Daily News
by Gail Helmer
[ Send Us News | Archives ]
Soldier of Fortune II Patch
Raven Software has released a patch for Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, upgrading their recent mercenary first-person shooter to version 1.01. This release offers four new multiplayer maps, the Demolition game mode, the new MP5SD weapon, and numerous improvements and fixes for both the single- and multiplayer sides of the game. Download
New Screens: American Conquest
We have 4 new screens from CDV's upcoming Historical RTS, American Conquest. American Conquest features, real-time battles with up to 16,000 units, era between 1492 and 1813, 4 campaigns with 30 missions: the American War of Independence, the Seven Years' War, the War of Tecumesh and Pizarro's Expedition, 6 simulations of historical battles and 12 separate single player missions with 12 different nations: Spanish, English, France, Aztec, Incan, Mayan, Sioux, Huron, Delaware (Algonquin), Iroquois League, Pueblo, American. Release Date: Early 2003.
New Screens: IL-2 Sturmovik - The Forgotten Battle
Oleg Maddox has released more screens from the IL-2 add-on, The Forgotten Battles. The screens feature the work in progress of the map in Leningrad, and various shots of the Bf-110G. IL2-Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles will include two new maps for Finland and Hungary, expanding the battlefield for both single and multiplayer modes. It will also feature more than 20 new single player missions and ten cooperative multiplayer missions. The Forgotten Battles is expected to ship to retail stores worldwide in Fall 2002.
New Screens: Cossacks - Back to War
We have 4 new screens from the second official expansion to Cossacks - European Wars. Cossacks - Back to War features 100 new single missions, 2 new nations: Switzerland and Hungary, and up to 8000 units on a map.
New Screens: Medieval - Total War
We have 16 new screens from Activisions upcoming sequel, Medieval - Total War. Medieval allows players to take control of one of twelve world powers as they attempt to rewrite history through a mixture of trade, diplomacy, resource management and wars of conquest. Featuring an incredibly powerful 3D engine, the game supports real-time 3D battles of more than 10,000 troops and more than 100 unique unit types, including knights, infantry and siege engines, in terrain as varied as deserts, forest, plains and mountains. Players will utilize authentic battle strategies and tactics as they unleash their forces against medieval castles and mighty fortresses with an arsenal of battle-field weapons including long-bows, muskets, cannons and catapults which can pound castle walls and buildings to rubble.
CFS3 at OshKosh 2002
EAA AirVenture attendees will be able to take to the virtual skies when Microsoft Game Studios and Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe fly into Oshkosh this year. Aviation enthusiasts will be able to preview the newest addition to the Combat Flight Simulator franchise scheduled for release this fall.
Combat Flight Simulator 3 will be on display in Microsoft s booth located in Exhibit Hangar B from July 23 July 29 at the annual air show. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is the world s premier recreational aviation event, drawing more than 800,000 people and 12,000 airplanes annually.
Military News
US Air Force Orders More Sniper XR Targeting Pods
The U.S. Air Force has ordered 21 more Sniper XR (eXtended Range) advanced targeting pods from Lockheed Martin. The $28.3 million order, including spares and training, marks the third buy of targeting pods for the U.S. Air Force, bringing the number of pods purchased to 44 to date.
Last week, the export version of Sniper XR, PANTERA (Precision Attack Navigation and Targeting Pod), won its first customer with a $27 million sale to the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
"The U.S. Air Force's buy of additional pods demonstrates their total satisfaction in the performance and capabilities of Sniper XR and continued satisfaction in our ability to deliver a high quality product," said Dan Fischoff, Sniper XR program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
Currently, the Air Force is flight-testing Sniper XR on the F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for deployment to operational units. These tests include specific mission profiles to refine aircraft/pod interface and operations. The pilot-vehicle interface is also being evaluated to ensure that employment procedures are transparent to the pilot to minimize cockpit workload.
The seven-year Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) contract, with a potential value in excess of $843 million, provides options for up to 522 pods and associated equipment, spares, and aircraft for both the Air Force and Air National Guard.
