International Aerospace Discussion

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 25 May 2010 05:29

Yes, here is another article on the upcoming USAF test of the X-51A for its 'Prompt Global Strike' initiative:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/05 ... y-to-race/

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 25 May 2010 20:07

NASA unveils enhanced search and rescue system

RKumar · Post by **RKumar** » 26 May 2010 13:29

Ministry slams defective Tiger attack helicopter

Germany has ordered 80 of the helicopters from Eurocopter, a subsidiary of the France-based European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), but a ministry spokesman said the aircraft was marred by technical bugs.

"There are serious defects, particularly with its wiring," rendering the Tigers unready for combat, the spokesman told AFP.

Eurocopter said in a statement that it was working on the defects.

shukla · Post by **shukla** » 26 May 2010 18:31

U.S. Navy Leadership Reaffirms Commitment to Joint Strike Fighter Program

Kartik · Post by **Kartik** » 27 May 2010 00:08

Another article in addition to the one above on the defects with the Eurocopter Tiger

article link

Exclusive - Germany suspends EADS helicopter purchase
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is suspending its 3 billion euro (2.6 billion pounds) purchase of EADS's (EAD.PA) Tiger attack helicopter due to technical problems, potentially delaying delivery to its forces in Afghanistan until end-2011.

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 28 May 2010 04:36

Rust and Roll For F-22; HASC Watches JSF

Rust is not something the average person thinks much about when it comes to designing high-tech weapons. But several years ago I reported on a major missile test defense test that was ruined because a part rusted that helped hold the missile in place before liftoff. And in February the entire F-22 fleet was grounded “due to poorly designed drainage in the cockpit.” The affected parts were ejection seat rods. Congress is worried that similar problems could afflict the Joint Strike Fighter and has requested a report about lessons learned from the F-22’s experience.

Regardless of how lowly rust might seem at first glance, it is a huge problem for the military, costing about $20 billion each year. According to the House Armed Services Committee, roughly $7 billion of that rust is preventable. So, the committee, doing its job of congressional oversight, wants to substantially increase the budget of a little known Pentagon entity, the Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight, to improve the military’s ability to stop rust from crippling major weapons systems.

“The Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight has a proven record of successfully reducing corrosion costs, with a 50-to-1 return on investment on the 169 programs that have been implemented through it,” the HASC says in the summary of its bill. So the committee is increasing the office’s budget to a paltry $10.8 million, up from a tiny request of $3.6 million. Doing the math, that should result in a return of $540 million to the taxpayer. Kudos to Daniel Dunmire, director of Corrosion Policy and Oversight.

Of course, there’s usually a rub, and there is a little one this time. The HASC says that it has not yet gotten a “congressionally directed report” from Dunmire about those lessons learned from the F-22’s rust problems: “The Committee notes that it has yet to receive the congressionally directed report from the Director of Corrosion Policy and Oversight assessing the corrosion control lessons learned from the F-22 Raptor fleet—which was grounded in February 2010 for corrosion on ejection seat rods due to poorly designed drainage in the cockpit—as they apply to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.”

We hear little evidence of congressional irritation and expect the prospect of a bulging purse will only encourage OSD to cough up the report forthwith. Dunmire, who responded promptly to our inquiry about when the report would be done, said it should be ready by August

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 May 2010 07:26

the X51A flew 200 secs at mach6 yesterday using scramjet engine.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 28 May 2010 07:32

F-35 avionics: an interview with the Joint Strike Fighter's director of mission systems and software

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 28 May 2010 07:41

Jammer Competition Spurs New Technology

The growing overlap of electronic warfare and cyber-invasion is generating excitement around the U.S. Navy’s competition for the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) and the U.S. Air Force’s reentry into the world of airborne electronic attack.

A key enabling technology is a six-sided active, electronically scanned array (AESA) that more than doubles the field of view of today’s electronically scanned antennas on advanced aircraft such as the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.

