines, adding conformal fuel tanks, updating the cockpit with a full touch screen display, and integrating an infrared search and track (IRST) sensor.

A similar range of updates proposed in the company’s F-15 Silent Eagle – which lost to the F-35 in South Korea’s F-X III requirement - could also be offered to future F-15 buyers.

“The F-15 production line is rock-solid to 2018 because of the Saudi procurement a few years ago,” says Chadwick.

“There are still a number of Middle Eastern countries that are looking at fighter capability. People find that everyone doesn’t need an all aspect stealth capable fighter. In today’s world a fighter’s technology, sensors, and situational awareness all play together, and our stable of fighters provide a top-line capability that is more than adequate for the requirements of many different customers.”

Chadwick also expressed confidence in the company’s partnership with Sweden’s Saab for the future US T-X trainer competition, which will replace the Northrop T-38.

“Saab brings a unique design and development capability. It’s a company in a small country that’s had to survive quite some time and been very successful. They know how to design, develop, and build a capability at a lower cost in a more condensed fashion. Then you’ve got Boeing, the world’s number two defence company. The collision of those two cultures really drives innovation into our design.”

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Helo crashes in Florida training; injuries minor
Jun. 5, 2014 - 06:13PM |

By Meghann Myers
Staff writer Navy Times
FILED UNDER
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A flight instructor and student sustained minor injuries Thursday morning after their helicopter crashed during a training flight in the Florida panhandle, a Navy spokeswoman said.

The Marine Corps captain and Navy ensign trainee collided with trees when their TH-57 Sea Ranger helicopter went down in Outlying Landing Field Spencer at Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Pace, Florida, Naval Air Training Command spokeswoman Lt. Brynn Olson told Navy Times.

They were treated at a local hospital and released on Thursday, Olson said. There are no groundings in place, she said, but that field was shut down for the day.

“Following the incident, we went ahead and used the other outlying fields,” she said.

An investigation in the crash will start right away, Olson said. The incident comes just a month after a T-34C Turbomentor crashed off the coast of Texas, the Navy’s 10th major aviation mishap of the fiscal year.

Naval Air Forces boss Vice Adm. David Buss ordered a tactical pause following that incident.

“... I ask each of you to review the details of the 10 Class Alpha mishaps this fiscal year and find the threads that make sense to your squadrons depending on the phase of the [Fleet Readiness Training Plan] that they are in,” Buss wrote in a message to squadron commanders, obtained by Navy Times.

The Thursday morning helo crash was the second mishap in 24 hours for the Navy, after an F/A-18E Super Hornet plunged into the Pacific Ocean while trying to land on the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson on Wednesday night. The pilot was unharmed.

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U.S. sending advisers, military gear to Ukraine
Jun. 5, 2014 - 07:17PM |

By Chuck Vinch
Staff writer Military times
FILED UNDER
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World News
A small team of American military advisers will soon head to Ukraine to assess that embattled nation’s “mid- and long-term needs for defense reform,” a Pentagon official said Thursday.

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said senior U.S. defense officials met with senior Ukrainian officials earlier this week to discuss “ways our countries could strengthen our long-term defense cooperation to help Ukraine build highly effective armed forces and defense institutions.”

Lainez said that assessment is being viewed as a first step toward helping to “shape and establish an enduring program for future U.S. efforts to support the Ukrainian military through training, education, and assistance.”

Since early March, President Obama has approved more than $23 million in additional defensive security assistance to help the former Soviet republic maintain its borders and sovereignty in the face of provocative moves by Russian military forces on Ukraine’s eastern border and violence fomented by pro-Russian militants inside Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Obama announced he had approved $5 million in body armor, night vision goggles and additional communications equipment for the Ukrainian military.

That is just the latest wave of support; in March, the White House put in motion the delivery of about 300,000 Meals Ready to Eat, and work continues on various other procurement efforts on items ranging from medical supplies to personal troop gear such as helmets, sleeping mats and water purification units, as well as explosive ordnance disposal equipment and handheld radios.

“We are committed fully to getting the assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Lainez said.