Sniper XR pods will initially equip the U.S. Air Force's F-16CJ Block 50 aircraft and the Air National Guard's F-16 Block 30 aircraft. Follow-on acquisitions are destined for the F-16 Block 40 and F-15E fleets, as well as interested international customers, bringing market potential to several billion dollars.
Sniper XR won the ATP contract in August 2001, following a rigorous U.S. Air Force competition with the most demanding performance requirements of any targeting pod competition to date. Sniper's superior performance includes exceptional stability, long-range identification of tactical targets, outstanding image processing, and supersonic flight.
"Our focus is working with the Air Force to support the crucial need for Sniper deployment. U.S.Air Force pilots deserve the best and that's Sniper XR," stated Mike Donovan, vice president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's Combat Vision Center.
F/A-18 AESA - New Technology
The fleet can expect dramatic changes in radar operation with the introduction of the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), a wide band electronically scanned array radar for the F/A-18E/F "Super Hornet."
While fleet operators are excited about this new technology, many do not appreciate the depth of the differences between the radar in use today, and the AESA the Super Hornet and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will utilize.
Cmdr. Dave Dunaway, APG-79 Program Manager, said, "This is a state-of-the-art radar. In my twenty years in the US Navy, this is the first time I have seen a revolutionary leap in capability vice evolutionary.
"It's not an incremental change. It's probably got at least 10 times more capability than the APG-73 and we are doing it in less time. When compared to historical radar programs, this one is faster, cheaper and provides much more performance," Dunaway said.
Dunaway credits the program's success to the inventive acquisition strategy and the compressed timeline put together by a team of government and industry personnel. He said, "We used an innovative contracting strategy to minimize the delayed start of the program.
In the past, a program like this would not have entered Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) for three years from the concept development. Because of this unique funding strategy, AESA hit EMD at full steam in February 2001, a little over a year after new start approval."
AESA's state-of-the-art technology begins with its antenna. Manufactured by the Raytheon Company, it features a tile array vice brick array and uses exceptionally innovative processor architecture. Dunaway explained, "The transmit and receive modules (TR) are very thin, about the size of a quarter.
This is the technology of the future. It's basically the same antenna that Boeing and Raytheon had proposed for the JSF, using the flip chip technology."
Testing has shown that the electronically scanned array is far superior to the mechanical scanning methodology of tracking. With mechanical tracking, the radar tracked while scanning, taking up a fair amount of time and reducing track accuracy.
The electronically scanned array uses a "search while track" methodology that significantly improves track quality of multiple targets with little or no degradation of the search capability of the radar.
The new array searches while it tracks the target on a need-to-track basis, giving a much better multiple target track capability. Although it still takes time to go through the volume with electronic scanning, once the target is found within that volume, the radar automatically schedules periodic look backs keeping track of the target at a much higher level of fidelity and frequency than a mechanically scanned antenna.
Furthermore, this AESA has a more powerful radar. Detection ranges will be significantly better than the current APG-73 radar, giving the pilot a tactical range advantage. This brand new radar shows more targets at a much higher fidelity, which provides the pilot more time to accomplish other tasks, as well as the ability to scan air-to-air and air-to-ground in a near simultaneous fashion.
In the air-to-ground arena, the improved detection range has resulted in higher resolution Synthetic Aperture Resolution (SAR) maps that are at a higher resolution than the current capability. The aircrew can see minute runway details on the map and can identify aircraft. The new AESA provides very high-resolution maps at a range further than possible with the lower resolution APG-73 map.
"This radar will change the way we do business," said Dunaway. "We are currently limited by the radar's ability to detect air-to-air targets at range. In other words we have to wait and let the radar catch up before we can shoot the missile.
With the AESA we'll be able to shoot the missile even before the target comes within the missile's range. The APG-79 radar has been designed to enable the aircrew to detect and process the target, well before it enters the maximum range of the Super Hornet's air-to-air missiles, allowing missile launch at maximum range. "
The array is situated in the nose of the airplane and each of the TR modules on the array is essentially an individual radar that transmits and receives. Once the information is received by the array, it enters the common integrated sensor processor where it is converted to tactically useful information and displayed to the aircrew. The radar then send commands back to the processor where they are converted to additional tasks for the radar to perform.