Other technologies include broadband AESA, advanced radars, digitized exciters and techniques generators that produce exotic waveforms and algorithms for electronic and cyberwarfare. Perhaps more importantly, today’s concepts and technology are stepping-stones to wider apertures, cooler amplifiers and faster processing, say aerospace industry officials involved in the competition. Initial operating capability for the NGJ in the Boeing EA‑18G Growler fleet is 2018. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is to add an advanced electronic attack capability in a Block 5 aircraft sometime after 2020.
................................
The NGJ might be a “major improvement” because for the first time broadband electronically scanned arrays (ESAs) could be added to the Growler platform, says Eduardo Palacio, vice president of programs for ITT Electronic Systems.

Boeing and ITT officials will not talk about the key antenna technology in their NGJ pod design. But others with insight into the program say that it involves a sophisticated arrangement of six planar AESAs in an elongated, hexagon shape to create a continuous, scalloped and overlapping, 360-deg. coverage area with less range and accuracy degradation at array join points.

The antenna arrangement is designed to overcome the intrinsic weakness of ESAs, which is its effective field of regard of about 120 deg. for each planar array of transmitter/receiver modules. So far, various teams have addressed the problem differently. Northrop Grumman’s radar for the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail has two side-looking antennas and fore and aft gap-fillers based on unusual “endfire” arrays. The Israel Aerospace Industries-modified Russian A-50 delivered to India has three arrays in a rotodome. The Gulfstream-based IAI-Elta airborne early warning aircraft delivered to Israel and Singapore has two side and two fore-and-aft arrays cooperating in different bands. However, none provides uniform coverage in all directions.

The Boeing/ITT NGJ package will be linked, but separate from the Growler’s advanced AESA radar. Some proposals in the competition include the AESA radar as part of the NGJ design. Critics contend that a radar’s duty cycle is very different (pulses instead of continuous power) from that of a jammer/electronic attack system.

“At some point, the radar will run into its limitations,” Palacio says. That could be the amount of power required for a target or targets that need to be handled. “The mission of NGJ will be to deal with a large number of threats [by using] a large amount of [radio-frequency] energy and focus on the [EA] mission,” he says.

“The Growler has a very sophisticated AESA radar, but how many tasks are you going to place on that radar and [its limited] field of regard?” Martin says. “The radar is looking forward, and ideally you would like the pilot to use it to sterilize the environment and protect the aircraft with air-to-air targeting. The aircrew in the back would have a full 360-deg. jamming capability with multiple, simultaneous beams engaging surface and air-to-air targets [such as missiles or aircraft].”
................................................
The NGJ package (in some form) is expected to be carried by the F-35 as the successor to the Growler, although that will not happen until after 2020, and more likely closer to 2040, as the EA-18G aircraft start using up their airframe lives. Moreover, it was recently revealed that because of a reduction in fighter aircraft, stealthy platforms such as the F-22 and F-35 will be provided jamming and electronic attack support by nonstealthy F-15C (modified with AESA radars and EA systems) and semi-stealthy Growlers for decades. The new force-structure model has the potential to extend Growler production and use for years, say industry analysts.
........................................
“If the solution becomes internal, then we have to consider [more expensive] conformal apertures and the right radome—all the things associated with a JSF-like structure,” Palacio says.

There is another argument that the NGJ package installed on an F-35 will not be as powerful an electronic attack platform as the Growler without adding upgrades that would be too expensive and time-consuming to field. Whereas, on the Growler, the NGJ pod will be part of an integrated EA system that includes an advanced digital receiver, data fusion on the platform, multi-source integration and optimized crew/vehicle interfaces, along with jammer and weapons management.

“The digital receivers are tailored to identify and geo-locate where the threat emitters are,” Martin says. “There are other data sources coming into the platform that allow you to fuse all the information into an operational picture for electronic attack. All of that is in play before you ever hit a button to jam something.

“In 2040, the [EA-18G] will still be out there, but we’ll know by then what it takes to transition to an all-up, stealthy EA weapons system for an aircraft,” he says. “It’s going to be supporting a broad range of missions, some we have even conceived of yet. Cyber is out there.”

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 May 2010 09:50

Singha wrote:the X51A flew 200 secs at mach6 yesterday using scramjet engine.

actually, I think it flew to mach5 only and lasted only 140s - short of the intended targets

but this was still an amazing achievement! it flew on JP7!

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/05/27/the ... ic-flight/

Rahul Shukla · Post by **Rahul Shukla** » 28 May 2010 12:30

Very high resolution photo: Boeing Test Vehicle X-37

You can read the letters on the test vehicle in this photo.