The U.S. aid is not flowing only to Ukraine’s military; American funds also are supporting the purchase of supplies for that nation’s State Border Guard Service, including 20-person shelters, sleeping bags, fuel filter adapters, barbed wire, patrol flashlights, perimeter alarm systems, fuel pumps, concertina wire, vehicle batteries, spare tires, binoculars, excavators, trucks, generators, food storage freezers, field stoves, and communications gear.

“Our focus continues to be on supporting Ukraine economically and diplomatically,” Lainez said. “As the president has said, we do not see a military solution to this crisis. Throughout the review, we’re looking at items with the intent that whatever is approved will stabilize the situation in Ukraine.”

The U.S. moves to shore up Ukraine’s military and border guard forces comes amid continuing simmering tensions between Russia and the U.S. and its European allies. In Brussels on Thursday, Obama and other “Group of Seven” leaders said Russia faces the prospect of new sanctions over its aggression in Ukraine.

Wrapping up a two-day summit earlier Thursday, G-7 members — the U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada — worked on the Russia plan while urging peace talks between Putin and Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko.

Specifically, the G-7 is calling upon Russian President Vladimir Putinto recognize Poroshenko as the new leader of Ukraine, stop shipping arms across the Ukraine-Russia border and stop supporting pro-Russian separatists in his neighboring country.

“Russia needs to seize that opportunity,” Obama said after a private meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the end of the summit.

“The next month will be vital in judging if President Putin has taken these steps,” Cameron said before leaving for Paris to personally present the G-7 plan with Putin.

Referring to the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, as well as violence in southern and eastern Ukraine, Cameron said Russia’s actions “are completely unacceptable and totally at odds with the values of this group of democracies.”

Obama said that “if Russia’s provocations continue,” then “the G-7 nations are ready to impose additional costs on Russia” in the form of more sanctions.

The G-7 will help Ukraine and other nations reduce their dependence on Russian energy supplies, Obama said. The allies further vowed to work together to address climate change.

USA Today contributed to this report.

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Blackjack UAS deploys to Afghanistan
By: STEPHEN TRIMBLEWASHINGTON DC Source: Flightglobal.com 17:19 3 Jun 2014
A new unmanned air system (UAS) – the Boeing/Insitu RQ-21A Blackjack –has deployed to Afghanistan with the US Marine Corps, the navy confirms.
The RQ-21A system deployed with five vehicles nearly four years after Boeing/Insitu won the small tactical unmanned air systems (STUAS) contract in August 2010 and more than two years after the Marines tool delivery of the first two systems.

That contract included a provision allowing the Marines to deploy with a raw version of RQ-21A called an early operational capability.

The next step in the system’s development is the initial operational capability (IOC) milestone. A US Navy acquisition web site devoted to the programme lists the IOC date as “spring 2014”, but a Navy spokeswoman says it will be achieved later this year.

As the successor of the 22kg (48.5lb) Insitu ScanEagle, the 61.2kg-sized RQ-21A is capable of performing many of the same missions. It carries payloads weighing up to 11.3kg in an internal bay, with electro-optic and infrared cameras and communications relay antennas as standard payloads.

The Marines have a requirement to operate 32 RQ-21A system. The navy plans to acquire 25 RQ-21As.

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Bumpy Ride Ahead for Military's Future Helicopter Program
By Sandra I. Erwin



The Pentagon's plan to acquire a new family of helicopters once again is up in the air. The military intends to continue to fund rotary-wing research and testing programs, officials said, but it cannot yet predict if or when it will have funds to buy new aircraft to replace the current fleet.

Like every other modernization program in the Defense Department, new helicopters have to compete for funding within a pool of shrinking dollars. Officials said the military services are having to trade off new weapon systems to fund their payroll.

"The budget environment is very difficult," said Jose M. Gonzalez, deputy director of land warfare, munitions and tactical warfare systems at the Defense Department.

The helicopter modernization effort known as "future vertical lift" got under way in 2009. The goal is to design and build a family of helicopters that would replace the current fleet of Black Hawks, Apaches and Chinooks by 2030. Analysts have estimated the program could be worth up to $100 billion.

