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Jura said:

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Leery of N. Korea, US Plans First Test of ICBM Intercept

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Jura said:

May 4, 2017

now Boeing Still Tracking Toward First KC-46A Delivery This Year

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The Air Force will know in June whether the KC-46 tanker program will be set back by another round of schedule delays, a service official told lawmakers Thursday.

KC-46A manufacturer Boeing is conducting a schedule risk assessment for the program and will update the Air Force’s top acquisition officials — Darlene Costello and Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch — during the first week of June, Bunch said during a House Armed Services subcommittee panel.

Bunch told reporters afterward he was concerned about schedule risk to several key dates in the test schedule, including the required assets available deadline in October 2018 that compels Boeing to deliver the first 18 tankers and nine aerial refueling pods. The company is already about one year behind schedule, having originally planned to meet the RAA milestone in August 2017 before technical issues pushed that date into late 2018.

“Boeing's design of several subsystems and production of conformed hardware are still pending FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] approval, which is slowing flight test execution,” Bunch wrote in testimony to Congress. “The test program is also running behind planned pace because several test aircraft are undergoing upgrades to incorporate design changes. Boeing is several months behind schedule, which means the first aircraft will likely to deliver after 12 September 2017.”

In March, the Government Accountability Office noted the program was in danger of further delays, citing a packed testing schedule that leaves no margin for redoing test points.

Starting in September, Boeing will have to deliver about three aircraft a month to meet the current RAA date — a higher rate than is expected even in full rate production, the GAO stated. At the time of the report’s release, 12 aircraft were about 70 percent compete, but a tough test schedule still lies ahead.

According to the GAO, Boeing must execute 1,713 test points per month to be able to deliver the first aircraft in September, but its average completion rate is only about 800 points per month, according to data from March 2016 to January 2017. It has exceeded that 1,713 point goalpost only one time, in October 2016 when it completed 2,240 test points.

Despite difficulties keeping the program on schedule, Air Force investment remains steady, as the service still intends to buy 179 KC-46As by fiscal year 2028. In the FY18 budget request, the service called for $93.8 million to continue the engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) phase and $2.6 billion to award Boeing a contract for 15 tankers in January 2018.

Bunch’s testimony acknowledged that the 179 KC-46As will replace less than half of the service’s current fleet of KC-10s and KC-135s. Therefore, further modernization of the KC-135 and “sufficient funding” of the two follow-on efforts to the KC-46 program — called KC-Y and KC-Z — will be necessary to meet Air Force requirements, he said.

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Change in the air: development of naval UASs

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Nimitz Strike Group ships set to depart Pacific Northwest on deployment

USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Kidd (DDG 100), and USS Shoup (DDG 86) are scheduled to depart their homeports of Naval Station Kitsap-Bremerton and Naval Station Everett, respectively, June 1, for a regularly scheduled deployment.

Nimitz, the flagship of the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11, Kidd and Shoup will make a brief stop at Naval Air Station North Island to meet up with the other ships and units of CSG 11.

Strike Group units have spent most of the past seven months underway preparing for deployment. Nimitz participated in a series of pre-deployment inspections and training evolutions, including Board of Inspection and Survey and a Composite Training Unit Exercise that certified them ready for deployment.

“I am so incredibly proud of the entire Nimitz team and the terrific coordination and support across the entire strike group, especially in such a condensed training cycle. The crew stepped up to the plate, and I’m confident we’re ready to meet whatever challenges lie ahead on our upcoming deployment,” said Capt. Kevin Lenox, Nimitz commanding officer.

Units embarked aboard Nimitz for deployment will be CSG 11 staff, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 9.

Also embarked will be the squadrons of CVW-11: The Lemoore, California-based “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147, “Black Knights” of VFA 154, “Blue Diamonds” of VFA 146, the San Diego-based “Death Rattlers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 323, the Whidbey Island, Washington-based “Gray Wolves” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 142, the Point Mugu, California-based “Blue Tails” of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 121, and the San Diego-based “Eightballers” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8, “Wolfpack” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 75 and “Providers” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30.

The ships of DESRON 9 include the Everett-based guided-missile destroyers USS Shoup (DDG 86) and USS Kidd (DDG 100), the San Diego-based Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Howard (DDG 83) and USS Pinckney (DDG 91), and the San Diego-based Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59).

The Nimitz Strike Group last deployed in 2013. Since then, Nimitz hosted the first aircraft carrier landings of the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter aircraft in 2014 and completed a 20-month extended planned incremental availability at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, which completed in October 2016.

