The air force has quietly announced that it is has began work on a new strategic bomber to replace the ageing B-52 and assist the 21 plane B-2 force on the future battle space. The air force has promised that the new Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) will try to control its budget by using tried and fielded systems and not over use of new technologies in the systems.
DODbuzz Link for More:
Gizmodo has posted a great video from Al Jazeera about Americas combat robotic programs and direction of these programs,
See the video: http://gizmodo.com/5878417/a-must+watch-video-on-how-military-drones-are-changing-war
Continued issues and testing results about the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS)
Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman had posted a blog on the current status, hurtles, and key major issues in the testing phase for the Joint Strike fighter and its goal to enter initial operational testing in 2015. He has read and reviewed the Pentagon Quick Look Review and give his thoughts on some of the key issues. Some of the finding s were:
-After several sorties above Mach 1.6 there was “peeling and bubbling” of coatings on the horizontal tails and damage to engine thermal panels, the entire test force was subsequently limited to Mach 1.0.
-High level of airframe fatigue issues has been found on the testing aircraft.
-Pilots helmet-mounted display issues is in latency: the image in the helmet lags 130 milliseconds behind sightline movement where the spec is under 40 ms. (So the video is where the pilot’s head was pointed an eighth of a second ago.) That can’t be fixed without changing the JSF’s integrated core processor – the jet’s central brain – and the EO-DAS sensors. Even the backup helmet faces buffet and latency issues, simply for symbology.
-The underwing fuel dump system on the JSF doesn’t get fuel clear of the aircraft surfaces, so that fuel accumulates in the flaperon and may get into the integrated power package (IPP) exhaust. That creates a fire hazard, particularly on a ship deck after landing. Fuel dumping has been banned except in an emergency. Two unsuccessful modifications have been tried on the F-35B.
-failure” caused IPP parts to puncture a fuel tank – is turning out to be unreliable. It’s supposed to last 2,200 hours, but so far in the flight test program, 16 IPPs have been removed and replaced – a process that takes two days of 24-hour work.
-The arrester hook issue has been reported. In the first round of tests, the hook failed to catch the wire once. The QLR notes that tests of a minimal modification – a reprofiled hook with different damper settings. Studies are already underway of changing the hook’s location – the basic problem is that the designers put the hook closer behind the main landing gear than that of any current or recent Navy aircraft so hard for pilots to get use to the new landing envelope.
-flight tests have not gone beyond 20 degrees angle of attack, and higher-than-predicted buffet loads have been experienced when the JSF is in a high AOA
-Some negative Stealth and Thermal issues has arisen and also need to be addressed.
Read more at:
Bill Sweetman original Blog: Ares A Defense Technology Blog
Pogo Link to the Original copy of the Quick look report:http://www.pogo.org/resources/national-security/f-35-jsf-concurrency-quick-look-review-20111129.html
DODbuzz.com has a posted a potential plan that the US Army is mulling in the next few years to live under the coming budget limits. One of the proposed plans considered is eliminating 10 brigade combat teams from the 45 BCT’s in the Army’s active ground force.
Currently, the Army’s active ground force is made up of 22 infantry BCTs, 15 heavy BCTs, seven Stryker BCTs and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which has been designated to transform into another Stryker BCT. For now, the Army plans to retain all of its Stryker BCTs. Stryker units are the largest in the BCT structure, with three maneuver battalions.
It’s still unclear which of the five heavy and five infantry BCTs the Army would be the first cut from the active force. read more at DODbuzz.com
Link:http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/01/17/the-army-after-tomorrow-contd/
Great article on the top naval brass vision of a new brown water navy with the LCS class of ships and how the resistance by blue water Aegis Mafioso admirals who are working to sink it.
Story Link: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/01/10/sna-the-navys-next-lcs-dilemma/
Our friends at Pacific Power have come up with a handy app for your IPhone that will help determine the right size power source for testing.
this app is free to all at their website site: http://www.pacificpower.com/English/Company/powercalculator.aspx
NOTE: require iTunes account to load from store.
After the year 2020 ground wars will be more intense and concentrated in the world’s crowded coastal cities. That’s the consensus from a panel of experts including current and retired Army officers and professional analysts.
David Axe of AOL Defense approached five military experts and former leaders and asked what and where will the future battlefields be and what will our forces need to do be ready to fight those battles.
Read More:http://defense.aol.com/2011/11/30/the-future-of-land-wars-intense-high-tech-urban-coastal/
The Navy catapulted an F-35C into the air using its new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System for the first time on Nov. 18, the service announced Monday.
Testing the F-35C on EMALS provided an early opportunity to evaluate technical risks and began the process to integrate the carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter with the future carrier fleet aircraft launching system.
EMALS is the key to the future of aviation in not one, but two great navies — when the British switched their order from F-35Bs to Cs, they also became dependent on the success of the U.S. Navy’s electromagnetic catapults. In fact, you could argue the Royal Navy has an even greater need for EMALS, given that its Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers won’t be built with steam propulsion.
Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2011/11/28/the-future-is-here-emals-launches-f-35/#ixzz1f71n2puR
DoDBuzz.com
back in the summer when there were rumblings the U.K. would sell some or all of its old Harriers to the U.S. to help out the Marine Corps?
Well, it’s true, Defense News confirmed on Sunday. Correspondents Christopher P. Cavas, Vago Muradian and Andrew Chuter wrote this:
Britain has agreed to sell all of its 74 decommissioned Harrier jump jets, along with engines and spare parts, to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps — a move expected to help the Marines operate Harriers into the mid-2020s and provide extra planes to replace aging two-seat F-18D Hornet strike fighters.
(thanks to DODBuzz.com)
To read more click this Link: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2011/11/14/report-confirms-uk-harrier-sale-to-us/