From a maintenance standpoint, the antenna is projected to have reliability that's longer than the life of the airframe. In addition, the processors are no longer replaced at the box level. Repair is easy; maintenance personnel open the box and pull a card out. This philosophy has eliminated the need to spare good cards within a Weapons Replaceable Assembly (WRA) when only one card is bad.
The Super Hornet has a reduced radar cross section technology (stealth) incorporated into its design. A traditional mechanically scanned array counters that capability and increases the effective radar cross section of the aircraft.
AESA allows the aircrew to enjoy the radar cross-section improvements on the aircraft without adversely impacting weapon system performance. Situated in the nose of the airplane, the AESA communicates through the fibre channel interface of the airplane, transmitting a huge amount of data through the advanced mission computers, into the new displays. All of this information flows freely between the radar, the Advanced Mission Computers (AMCs) and advanced displays via a fibre channel network within the airplane.
This is the first state-of-the-art fibre channel bus to be installed in a Navy tactical fighter and it represents another leap in capability and growth potential. This new architecture paves the way for tremendous AESA growth capabilities in Electronic Warfare and makes an AESA equipped Super Hornet a prime candidate for the Advanced Electronic Attack (AEA) aircraft.
In addition to all of the modifications directly associated with the radar, there have been extensive modifications to the aircraft to support the AESA. Because of the tremendous power generated and the multitude of processors required, two new heat exchangers were added to the aft end of the airplane. These new heat exchangers have enhanced the liquid cooling capacity of the aircraft significantly, and have provided the radar the essential cooling required.
Dunaway summed up the timeline. "We started the program with a year of contractor development in the primary development phase under a unique advanced agreement that got us through a Preliminary Design Review (PDR). In February of 2001, we kicked off EMD and conducted a Critical Design Review (CDR) by December of 2001. It is very unusual for a program this complex to progress so quickly. Since CDR, the program has been focusing on producing EMD hardware that is being delivered to the laboratories for hardware development, software development and weapon system integration.
Following the laboratory development phase, an extensive flight test program with the AESA radar installed in the Super Hornet will be conducted to ensure that the total system performance meets or exceeds the performance required in the projected threat environment.
The AESA radar is a revolution, not an evolution for the Super Hornet and will make this airplane one of the most capable and desired aircraft on the battlefield. (Source: NAVAIR Public Affairs)
UH-1Y Huey Makes First Flight
The latest version of the Marine Corps' venerable UH-1 Huey utility helicopter, the UH-1Y, made its first flight here July 3. With Marine Maj. Jeff Greenwood and Bell Helicopter test pilot Gregg Shimp at the controls, "Yankee One" made a 30-minute flight to check rotor track and balance and to check out instrumentation, according to Robin Locksley, H-1 Integrated Test Team Lead.
Yankee One's first flight at Pax follows an extensive modification period after its last flight at the Bell Helicopter flight test facility in Texas and relocation here, Locksley said. The helicopter now has 52.9 flight hours under its belt.
The first of two UH-1Y prototypes here, Yankee One joins Zulu One, the first of three AH-1Zs here for flight testing, in testing the advancements being made to the Corps' utility and attack helicopter fleet.
H-1 Upgrade Program is upgrading the Marine Corps' aging fleet of combat utility and attack helicopters by remanufacturing UH-1N Hueys and AH-1W Super Cobras to share a common drive train, rotor head, tail boom, avionics, software and controls for 84 percent commonality between the two aircraft.
Over the 30-year expected lifespan of the aircraft, this commonality is projected to save the Marine Corps approximately $3 billion in operating and support costs.
And because of the Marines' unique expeditionary nature, this commonality will also reduce the logistical "foot print" of Marine light attack helicopter squadrons, or HMLA's, that operate both aircraft. The common features of the aircraft mean less spare parts will be required to be kept on hand, training for aircrew and maintainers will be simpler and deployments will be easier.
The UH-1 "Huey" has been in service since 1956. With more than 16,000 produced by Bell and its foreign licensees, in more than 35 variants for the U.S. Department of Defense, foreign military sales and civilian users, it is the most successful military helicopter ever built.