Nimitz Strike Group is part of U.S. 3rd Fleet, which leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy. U.S. 3rd Fleet constantly coordinates with U.S. 7th Fleet to plan and execute missions based on their complementary strengths to promote ongoing peace, security, and stability throughout the entire Pacific theater of operations.

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Sikorsky HH-60W reaches critical design review

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

The US Air Force’s Combat Rescue Helicopter programme reached critical design review, giving the Sikorsky HH-60W the green light for assembly, test and evaluation.

Sikorsky, which reached CDR ahead of the projected July date, will replace the USAF’s aging HH-60Gs with 112 new helicopters at a cost of $73 million per unit. The entire programme, including research and development, procurement and flyaway costs is estimated at $9.8 billion, according to the latest selected acquisition report from the Pentagon. In 2014, the service awarded Sikorsky a $1.28 billion engineering manufacturing and development (EMD) contract, including integration of mission systems and delivery of four RDT&E articles. In January, the air force added another five aircraft through a $203 million contract option.

Although the HH-60W will share 85% commonality with the US Army’s UH-60M helicopters, the Whiskey model’s increased combat capability marks a stark departure from the UH-60M design and more closely resembles the army special operations’ MH-60M. Billed by Sikorsky as an advanced variant of the UH-60M, the CSAR helicopter required a 75-month development and certification effort and separate assembly line. Equipped with GE T700-701D engines, the HH-60W’s increased internal fuel capability allows greater range and its composite wide-chord main rotor blades sustain maneuverability at high density altitudes.

President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 proposed budget requested $354 for the CSAR’s RDT&E effort. Sikorsky and the air force plan to continue developmental test and initiate equipment design for electronic warfare integrated reprogramming (EWIR) capability in FY18, according to budget documents.

A low-rate production decision is slated for September 2019 and first flight is expected the same year. Operational test will begin in 2020 with initial operational capability the following year.

Earlier this year, Air Force Special Operations Command chief Lt Gen Brad Webb told reporters his command was examining the CSAR mission through a commissioned paper he would present to Air Combat Command. AFSOC and Air Combat Command have previously battled over which should take control of CSAR, and AFSOC has proposed using CV-22s and Sikorsky HH-60 helicopters to satisfy the mission in the past.

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USAF developing next generation air dominance missile

• 
  

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

The US Air Force is developing a new air-to-air missile, dubbed the Small Advanced Capabilities Missile (SACM), to fly on its aircraft in the 2030s.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is looking to develop and demonstrate various system and sub-system critical technologies to support the next generation air dominance missile, according to slides released this April from AFRL. SACM would promise an improved solid rocket motor with a highly loaded grain and synergistic control enabled by combined aero, attitude control and thrust vectoring.

AFRL would design a small, low-weight ordnance with hyper-agility, increased range, high loadout and a compressed carriage capability. Slides describe a missile with “dramatically improved high off bore sight for rear hemisphere kills” and “lower cost per kill.” The missile would also incorporate energy optimizing guidance, navigation and control, according to AFRL.

The air force revealed the SACM concept earlier this year in a written presentation to the US House Armed Services Committee in February. The USAF described SACM as an affordable weapon with a higher loadout than current air-to-air missiles. The air force would complement the SACM with the Miniature Self-Defense Munition (MSDM), which would enhance future platforms self-defense capability, without impacting the primary weapon payload, the USAF states.

The air force has long mulled the concept of an AMRAAM replacement, with the service’s former head of Air Combat Command calling for a sixth-generation missile at last year’s Farnborough air show. In an interview with FlightGlobal this January, outgoing ACC chief Gen Herbert Carlisle called for a survivable, long-range missile with combined air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. Carlisle envision the missile fielded across the USAF’s fleets, from fourth-generation aircraft to a future penetrating counterair platform and Northrop’s B-21 bomber.

“Range is a big factor if you look at our potential adversaries with things like the [Chinese] PL-15,” Carlisle said. “I think it needs to be multiband, broad spectrum – which aids it in survivability and reaching the target.”

AFRL’s vision of a small missile with greater range and impact also tracks with Carlisle’s vision. The former chief believes technology will enable the USAF to achieve greater range within the current size and configuration for the F-35 and F-22.

“I can’t comment a lot on where we’re going to go with what we’re developing on technology, but I will tell you that we worked hard,” he says. “I think with the engine and motor technology for weapons we can get range, depending on what kind of profile and motor we use.”

Based on AFRL and Carlisle’s description, SACM could have shades of the USAF and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s defunct joint dual-role air dominance missile (JDRADM) programme, which sought a combined air-to-air and air-to-ground missile for the F-22A and F-35, and external carriage on selected legacy aircraft. The air force effort spun a DARPA programme, the triple target terminator (T3) programme, which pursued a missile that could combine the capabilities of Raytheon’s AIM-120 and AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM).