The project has "moved to the right over the years," but the Pentagon is committed to keeping it alive, Gonzalez said June 4 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Helicopter manufacturers have regarded the future vertical lift project, or FVL, as one of the few remaining opportunities in the military rotorcraft market. But the reality for contractors is that while FVL appears to have heavy backing from the Pentagon leadership, it does not have much money in the Defense Department's five-year spending plan.

Gonzalez said the military services are fighting to protect the research dollars in their budgets for the "joint multirole rotorcraft" technology demonstration, which is the first phase of FVL.

Aircraft manufacturers, which are pouring corporate research dollars into the program, want assurances that there will be production contracts at the end of the road that would justify their investments. The Army has said it will fund two prototypes and flight tests that are scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2017.

The Army in 2013 awarded technology "investment agreements" to four companies under the JMR program: Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky Aircraft Co., AVX Aircraft Co. and Karem Aircraft Inc.

Given the uncertainty about future budgets, officials have warned, purchases of new equipment could be delayed. "We are doing everything we can to be as transparent as possible," Gonzalez told an industry executive who asked about the potential risks for contractors that are investing in rotorcraft technology.

Gonzalez said the joint multirole rotorcraft, or JMR, technology demonstration might not lead to the procurement of new aircraft within the desired timeline, but could "feed alternatives other than a new-start program ... such as major upgrades or changes in con-ops [concept of operations]." Technologies such as variable speed transmissions or lightweight materials could transition to FVL or other systems.

"The work we are doing in analysis and developing upfront requirements hopefully will put us in a better position when the services have resources" to fund acquisitions of new aircraft, said Gonzalez. He insisted that FVL is a high priority. "We have leadership attention on rotary wing. We have a strategic plan. We have government and industry working together in a vertical lift consortium," he said. "We have a very hungry, competitive industry that is self investing and pushing innovation."

One of the motivators of FVL is the promise that it could save the military billions of dollars in maintenance and support costs by consolidating multiple makes and models into fewer, more standardized aircraft.

The military today has about 6,600 helicopters of 25 different designs. "We are not building a one-size-fits-all helicopter," Gonzalez cautioned. The intent is to design a family of aircraft of different sizes, with common information systems and a standard architecture.

Interoperability among the branches of the military is central to FVL, said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Gary L. Thomas, deputy director of force management, application and support at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We have capabilities from different services but we can't share information," he said at the CSIS forum. "Systems don't talk to each other because they weren't made by the same manufacturer." The FVL gives the Pentagon an opportunity to eliminate stovepipes, he said.

Joint-service aircraft can be a sore subject at the Pentagon, given the troubled experience of the F-35 joint strike fighter. But Thomas defended the decision to make FVL a joint program. "There will be bumps on the road, it is painful, and there are lessons learned [from F-35] we can capture," he said. The important point about FVL, he said, is that it is trying to do away with the "platform-centric" thinking of traditional Pentagon programs. "We have to think about both platforms and mission systems. This is not how we have done vertical lift in the past."

Long-term logistics support is another major consideration in FVL, said Army Col. Kevin J. Christensen, Joint Staff director of force management, application and support. Each helicopter model in the fleet today has its own line of supply. "We need commonality," he said. Most people worry about the cost of buying new aircraft, "but the real value of FVL may be in how we affect operations and support cost, the cost of ownership," he said. "It could be hundreds of billions of dollars worth of savings."

Industry analysts are watching FVL as a bellwether of the military aviation market. "If the FVL program survives — and that’s a valid question — it will have a huge impact on the Big Three: Boeing, Sikorsky and Textron," analyst Roman Schweizer of Guggenheim Securities wrote June 4 in a note to investors. He noted that Textron's Bell Helicopter has put together a powerful team that includes Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Spirit Aerospace, Eaton, GKN, Moog and others. "As currently envisioned, we think the outcome of the FVL program could have a meaningful impact on the industry," he said. The Big Three will be competing with "pesky upstarts" AVX Aircraft, which was founded by Bell Helicopter expatriates, and Karem Aircraft, which is run by Abe Karem, the developer the Predator, Schweizer noted. "AVX is offering a concept that is very similar to Sikorsky-Boeing’s coaxial rotor design, a derivative of the Sikorsky-funded prototype X-2 helicopter." Karem is proposing a tiltrotor aircraft.

