US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

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The USN has halted operations throughout this planet.. this may be unprecedented;

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he U.S. Air Force has identified the key technologies it needs to develop for a next-generation air superiority fighter that will replace the

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Raptor, including a more powerful, fuel-efficient engine for extended range and increased stealth relative to current capabilities.

Gen. Mike Holmes, commander of Air Combat Command, stresses the importance of developing a sophisticated new aircraft to replace the F-22, particularly as potential adversaries develop ever more advanced weapons like Russia’s recently designated Su-57 stealth fighter.

“That’s a good-looking airplane, and certainly it will pose threats to our fourth-generation airplanes and we will have to continue to work to improve the F-22 all the time and the

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to try to keep an advantage there,” Holmes said in an interview here Aug. 17. “Eventually you will run into a limit in your ability to improve those platforms, and so we need to have something else ready.”

The Air Force has spent the last few years studying what it will take to ensure control of the skies for the rest of the century as part of its Air Superiority 2030 effort—including an F-22 follow-on, or Penetrating Counter Air (PCA). The air arm is still working through an analysis of alternatives to determine the capabilities of the new platform, but “we think we have the technologies picked out,” Holmes said.

Extended range will be a key feature, likely to allow the new fighter to self-deploy and to accompany the new B-21 bomber on deep penetration missions. Increased range drives increased airframe size and engine power, Holmes explained. PCA’s engine will need to be more fuel efficient, have more thrust and more cooling air to support a longer-range and even stealthier airframe than current technology allows, he said.

The Air Force together with engine manufacturers Pratt & Whitney and

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have been working on a new class of combat aircraft propulsion systems based on three-stream engine technology that might fit this bill. The third stream provides an extra source of air flow that, depending on the phase of the mission, is designed to provide either additional mass flow for increased propulsive efficiency and lower fuel burn for longer endurance, or additional core flow for higher thrust and cooling air to boost combat performance.

This technology, which is being matured under the Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP), is part of the service’s efforts to develop PCA, Holmes acknowledged.

Stealth also will be a key requirement for the new aircraft, despite potential tradeoffs such as speed, and the advancement of counterstealth radars that some argue make stealth obsolete, Holmes said.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game, and it’s never over,” he said. “It’s not that you build something that can help detect stealth airplanes and now there’s no need to pursue stealth—it keeps going and you keep countering each other’s advantages and coming up with new ideas.”

The Air Force also is looking at the weapons a future air superiority fighter might require, and how many it would need in internal weapons bays, as well as its mission systems—for instance sensors and fusion capabilities, Holmes said.

Holmes declined to specify what developmental weapons technologies the Air Force has picked for the new fighter to field, saying “it will have appropriate weapons for its mission.”

The Air Force for the first time revealed a funding line for a secretive “Air Dominance Air-to-Air Weapon” in fiscal 2018 budget documents this year, requesting $1 million to stand up the project. Little is known about the next-generation air-to-air capability, but it may be a successor to the

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-built

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Sidewinder and AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile the Raptor currently carries, or possibly a longer-range version of those weapons. A longer-range air-to-air missile also could equip future non-stealthy aircraft that have to stand off from surface-to-air missile threats.

Now that the Air Force has identified key technologies for PCA, the next step is to make them a reality—“taking ideas and getting to where they are manufacturable and buildable,” Holmes said. But he made the caveat that PCA depends on alignment with the results of Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ Defense Strategic Guidance, as well as getting sufficient funding to keep all of the technology development activities on track.

Overall, the Air Force requested $294.7 million in fiscal 2018 to continue studying options for PCA.

“Right now our focus is on getting the money to keep those development activities on track so that we won’t be missing a piece of it when we get ready to go forward with an airplane,” Holmes said.

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test bd said:

The USN has halted operations throughout this planet.. this may be unprecedented;

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4 collisions by USN ships in 1 year, 2 days:
21 Aug: USS McCain
17 June: USS Fitzgerald
9 May: USS Lake Champlain
19 Aug 2016: USS Louisiana

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Mike North said:

Wow. I wonder if the USN is so concerned because they know what the problem is and its bad, or worse they don't know what the problem is. I don't want to go into conspiracy's or rumorville so here my sensible best guess. The USN has for decades had a group of Captains that are very well trained and experienced. This is because people become captains and stay captains. If your average Capt has been a Capt for say 10+ yrs they have the experience, no one else does as few promotions to Capt happen. Then you have all your talent in one group that is all about the same age . They will retire at they same time. suddenly you have to promote too many people at once. For any high rank promotion the people under them also get moved up a notch. In that case I would expect lot of incidents and mistakes as people get the experience they need. What else could it be?

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Equation said:

But qualified commanders or XO are usually act as Captains themselves when the CO is off duty. So therefore they plenty of experience already as far as responsibility and pressure to handle such duties.

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Mike North said:

100 percent agree with you. I'm saying if XO is promoted to Capt, someone is promoted to XO. Someone is promoted to fill their job and so on down the line. As you say people do the role above their station under supervision to prove competence and get the experience before being promoted to that role. I'm saying if to many experience people retire at the same time, promotions happen before they should. I've seen it personally in industry and it always causes problems and mistakes, sometimes leading to bankruptcy. There is only so much talent an organization can lose before they arent what they used to be untill they get back up to speed. I simply cant see any other sensible reason for this. Its my guess and im open to other ideas but dont see any. Its not Putin hacking or Dear leaders stealth oil tankers. The USN will figure it out and will publish the results. Untill then its all guessing I supose

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Mike North said:

Does anyone know if these ships have recently had nav system upgrades or new automated systems installed or a reduction in crew size? Im having trouble believing USN Captains and crew have stopped taking their work seriously and are not at their posts or are sleeping on duty. The captain must stay aware of the situation and ships around them. Oil tankers don't pop up out of nowhere

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