This craft flies for 270 days and when commanded to return, it descends automatically through the atmosphere and lands at a designated airfield/runway. No joy-stick operation required a la Reaper/Predator. Also clearly visible is the Space Shuttle style doors of the cargo bay indicating a simple objective: Rapid on-demand/just-in-time delivery of military satellites in the event of war and/or ASAT launches by Russia/China. It may also deliver satellite kill vehicles and/or grab an enemy satellite and bring it back to the USA. Because it comes back, space is not weaponized.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 May 2010 17:48

How does coming back mean space is not weaponized?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 May 2010 17:51

X51A + X37B = AVATAR

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 29 May 2010 08:22

Meanwhile, Japan plans to set up a $2.2 billion robotic lunar base by 2020:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/05/japan- ... -moon.html

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 30 May 2010 10:32

Work starts in £15m plan to get Concorde flying

Concorde completed its last commercial passenger flight in 2003

The engines on a French Concorde are to be examined as the first move in a £15m project aiming to get the supersonic passenger jet back in the air.

shukla · Post by **shukla** » 30 May 2010 20:46

X-post

Weaponisation of Space - Should India Join the Race?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 31 May 2010 02:12

More analysis on X-51A waverider test flight:

http://www.aviationnow.com/aw/generic/s ... t%20Flight

Kartik · Post by **Kartik** » 31 May 2010 15:14

Russian Yak-130 AJT crashes. both pilots ejected safely.

18:3629/05/2010

A Russian warplane crashed on Saturday near the city of Lipetsk in central Russia but the two pilots ejected safely, the Defense Ministry said.

Spokesman Vladimir Drik said the Yak-130 crashed at 16:58 Moscow time near the Lipetsk Air Force Training Center.

MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti)

link

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 02 Jun 2010 06:37

Glitch shows how much US military relies on GPS

DENVER — A problem that rendered as many as 10,000 U.S. military GPS receivers useless for days is a warning to safeguard a system that enemies would love to disrupt, a defense expert says.

The Air Force has not said how many weapons, planes or other systems were affected or whether any were in use in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the problem, blamed on incompatible software, highlights the military's reliance on the Global Positioning System and the need to protect technology that has become essential for protecting troops, tracking vehicles and targeting weapons.

"Everything that moves uses it," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, which tracks military and homeland security news. "It is so central to the American style of war that you just couldn't leave home without it."

The problem occurred when new software was installed in ground control systems for GPS satellites on Jan. 11, the Air Force said.

Officials said between 8,000 at 10,000 receivers could have been affected, out of more than 800,000 in use across the military.

................................

Iraq tried jamming GPS signals during the 2003 U.S. invasion, but the U.S. took out the jammer with a GPS-guided bomb, Hasik said.

The technology needed to jam GPS signals is beyond the reach of groups like the Taliban and most Third World nations, Hasik said. Jamming is difficult over anything but a small area.

"The harder you try to mess with it, the more energy you need. And the more energy you use, the easier it is for me to find your jammer," Hasik said.

More worrisome, Hasik said, is the potential for an accident within U.S. ranks that can produce anything from an errant bomb to sending troops or weaponry on the wrong course.

In 2001, a GPS-guided bomb dropped by a Navy F-18 missed its target by a mile and landed in a residential neighborhood of Kabul, possibly killing four people. The military said wrong coordinates had been entered into the targeting system.

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 03 Jun 2010 05:37

U.S. Navy, Army Seek Open-Airborne Computing

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 03 Jun 2010 21:12

Russia to test launch new spacecraft from Baikonur in 2015

"Competition for building new manned spacecraft is growing so we must ensure we hold the first test launch in 2015," Alexei Krasnov said.

The new-generation six-seated spacecraft is currently being developed by Russian spacecraft manufacturer Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. The preliminary design has been presented to Roscosmos.

"The spacecraft will be multimodular and multivariate. One task will be to deliver the six crew members to the International Space Station," Krasnov said. "The shuttle will also be fitted with a living compartment and reinforced insulation for returning to the Earth's orbit and entering the atmosphere at the second cosmic speed, in case it needs to fly to a distant orbit." .