"We would have to favor the big companies for a major award like this," Schweizer said. "If AVX or Karem pull off an upset, we would expect them to partner with a larger manufacturer, giving the losing primes a way back into the program." He noted the Army budgeted about $230 million to fund two demonstrators.

Christensen said the Pentagon is aware of the industrial-base implications of FVL decisions. A study of the helicopter industry is under way, he said. "We have a strong concern about the rotorcraft industrial base."

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Future Vertical Lift: One Program Or Many?
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. on June 05, 2014 at 12:00 PM
bell-v-280-valor-tiltrotor-4

WASHINGTON: What is Future Vertical Lift? There is no one answer, but rather a range of possibilities. At one extreme is a single mega-program, building four variants for the four services to replace a host of existing helicopters, a vision in some ways even more ambitious than the long-troubled tri-service Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). At the opposite extreme, however, FVL would just be overarching guidance and common technology for a range of separate, service-specific programs, both new aircraft and upgrades to existing helicopters. The reality will almost certainly end up somewhere in between.

“We don’t know exactly where that sweet spot is,” Brig. Gen. Gary Thomas told me frankly. Thomas, a Marine Corps fighter pilot, is co-chair of the Pentagon’s executive steering group for FVL, and he’d just spoken about the initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The starting point is the desired capabilities [and] the desire to produce commonality,” he said, but they’re staying flexible about the end point.



“Eventually, this process will inform a new-build program, but we’re not there yet,” Thomas told me. Until then, he expects FVL to spin off technologies and ideas for upgrades to existing helicopter programs.

“The start of at least the first program has moved a little bit to the right, a couple of years,” said the other co-chair of the FVL steering group, Jose Gonzalez, deputy director for land warfare and munitions in the Pentagon’s acquisition, technology, and logistics (ATL) organization. “[But] one thing we need to keep in mind,” he told the audience at CSIS. “A lot of the Future Vertical Lift work — the analysis work that we’re doing and the technology work that we’re doing — could feed alternatives other than a new-start program. They could inform a major upgrade [i.e. to an existing aircraft], or there could be a CONOPS change” — that is, a change in concepts of operation not necessarily accompanied by new equipment at all.

“In the past,” Brig. Gen. Thomas told the CSIS audience, the military and industry have tended to think about vertical lift narrowly in terms of individual platforms: “It’s a helicopter,” full stop. In the FVL construct, however, the “air vehicle” and the “common mission architecture” are co-equal components. What’s more, it’s the latter — developing common, compatible, or even interchangeable mission equipment that can go into different kinds of aircraft — that may be “your greatest return on investment,” Thomas said, because it could simplify logistics and reduce operations and maintenance costs for decades to come. (This might well be a lesson learned from the JSF. Its software, computing power and sensors are the aircraft’s greatest assets.)

There are limits to commonality, noted Col. Kevin Christensen, an Army helicopter pilot who, like Thomas, works for the Joint Staff’s J-8, who handle force structure and resource assessment. “Laws of physics still apply, so the bigger [aircraft] is going to have a bigger engine and the smaller one’s going to have a smaller engine,” Christensen said. But the FVL vision is to design both engines so a single maintainer can work on both, without needing a special course on each aircraft.

Other equipment could be completely interchangeable. For example, Christensen said, “the avionics architecture ought to be plug and play, so if it’s an Army airplane’s at a Marine facility and a radio or nav[igation] system needs to be swapped out, we can do that.”

That is impossible today. When Marines landed their helicopters at his Army helicopter unit’s base in Afghanistan, “all I could give them was meals and a cot,” Christensen said. The four armed services among them have almost two dozen different helicopters, each with its own unique needs in terms of spare parts, training programs and the like. That’s fiscally inefficient and operationally cumbersome. “We haul 23 systems or so to a theater, each with its own line of supply,” he said.

