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he Air Force’s Fiscal 2018 budget request includes just a handful of new, in-production, non-fighter aircraft.

The service is sticking to its plan of building 15 KC-46A tankers a year for about $3 billion—2018 is now the second year at that rate, which is expected to persist through the late 2020s. Two variants of the C-130 will be purchased: five special operations MC-130Js and two special ops HC-130Js, but no C-130J Super Hercules (the stretched model), whereas one was purchased last year in the Overseas Contingency Operations account.

There were no MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft in the Air Force’s base budget, but the service plans to buy 16 with OCO money, according to budget slides. Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mike Holmes told Air Force Magazine recently he needs to buy 20 Reapers a year to both build up the inventory for the DOD-mandated levels of operations and to contend with attrition.

Maj. Gen. Jim Martin, answering questions at an Air Force budget briefing, said the figure of 16 is the result of “tough choices” that had to be made in the budget (the Air Force could not late Tuesday explain a discrepancy with one of the Pentagon budget briefing books that said 32 Reapers were funded in the OCO accounts).

The Air Force is not buying any more RQ-4 Global Hawk strategic reconnaissance RPAs, and Martin said there’s no definitive sunset date on the retirement of the U-2S spyplane, nor is there a planned retirement for the A-10 strike aircraft.

Though USAF briefing slides said the service “maintains commitment to develop next-generation trainer [T-X],” no dollar values were briefed on this program, which seeks to start fielding a new trainer in the 2022 timeframe. The JSTARS recapitalization program was funded at $417 million.

Martin acknowledged that a Service Life Extension Program on the F-15C fleet will go forward, and USAF budget books said capability upgrades to the F-15’s radar and electronic warfare suite—the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System—is valued at $963.1 million in the FY18 request. USAF will spend about $1 billion on capability upgrades for its B-1, B-2, and B-52 bomber fleets, and a similar amount on improvements to the F-22 fleet. The HH-60 Combat Rescue Helicopter would get $354 in the 2018 budget for continued development.

There’s $434 million in the budget for defining the design of the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization, or Air Force One project, which Martin’s deputy, Carolyn Gleason, said reflects “a new baseline” after a Boeing-led review to scrub costs on the project. Two PARs are planned, with initial service in 2024.

The Air Force will spend just over $2 billion in FY18 on developing its B-21 Raider bomber, which Gleason said pays for “detailed design work.” Gleason said the Next Generation Air Dominance project has entered the analysis of alternatives phase for what USAF leaders have been referring to as the Penetrating Counter Air aircraft; its funding leapt from $21 million in the enacted 2017 budget to $295 million in the Fiscal 2018 request.

Adaptive engine technology—aimed at making more fuel-efficient and reliable powerplants available for the F-35 and future combat aircraft—would get $954 million.

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Jura said:

here's the news about ... sea-marvels ... from the Navy budget chief, Rear Adm. Brian Luther: “We are not submitting an amendment (to the budget) for a second LCS…. I have not been directed to create or submit a second budget submission.”

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Saudi Arabia Procures Four MMSC based on Lockheed Martin's Freedom LCS

On May 22nd, the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) took major steps to enhance global security and stimulate economic progress in the United States and the Middle East. KSA has expressed its intent to procure more than $28 billion worth of Lockheed Martin integrated air and missile defense, combat ship, tactical aircraft and rotary wing technologies and programs. The agreement includes four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) based on the Freedom-class LCS Lockheed Martin’s industry team is building for the U.S. Navy.
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US Air Force conducted a “surge exercise” at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia

Aircraft from the 23d Wing conducted a surge exercise May 22, 2017, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. The exercise was conducted in order to demonstrate the wing’s ability to rapidly deploy combat ready forces across the globe.

The 23d Wing maintains and operates A-10C Thunderbolt IIs, HH-60G Pave Hawks, and HC-130J Combat King II aircraft for precision attack, personnel recovery and combat support worldwide.

The exercise also featured a typical Elephant Walk carried out by one Pave Hawk, two Combat King II and 30 fully armed A-10C Warthogs.

As already explained several times in the past, during Elephant Walk exercises military aircraft taxi in close formation or in sequence right before a minimum interval takeoff and, depending on the purpose of the training event they then either take off or taxi back to the apron.

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Boeing files protest against USAF Compass Call acquisition

• 
  

• 25 MAY, 2017
  
• SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM
  
• BY: LEIGH GIANGRECO
  
• WASHINGTON DC

Boeing has become the second competitor to file a protest against the US Air Force’s acquisition strategy for the Compass Call recapitalisation programme, alleging L-3 Communications’ lead on the cross-deck effort will hand the award to Gulfstream’s G550.