The Corps' current Huey fleet, the UH-1N, is expected to exceed its planned service life of 10,000 hours in FY04. Designed in the 1960's and fielded in the 1970's, the current fleet has never had a service life extension or major upgrade.
While not as "experienced" as the Huey, the Corps' current fleet of Super Cobras is also showing its age and is facing increasing challenges on the 21st Century battlefield. The upgrades being made to both aircraft, in addition to making them easier to field and maintain, will also make them easier to fly, faster, more capable and more survivable.
Turkey Signs JSF Agreement
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge met today with Under Secretary for Defense Industries Ali Ercan of the Turkish Ministry of Defense to sign a $175 million memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Turkish partnership in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) systems development and demonstration (SDD) phase.
The Ministry of Defense in Turkey was an early advocate of the JSF for their Air Force and took steps during the previous concept demonstration phase (CDP) to begin their association through foreign military sales for $6.2 million. As a CDP partner Turkey gained significant insight into the program concepts and requirements definition and participated in various capabilities modeling and simulation events. Included in these efforts was a life cycle cost control study, an important area of consideration for the Turkish Air Force that examined the changes to Air Force logistics that should be accomplished to support their JSF aircraft.
As a Level III partner, Turkey will participate with the United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, and Norway over the next 10 years of the systems development and demonstration phase. Turkey's $175 million investment will enable them to share in the technological leaps that are a significant part of this phase. Turkish industry will benefit through 'best value' contracting with the prime contractors Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney or General Electric engines along with many sub-vendors. Industry-to-industry discussions are taking place now and will result in a long-term relationship with United States and partner industries. Turkey has an active engine production facility in partnership with General Electric that could play a substantial role in Turkey's industrial and post-production involvement in the JSF.
With today's signing Turkey becomes the seventh nation to join the United States in a broad-based international partnership to develop this 21st century aircraft.
[ Send Us News | Archives ]
by Gail Helmer
Friday July 12, 2002
- Soldier of Fortune II Patch
- New Screens: American Conquest
- New Screens: IL-2 Sturmovik - The Forgotten Battle
- New Screens: Cossacks - Back to War
- New Screens: Medieval - Total War
- CFS3 at OshKosh 2002
- US Air Force Orders More Sniper XR Targeting Pods
- F/A-18 AESA - New Technology
- UH-1Y Huey Makes First Flight
- Turkey Signs JSF Agreement
Soldier of Fortune II Patch
Raven Software has released a patch for Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, upgrading their recent mercenary first-person shooter to version 1.01. This release offers four new multiplayer maps, the Demolition game mode, the new MP5SD weapon, and numerous improvements and fixes for both the single- and multiplayer sides of the game. Download
New Screens: American Conquest
We have 4 new screens from CDV's upcoming Historical RTS, American Conquest. American Conquest features, real-time battles with up to 16,000 units, era between 1492 and 1813, 4 campaigns with 30 missions: the American War of Independence, the Seven Years' War, the War of Tecumesh and Pizarro's Expedition, 6 simulations of historical battles and 12 separate single player missions with 12 different nations: Spanish, English, France, Aztec, Incan, Mayan, Sioux, Huron, Delaware (Algonquin), Iroquois League, Pueblo, American. Release Date: Early 2003.
New Screens: IL-2 Sturmovik - The Forgotten Battle
Oleg Maddox has released more screens from the IL-2 add-on, The Forgotten Battles. The screens feature the work in progress of the map in Leningrad, and various shots of the Bf-110G. IL2-Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles will include two new maps for Finland and Hungary, expanding the battlefield for both single and multiplayer modes. It will also feature more than 20 new single player missions and ten cooperative multiplayer missions. The Forgotten Battles is expected to ship to retail stores worldwide in Fall 2002.
New Screens: Cossacks - Back to War
We have 4 new screens from the second official expansion to Cossacks - European Wars. Cossacks - Back to War features 100 new single missions, 2 new nations: Switzerland and Hungary, and up to 8000 units on a map.