Those 23 existing kinds of aircraft can be upgraded with common, interoperable equipment developed under FVL — up to a point. Eventually, an aircraft runs out of room, payload, or electrical power if you keep adding new equipment as “afterthoughts” to the original design, Christensen said. The “huge payoff,” he said, is to design commonality into new aircraft “from the very beginning.”

So FVL eventually does need to lead to a new helicopter — or whatever replaces conventional helicopters in the future.

There’s intense competition between Bell-Boeing tilt-rotor technology, as used on the V-22 Osprey and the proposed V-280 Valor, and Sikorsky’s hybrid rotor-and-propeller aircraft like the X-2, X-3, and the proposed Raider and Defiant concepts. And Airbus may well weigh in as the program’s direction becomes clearer.

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“We have no idea what the actual design turns out to be,” Christensen told me after the public discussion. In fact, there will be several designs, each quite possibly run as an independent program — in contrast to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter approach. “Unlike JSF, where we’re talking about a program to do multiple variants of an airplane, FVL may be several programs of record,” he told the CSIS audience.

Eurocopter_X3

“There were a lot of lessons learned in terms of that program [F-35] and mistakes made,” Brig. Gen. Thomas added.

Like F-35, however, the FVL initiative must ultimately produce new aircraft to replace current ones as they reach the end of their useful service life. “We have a finite time,” Gonzalez said, working backwards from the expected retirement dates of existing systems.

“It’s not a matter of if,” said Thomas. “It’s a matter of when.”

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Army Awards Contract for 7.62mm LSAT
by Matthew Cox on June 6, 2014 ·
Small-arms innovation programs may not be a high priority these days, but the U.S. Army continues to invest in its dream of a family of ultra-light infantry weapons.

The service awarded a $5.7 million contract last month to Textron Systems to develop a 7.62mm version of the Light Weight Small Arms Technology MG as well as a carbine variant.

The Army has had a strong interest in LSAT for the last decade. The system is far lighter than traditional machine guns, mainly because of its use of cased-telescoped ammunition.

LSAT’s cased-telescoped 5.56mm ammunition relies on a plastic case rather than a brass one to hold the propellant and the projectile, like a conventional shotgun shell. It weighs about 37 percent less than standard belted 5.56mm.

The 5.56mm LSAT weapon itself weighs about half as much as the 17-pound M249 squad automatic weapon.

“The LSAT Light Machine Gun recently took part in the Army’s Dismounted Non-Networked Experiment at Fort Benning, Ga., receiving positive user feedback,” according to a press release from Textron Systems.


Under this two-year award, the LSAT team will develop a cased-telescoped carbine, as well as 7.62mm CT ammunition and a machine gun operating mechanism, the release states.

The team includes Alliant Techsystems, ARES Incorporated, MSC Software and St. Marks Powder. It plans to build on the current LSAT technology, which consists of includes the compact light machine gun with a quick-change, 12-inch barrel and folding buttstock. It was developed for close-quarters applications and tested in 2012 by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

The effort has also produced the operating mechanism for a carbine variant.



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Textron Systems' Light Armaments Team to Develop Lightweight, Cased-Telescoped Small Arms for U.S. Army
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Textron Systems' Light Armaments Team to Develop Lightweight, Cased-Telescoped Small Arms for U.S. Army

HUNT VALLEY, MD--(Marketwired - May 14, 2014) - Textron Systems Unmanned Systems, a business of the Textron Systems segment of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT), through its Light Armaments team, announced today a $5.7 million contract from the Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium and the U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center for continued development of lightweight, Cased-Telescoped (CT) weapons and ammunition.

Under this two-year award, the team will develop a CT carbine, as well as 7.62 millimeter (mm) CT ammunition and a machine gun operating mechanism. The CT ammunition utilizes a plastic casing to reduce weight significantly versus conventional ammunition while maintaining performance.