The USAF’s Compass Call cross-deck effort will transfer existing technology from the legacy EC-130H onto a new aircraft. Earlier this year, the USAF announced the systems integrator L-3 would select and incorporate existing mission systems onto the platform.

Boeing filed the protest with the US Government Accountability Office on 19 May and the agency will make a decision 28 August.

“The Air Force's approach is inconsistent with Congress's direction in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act and seems to ignore inherent and obvious conflicts of interest,” a Boeing spokeswoman said in a 25 May statement. “We believe that the U.S. Air Force and taxpayer would be best served by a fair and open competition, and that the Air Force can still meet its stated timeline of replacing the aging fleet of EC-130Hs within 10 years.”

The “conflict of interest” protest alludes to L-3’s previous partnerships with Gulfstream, including its recent teaming in the JSTARS recapitalisation competition. The Compass Call cross-deck is the first of a series of intelligence gathering and command and control platform recapitalisation efforts within the USAF, beginning with the E-8C JSTARS. The EC-130H serves as a communications eavesdropper for the service.

But air force leadership remains committed to its acquisition approach. During a 25 May hearing on Capitol Hill, the service’s military deputy for the assistant secretary of the air force for acquisition told members of Congress that using L-3 to choose the aircraft represented the quickest way to replace the aircraft. The air force also chose L-3 because the company has modernized the EC-130H over the last 15 years and is familiar with its classified electronic warfare equipment, Lt Gen Arnold Bunch says.

“They have all the tooling, all the existing knowledge and modeling to do that work and...the preponderance of this is a non-developmental effort,” he says.

Although L-3 will choose the aircraft, Bunch emphasizes the air force will not play a bystander role in the competition. The service will review the aircraft selection to ensure L-3 remains compliant with regulations, he says.

“We’re not stepping out of this and just watching the process play out,” he says.

Boeing is the second competitor to lodge a complaint with the air force over the cross-deck effort after Bombardier filed a protest in March, which the GAO dismissed as premature. The agency also noted that while there is consideration of a sole source contract, the USAF has not yet issued a solicitation. Stéphane Villeneuve, vice president for Bombardier specialized aircraft, would not comment further on Boeing’s protest but said the company is still evaluating its options.

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Chief: The Army has developed a bullet that penetrates 5.56 mm-resistant body armor
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May 25, 2017 (Photo Credit: Army/Staff Sgt. Steve Cortez)
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told senators Thursday that the Army has developed a round that can penetrate 5.56 mm-resistant body armor.

During a

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on the Army's budget request, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked Milley how the Army was doing in developing a new rifle to replace the M4 and a more powerful round to replace the 5.56 mm bullet it fires.

"We think we have a solution," Milley said. "We know we have developed a bullet that can penetrate these new plates."

Milley said that rifles and body armor for U.S. troops are "critically important," noting that 70 percent of U.S. casualties are borne by ground troops, mostly infantry and special operators conducting infantry-type missions.

"The 5.56 round, we recognize there is a type of body armor it does not penetrate, and adversarial states are selling that stuff on the Internet for about 250 bucks," Milley said.

Army Times reported earlier this month that experts at the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, were testing half a dozen variants of "intermediate caliber" bullets that fall between the 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm rounds now used by nearly all U.S. troops.

Milley emphasized that the focus for lethality is on the bullet, not the rifle.

King asked if the new bullet would require a new rifle.

"It might, but probably not," Milley replied.

The senator then asked if there were existing, off-the-shelf rifle options.

"Yes, there are several options out there," Milley said.

King was among a handful of senators at a subcommittee hearing last week who heard from retired Army generals who have long advocated for a new round and rifle to replace both the M4 and the 5.56 mm round.

The Marines are purchasing the Heckler and Koch 417, dubbed the M27, in 5.56 mm, while the Army is purchasing the same rifle in 7.62 mm for squad designated marksmen.

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bd popeye said:

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Jura said:

Wednesday at 9:04 AM
I'm even less enthusiastic after I read "Today, the Army is in fact developing its own

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, to link its disparate systems such as Patriot and THAAD. ..." etc. inside

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source:

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There were foggy and subtle signs the U.S. Army’s key future anti-missile command-and-control system’s schedule was slipping, but the service’s fiscal 2018 budget request is now showing the initial operational capability, or IOC, of the program is delayed by four years.

And the research, development, test and evaluation, or RDT&E, account in FY18 show an increase of more than half a billion dollars from FY17 through FY21 compared to the FY17 request.

Last year’s budget request documents had the IOC milestone set for its Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, or IBCS, in the third quarter of FY18, but the new documents released Tuesday show an IOC now scheduled for the third quarter of FY22.