New Screens: Medieval - Total War
We have 16 new screens from Activisions upcoming sequel, Medieval - Total War. Medieval allows players to take control of one of twelve world powers as they attempt to rewrite history through a mixture of trade, diplomacy, resource management and wars of conquest. Featuring an incredibly powerful 3D engine, the game supports real-time 3D battles of more than 10,000 troops and more than 100 unique unit types, including knights, infantry and siege engines, in terrain as varied as deserts, forest, plains and mountains. Players will utilize authentic battle strategies and tactics as they unleash their forces against medieval castles and mighty fortresses with an arsenal of battle-field weapons including long-bows, muskets, cannons and catapults which can pound castle walls and buildings to rubble.
CFS3 at OshKosh 2002
EAA AirVenture attendees will be able to take to the virtual skies when Microsoft Game Studios and Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe fly into Oshkosh this year. Aviation enthusiasts will be able to preview the newest addition to the Combat Flight Simulator franchise scheduled for release this fall.
Combat Flight Simulator 3 will be on display in Microsoft s booth located in Exhibit Hangar B from July 23 July 29 at the annual air show. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is the world s premier recreational aviation event, drawing more than 800,000 people and 12,000 airplanes annually.
Military News
US Air Force Orders More Sniper XR Targeting Pods
The U.S. Air Force has ordered 21 more Sniper XR (eXtended Range) advanced targeting pods from Lockheed Martin. The $28.3 million order, including spares and training, marks the third buy of targeting pods for the U.S. Air Force, bringing the number of pods purchased to 44 to date.
Last week, the export version of Sniper XR, PANTERA (Precision Attack Navigation and Targeting Pod), won its first customer with a $27 million sale to the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
"The U.S. Air Force's buy of additional pods demonstrates their total satisfaction in the performance and capabilities of Sniper XR and continued satisfaction in our ability to deliver a high quality product," said Dan Fischoff, Sniper XR program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
Currently, the Air Force is flight-testing Sniper XR on the F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for deployment to operational units. These tests include specific mission profiles to refine aircraft/pod interface and operations. The pilot-vehicle interface is also being evaluated to ensure that employment procedures are transparent to the pilot to minimize cockpit workload.
The seven-year Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) contract, with a potential value in excess of $843 million, provides options for up to 522 pods and associated equipment, spares, and aircraft for both the Air Force and Air National Guard.
Sniper XR pods will initially equip the U.S. Air Force's F-16CJ Block 50 aircraft and the Air National Guard's F-16 Block 30 aircraft. Follow-on acquisitions are destined for the F-16 Block 40 and F-15E fleets, as well as interested international customers, bringing market potential to several billion dollars.
Sniper XR won the ATP contract in August 2001, following a rigorous U.S. Air Force competition with the most demanding performance requirements of any targeting pod competition to date. Sniper's superior performance includes exceptional stability, long-range identification of tactical targets, outstanding image processing, and supersonic flight.
"Our focus is working with the Air Force to support the crucial need for Sniper deployment. U.S.Air Force pilots deserve the best and that's Sniper XR," stated Mike Donovan, vice president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's Combat Vision Center.
F/A-18 AESA - New Technology
The fleet can expect dramatic changes in radar operation with the introduction of the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), a wide band electronically scanned array radar for the F/A-18E/F "Super Hornet."
While fleet operators are excited about this new technology, many do not appreciate the depth of the differences between the radar in use today, and the AESA the Super Hornet and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will utilize.
Cmdr. Dave Dunaway, APG-79 Program Manager, said, "This is a state-of-the-art radar. In my twenty years in the US Navy, this is the first time I have seen a revolutionary leap in capability vice evolutionary.
"It's not an incremental change. It's probably got at least 10 times more capability than the APG-73 and we are doing it in less time. When compared to historical radar programs, this one is faster, cheaper and provides much more performance," Dunaway said.
Dunaway credits the program's success to the inventive acquisition strategy and the compressed timeline put together by a team of government and industry personnel. He said, "We used an innovative contracting strategy to minimize the delayed start of the program.
In the past, a program like this would not have entered Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) for three years from the concept development. Because of this unique funding strategy, AESA hit EMD at full steam in February 2001, a little over a year after new start approval."