The Textron Systems Light Armaments team developed the flagship 5.56 mm CT Light Machine Gun under the Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program. The LSAT Light Machine Gun recently took part in the Army's Dismounted Non-Networked Experiment at Fort Benning, Ga., receiving positive user feedback. Providing up to a 40 percent, or 20-pound, weight reduction over current technology, the LSAT Light Machine Gun and 5.56 mm CT ammunition have been demonstrated at Technology Readiness Level 7, while improving both lethality and reliability.

Leveraging the success of this design, the team has created a family of lightweight, 5.56 mm CT weapons. This includes a compact Light Machine Gun with a quick-change, 12-inch barrel and folding buttstock, developed for close-quarters applications and tested in 2012 by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, as well as the operating mechanism for a carbine variant. The team also has developed an innovative caseless ammunition design, demonstrated to provide even greater weight reduction versus current technology.

The Textron Systems Light Armaments team intends to leverage the demonstrated success of prior designs to extend CT weapon and ammunition technologies to additional calibers and weapon configurations on the new program. For this effort, it leads a skilled team including Alliant Techsystems (ATK), ARES Incorporated, MSC Software and St. Marks Powder, a General Dynamics company.

About Textron Systems

Textron Systems' businesses develop and integrate products, services and support for aerospace and defense customers, as well as civil and commercial customers including those in law enforcement, security, border patrol and critical infrastructure protection around the globe. Harnessing agility and a broad base of expertise, Textron Systems' innovative businesses design, manufacture, field and support comprehensive solutions that expand customer capabilities and deliver value. Textron Systems consists of its Advanced Information Solutions, Electronic Systems, Geospatial Solutions, Lycoming Engines, Marine & Land Systems, Support Solutions, TRU Simulation + Training, Unmanned Systems and Weapon & Sensor Systems businesses. More information is available at

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About Textron Inc.

Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, and Textron Systems. For more information, visit

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Textron Systems Unmanned Systems is a business of the Textron Systems segment of Textron Inc. (c) 2014 AAI Corporation. All rights reserved.

Certain statements in this press release may project revenues or describe strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

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Media Contact:

Betania Magalhaes

Textron Systems

(978) 657-2020

[email protected]

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Using radio callsigns “Death 11″ and “Death 12″ two B-2s from Whiteman Air Force Base have arrived at RAF Fairford for short and rare deployment.

Even if the U.S. Air Force has selected three bases for B-2 operations outside the U.S. (RAF Fairford, in UK, Diego Garcia and Andersen AFB at Guam), overseas deployments of the Spirit stealth strategic bombers are quite unusual.

Indeed, B-2s don’t move from Whiteman AFB, in Missouri, too often as they are trained to conduct very long round-trip missions from their homebase in CONUS (Continental U.S.), as happened during recent training missions, extended nuclear deterrence sorties in the Korean Peninsula, as well as during real conflicts, as the Libya Air War in 2011 or the Allied Force in Serbia in 1999.

That’s why the deployment of two Spirit bombers with the 509th Bomb Wing to the UK is, at least, noteworthy.

Obviously, the official press release doesn’t mention the rarity of this “short-term deployment,” as it only mentions that the “multi-role heavy bombers will conduct training flights in the USEUCOM area of operations, providing opportunities for aircrews to sharpen skills in several key operational sets and become familiar with airbases and operations in the region.”

Little is known about this deployment, unlike the other one which involves three B-52s that have arrived at RAF Fairford last week and whose detachment had been exposed by aircrew patches produced ahead of the participation of the Stratofortresses to the Saber Strike and Baltops exercises.

“The training and integration of strategic forces demonstrates to our nation’s leaders and our allies that we have the right mix of aircraft and expertise to respond to a variety of potential threats and situations,” said Adm. Cecil Haney, commander, U.S. Strategic Command in the release.

For sure, the Russian threat in Europe is taken seriously by the USSTRACOM, that may have decided to deploy some strategic assets closer to Ukraine, more to show the local allies that Washington is capable to support them if needed rather than put some pressure on Moscow.

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