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Jura said:

Saturday at 5:48 PM

tragicomic or not, this afternoon Czech main-stream (!!) server informed (

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) the time window for that test opens today at 1600 Pacific (EDIT the article says it would be at 9 pm here, which is clearly wrong it'll be 1 am on Wednesday here) ... the middle of Europe is watching! LOL!

heck now I couldn't find this info even at US Military servers I checked ... using google now ... CNN says just "on Tuesday":
Pentagon to test new anti-missile system in wake of North Korea threat

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A monumental intercept test for the United States’ critical homeland defense system designed to defend against intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran was a success, the Missile Defense Agency announced Tuesday shortly after the test.

As North Korea’s missile capabilities continue to grow, successful tests of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System that are specifically designed to go up against those possible missile threats are imperative, defense officials have said.

The test marks the first time the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system has gone up against an ICBM-class target, although some previous tests have featured intermediate-range ballistic missile targets that have approached ICBM speeds.

During the test conducted by the MDA in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing, an ICBM-class target was launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, according to an MDA statement released shortly after the test.

A ground-based interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. As designed, “its exo-atmospheric kill vehicle intercepted and destroyed the target in a direct collision,” the statement reads.

"The intercept of a complex, threat-representative ICBM target is an incredible accomplishment for the GMD system and a critical milestone for this program," MDA Director Vice Adm. Jim Syring said in the statement. "This system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat."

Multiple sensors were also put through the paces to provide target acquisition and tracking data to the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communication (C2BMC) system, according to the MDA. The Sea-Based X-band radar in the Pacific Ocean picked up and tracked the target, relaying the data, triggering a GMD system response.

“Initial indications are that the test met its primary objective, but program officials will continue to evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test,” the statement said.

The system is, as of now, comprised of 36 ground-based interceptors buried at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg. The MDA will finish fielding all 44 interceptors by the end of 2017.

“This is an important day for homeland missile defense,” Tom Karako, a missile defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Defense News. “ Hit-to-kill has once again been validated, and this time against an ICBM. The Missile Defense Agency has been on a long road to improve the reliability and capability of the GBI fleet. Details are still coming in, but today’s test promises good things for the defense of the nation.”

The much-anticipated test follows a series of successes and failures. Trouble with the interceptor’s exo-atmospheric kill vehicle (EKV), designed to destroy targets in high-speed collisions after separating from a booster rocket, plagued the program.

Both 2010 and 2013 saw interceptor test failures. During the July 2013 test, the kill vehicle failed to separate from the booster rocket.

The tide turned in June 2014 when the agency notched a successful intercept test, bringing its success record to four in 17 tests. Since 1999 there have been 16 flight intercept tests, nine successful. Only four of nine since 2002 have succeeded and two of four since 2008 ended in a hit.

The test in 2014 was the first successful test of its kind in five and a half years.

By the time the 2014 test rolled around, MDA officials were seriously questioning what needed to be done to fix the system — one option was to abandon the upgraded version of the GBI struggling in tests and move on down a more aggressive path to redesign the kill vehicle.

In January 2016, the GMD system completed a successful non-intercept flight test designed to evaluate the performance of the redesigned thrusters in its interceptor’s kill vehicle. The divert thrusters were redesigned to address the fundamental problems experienced in the previous version of the EKV.

A failure in Tuesday’s test would have likely delayed the deployment of some redesigned kill vehicles expected to go to Fort Greely by the end of 2017.

One analyst expressed skepticism that the test proves the U.S. has the homeland missile defense strategy right against North Korean threats.

"Based on its testing record, we cannot rely upon this missile defense program to protect the United States from a North Korean long-range missile. If anything, over-reliance on missile defenses could impede diplomatic efforts that could avoid a dangerous confrontation," Philip Coyle, who formerly headed the Pentagon's office of operational test and evaluation and is now a senior science fellow at the Arms Control Center, warned in a statement. "In several ways, this test was a $244 million dollar baby step, a baby step that took three years."

MDA plans to spend nearly a billion dollars for homeland missile defense in 2018.

The agency is requesting $828.1 million for the GMD system in its fiscal year 2018 budget request released last week. MDA is asking for $465.5 million for improved interceptors as part of the redesigned kill vehicle and improve in-flight communications to better use off-board sensor data.

Another major test of the GMD system is planned in FY18 — FTG-11 — which is the first operational flight test of the system. The test will consist of a salvo intercept using GBIs launched from Vandenberg against ICBM threats from the Reagan Test Site.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

Timepass, Please post a Link to where you found the story.
second I posted the same story minus the images.

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