AESA's state-of-the-art technology begins with its antenna. Manufactured by the Raytheon Company, it features a tile array vice brick array and uses exceptionally innovative processor architecture. Dunaway explained, "The transmit and receive modules (TR) are very thin, about the size of a quarter.
This is the technology of the future. It's basically the same antenna that Boeing and Raytheon had proposed for the JSF, using the flip chip technology."
Testing has shown that the electronically scanned array is far superior to the mechanical scanning methodology of tracking. With mechanical tracking, the radar tracked while scanning, taking up a fair amount of time and reducing track accuracy.
The electronically scanned array uses a "search while track" methodology that significantly improves track quality of multiple targets with little or no degradation of the search capability of the radar.
The new array searches while it tracks the target on a need-to-track basis, giving a much better multiple target track capability. Although it still takes time to go through the volume with electronic scanning, once the target is found within that volume, the radar automatically schedules periodic look backs keeping track of the target at a much higher level of fidelity and frequency than a mechanically scanned antenna.
Furthermore, this AESA has a more powerful radar. Detection ranges will be significantly better than the current APG-73 radar, giving the pilot a tactical range advantage. This brand new radar shows more targets at a much higher fidelity, which provides the pilot more time to accomplish other tasks, as well as the ability to scan air-to-air and air-to-ground in a near simultaneous fashion.
In the air-to-ground arena, the improved detection range has resulted in higher resolution Synthetic Aperture Resolution (SAR) maps that are at a higher resolution than the current capability. The aircrew can see minute runway details on the map and can identify aircraft. The new AESA provides very high-resolution maps at a range further than possible with the lower resolution APG-73 map.
"This radar will change the way we do business," said Dunaway. "We are currently limited by the radar's ability to detect air-to-air targets at range. In other words we have to wait and let the radar catch up before we can shoot the missile.
With the AESA we'll be able to shoot the missile even before the target comes within the missile's range. The APG-79 radar has been designed to enable the aircrew to detect and process the target, well before it enters the maximum range of the Super Hornet's air-to-air missiles, allowing missile launch at maximum range. "
The array is situated in the nose of the airplane and each of the TR modules on the array is essentially an individual radar that transmits and receives. Once the information is received by the array, it enters the common integrated sensor processor where it is converted to tactically useful information and displayed to the aircrew. The radar then send commands back to the processor where they are converted to additional tasks for the radar to perform.
From a maintenance standpoint, the antenna is projected to have reliability that's longer than the life of the airframe. In addition, the processors are no longer replaced at the box level. Repair is easy; maintenance personnel open the box and pull a card out. This philosophy has eliminated the need to spare good cards within a Weapons Replaceable Assembly (WRA) when only one card is bad.
The Super Hornet has a reduced radar cross section technology (stealth) incorporated into its design. A traditional mechanically scanned array counters that capability and increases the effective radar cross section of the aircraft.
AESA allows the aircrew to enjoy the radar cross-section improvements on the aircraft without adversely impacting weapon system performance. Situated in the nose of the airplane, the AESA communicates through the fibre channel interface of the airplane, transmitting a huge amount of data through the advanced mission computers, into the new displays. All of this information flows freely between the radar, the Advanced Mission Computers (AMCs) and advanced displays via a fibre channel network within the airplane.
This is the first state-of-the-art fibre channel bus to be installed in a Navy tactical fighter and it represents another leap in capability and growth potential. This new architecture paves the way for tremendous AESA growth capabilities in Electronic Warfare and makes an AESA equipped Super Hornet a prime candidate for the Advanced Electronic Attack (AEA) aircraft.
In addition to all of the modifications directly associated with the radar, there have been extensive modifications to the aircraft to support the AESA. Because of the tremendous power generated and the multitude of processors required, two new heat exchangers were added to the aft end of the airplane. These new heat exchangers have enhanced the liquid cooling capacity of the aircraft significantly, and have provided the radar the essential cooling required.
Dunaway summed up the timeline. "We started the program with a year of contractor development in the primary development phase under a unique advanced agreement that got us through a Preliminary Design Review (PDR). In February of 2001, we kicked off EMD and conducted a Critical Design Review (CDR) by December of 2001. It is very unusual for a program this complex to progress so quickly. Since CDR, the program has been focusing on producing EMD hardware that is being delivered to the laboratories for hardware development, software development and weapon system integration.