The Northrop Grumman-manufactured IBCS is a key component of the Army’s future Integrated Air and Missile Defense System that will replace the Patriot system. IBCS will also connect to other major systems on the battlefield such as the Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability, or IFPC, system to defend against rockets, artillery and mortars.

"The additional funding and schedule allows for integration with the latest version of Patriot software that is currently undergoing operational test and evaluation; increased time for development, testing and analysis to demonstrate software capabilities; purchase and refinement, if needed, using RDT&E funds that support the emplacement time for the IFPC as well as addressing potential obsolescence and hardware performance actions; additional cyber and Electronic Attack events as well as additional training time prior to [Limited User Test]," Army spokesman Dan O'Boyle said in a statement sent to Defense News on Thursday.

Bringing IBCS to life is no easy endeavor by nature. It involves complicated software development, and the plans for IBCS on the battlefield have expanded, resulting in the need for more development.

IBCS has completed three successful test flights with four successful intercepts to date.

The Army indicated to Defense News in February that IOC wouldn’t happen as planned due to “IBCS software deficiencies” that needed to be resolved, but the service was unable to say how delayed the program was.

While the Army’s budget request this year shows a four-year delay, an April 13 Federal Business Opportunities request for information required before soliciting a noncompetitive acquisition for IBCS shows the possibility of an IOC schedule slip even further than FY22.

“The requirement of this acquisition is to add additional period of performance to the current IBCS development contract,” it reads, “for IBCS EMD, [or engineering and manufacturing development], development efforts through 3rd [quarter of] FY21.”

Comparison of the FY17 and FY18 requests show a delayed and extended EMD developmental test phase. According to the FY17 document, EMD was supposed to end in the first quarter of FY16 and take five quarters. In the FY18 document, the EMD developmental test phase will take four years. And an “EMD continuation” that started in FY16 will wrap up five years later at the end of FY20.

However, if EMD extends all the way to 2021, as the RFI indicates, the IOC date could slip even further as well.

With major milestone schedule slips, other events in the program have been pushed back.

A Milestone C decision, which would decide whether the program enters a production and deployment phase, was planned for the end of FY16, according to the FY17 budget request, but is now expected at the end of FY20.

And an initial operational test and evaluation scheduled to take place over three quarters in FY18, wrapping up at the end of the third quarter, is now going to start in the fourth quarter of FY20 and won’t finish until the second quarter of FY22, essentially doubling the length of the test period and delaying its conclusion by four years.

Completely missing from the FY18 request are plans for a second limited-user test said to be in the works. The Army has said the second LUT needs to happen before a Milestone C decision.

The service has restructured the program to allow an additional LUT in FY20 "to ensure requirements are met before entering Low Rate Initial Production," O'Boyle said.

The Army has taken delivery of two IBCS software builds that demonstrated marked improvement over the software used in the first LUT, he added.

This year, Army troops will test the updated software at an event at Fort Bliss, Texas, scheduled to complete in September 2017 with further evaluation at a joint interoperability test schedule for Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in October 2017. The FY17 document shows a low-rate production test was scheduled in 2017, but the test is missing from the FY18 request.

Also missing in the FY18 request are plans for setting up a First Unit Equipped, which was expected in 2017, according to the FY17 request. A First Unit Equipped is the first unit to be equipped with a capability in advance of initial capability.

In FY18, the Army plans to spend roughly $546.6 million dollars more than it budgeted from FY17 through FY21 in the development and test phase of the program compared to the FY17 request.

And while RDT&E funding received a major increase, the FY18 procurement account shows no money in 2018 or 2019. The Army had originally planned a year ago to spend $287.2 million in FY18 and $372.9 million in FY19 for procurement. The total amount cut from the procurement budget from FY18 through FY21 comes to about $790.536 million.

The IBCS program's delays do not impact currently fielded systems, IFPC or the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor program, O'Boyle said. The LTAMDS is looking to replace or upgrade the Patriot system's current radar.

The IBCS delay doesn’t just affect the U.S. Army’s future plans for missile defense. Poland has said it wants to buy Patriot systems with IBCS, and the country has indicated it wants those systems soon as Russia continues to pose a threat to the region.

Poland wants to finalize a contract by November this year to buy eight Patriot systems, and it wants the first two systems with IBCS by 2019.

A waiver is said to have been granted for Poland to procure IBCS at the same time the U.S. Army begins to field it, rather than wait for the U.S. Army to reach a full-rate production capability before selling the system abroad.

When asked whether the IBCS delay could affect its pending deal with Poland, Raytheon said it "can help Poland meet its 24 month timeline for having an operational air defense system, and we stand ready to deliver to Poland a Patriot system with a C2 that is IBCS-ready when IBCS comes online.”

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