Following the laboratory development phase, an extensive flight test program with the AESA radar installed in the Super Hornet will be conducted to ensure that the total system performance meets or exceeds the performance required in the projected threat environment.
The AESA radar is a revolution, not an evolution for the Super Hornet and will make this airplane one of the most capable and desired aircraft on the battlefield. (Source: NAVAIR Public Affairs)
UH-1Y Huey Makes First Flight
The latest version of the Marine Corps' venerable UH-1 Huey utility helicopter, the UH-1Y, made its first flight here July 3. With Marine Maj. Jeff Greenwood and Bell Helicopter test pilot Gregg Shimp at the controls, "Yankee One" made a 30-minute flight to check rotor track and balance and to check out instrumentation, according to Robin Locksley, H-1 Integrated Test Team Lead.
Yankee One's first flight at Pax follows an extensive modification period after its last flight at the Bell Helicopter flight test facility in Texas and relocation here, Locksley said. The helicopter now has 52.9 flight hours under its belt.
The first of two UH-1Y prototypes here, Yankee One joins Zulu One, the first of three AH-1Zs here for flight testing, in testing the advancements being made to the Corps' utility and attack helicopter fleet.
H-1 Upgrade Program is upgrading the Marine Corps' aging fleet of combat utility and attack helicopters by remanufacturing UH-1N Hueys and AH-1W Super Cobras to share a common drive train, rotor head, tail boom, avionics, software and controls for 84 percent commonality between the two aircraft.
Over the 30-year expected lifespan of the aircraft, this commonality is projected to save the Marine Corps approximately $3 billion in operating and support costs.
And because of the Marines' unique expeditionary nature, this commonality will also reduce the logistical "foot print" of Marine light attack helicopter squadrons, or HMLA's, that operate both aircraft. The common features of the aircraft mean less spare parts will be required to be kept on hand, training for aircrew and maintainers will be simpler and deployments will be easier.
The UH-1 "Huey" has been in service since 1956. With more than 16,000 produced by Bell and its foreign licensees, in more than 35 variants for the U.S. Department of Defense, foreign military sales and civilian users, it is the most successful military helicopter ever built.
The Corps' current Huey fleet, the UH-1N, is expected to exceed its planned service life of 10,000 hours in FY04. Designed in the 1960's and fielded in the 1970's, the current fleet has never had a service life extension or major upgrade.
While not as "experienced" as the Huey, the Corps' current fleet of Super Cobras is also showing its age and is facing increasing challenges on the 21st Century battlefield. The upgrades being made to both aircraft, in addition to making them easier to field and maintain, will also make them easier to fly, faster, more capable and more survivable.
Turkey Signs JSF Agreement
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge met today with Under Secretary for Defense Industries Ali Ercan of the Turkish Ministry of Defense to sign a $175 million memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Turkish partnership in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) systems development and demonstration (SDD) phase.
The Ministry of Defense in Turkey was an early advocate of the JSF for their Air Force and took steps during the previous concept demonstration phase (CDP) to begin their association through foreign military sales for $6.2 million. As a CDP partner Turkey gained significant insight into the program concepts and requirements definition and participated in various capabilities modeling and simulation events. Included in these efforts was a life cycle cost control study, an important area of consideration for the Turkish Air Force that examined the changes to Air Force logistics that should be accomplished to support their JSF aircraft.
As a Level III partner, Turkey will participate with the United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, and Norway over the next 10 years of the systems development and demonstration phase. Turkey's $175 million investment will enable them to share in the technological leaps that are a significant part of this phase. Turkish industry will benefit through 'best value' contracting with the prime contractors Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney or General Electric engines along with many sub-vendors. Industry-to-industry discussions are taking place now and will result in a long-term relationship with United States and partner industries. Turkey has an active engine production facility in partnership with General Electric that could play a substantial role in Turkey's industrial and post-production involvement in the JSF.
With today's signing Turkey becomes the seventh nation to join the United States in a broad-based international partnership to develop this 21st century aircraft.