Matthew_H · Post by **Matthew_H** » 04 Jun 2010 08:49

DELETED

bart · Post by **bart** » 04 Jun 2010 09:40

Matthew_H wrote:I recently completed an article titled “Space Weapons Should Be Part of Upcoming US-India Strategic Dialogue.” It is my hope that you will take a moment to look it over and perhaps share it with others. It is my objective to call attention to India's space weaponization pursuits before they reach the battlefield.

The paper can be downloaded at the following link: http://bit.ly/Spacewar

I also want to make you aware of a public education project I am developing that focuses on India’s space warfare pursuits. It is called the India Space Weaponization Project: http://bit.ly/IndiaProject

The mission of the India Space Weaponization Project is to analyze the myriad projects and policies fueling India’s efforts to weaponize space. Areas of coverage include the status of efforts to both impede and facilitate India’s push to weaponize space. Analysis will be complemented by an overview of government and military positions, the impact of foreign support, and the technological drivers that may serve as the building blocks of space warfare systems. References to major opinion pieces and official documents will also be highlighted.

I hope that you find my articles interesting, and that they raise awareness of India’s rapidly evolving dual-use technologies and military space systems. I would like to emphasize that the deployment of these military space systems will only serve to undermine India's security. I also believe the United States is supplying India with dual-use technology to fuel the US defense industry, but more importantly the US is setting India up to be a proxy rival to China.

With best wishes to all.

Matthew Hoey

You seem to be a retarded NPA type, and your article is blatantly and unjustifiably anti-India. Why don't you peddle your drivel somewhere else instead of on this forum, which deals with keeping India secure. And stop posting the same thing in multiple threads.

You seem to be hung up on India, and your 'website' just contains an article about India. How about you focus on your own effing country and shameless and belligerent displays of violence, aggression and disregard of International opinion, whether in space dispensation or using nuclear weapons against Japan, or callously killing close to a million Iraqis with no justification whatsoever.

shukla · Post by **shukla** » 04 Jun 2010 10:04

X-post

Boeing Seeks OK For Joint Space Projects

vavinash · Post by **vavinash** » 04 Jun 2010 10:07

Why should India join with Boeing? Let them fend for themselves.

Kailash · Post by **Kailash** » 04 Jun 2010 10:40

Matthew_H,

The US Started it, China just followed suite. And when China tested their weapon a responsible US should not have immediately blasted one of their other satellites. The timing of their test showed haste and an assertion of technological prowess.

Technology and capability are not privately properties of certain nations alone. If a country can develop the technology it is theirs. Developing a technology yourself and then judging others harshly is hypocrisy - the same double standards that the americans are so used to.

"Stop nuclearization, weaponization of space - oh no I will only preach I wont renounce my own nuclear warheads or ASAT weapon" - what kind of logic is that?

KALI(kinetic attack loitering interceptor).

Over the past decade, there has been no shortage of inflammatory comments made by Indian military officials claiming India’s intent to weaponize space. There has also been no shortage of contradictions to these statements from India’s most senior government officials— oftentimes happening within days of one another.

Political statements are based on perceived threats and capabilities available at that time to a nation. What was valid a decade ago may be absurd now. And the international cummunity has no right to question how nation safegaurds its assets! We have something worth defending, and we are capable of defending it, so whats the problem?

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 04 Jun 2010 23:06

amazing video.just check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvRTALJp ... re=related

watch it cross through the window and also how it perches.

PratikDas · Post by **PratikDas** » 05 Jun 2010 01:56

darshhan wrote:amazing video.just check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvRTALJp ... re=related

watch it cross through the window and also how it perches.

Thanks for sharing this. Stunning.

PratikDas · Post by **PratikDas** » 05 Jun 2010 03:47

SpaceX Falcon 9 test launch

(Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel / June 4, 2010)
What could be a new era in spaceflight dawned today with the successful launch of a new private rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Falcon 9 – the gleaming white, 180-foot-tall flagship rocket of commercial upstart SpaceX -- lifted off its launchpad at 2:45 p.m., Friday, June 4, 2010 and soared into partly cloudy skies, riding a trail of fire from its nine Merlin engines.

Code: Select all

Mission Type                                  Price*
LEO (s/c<80% capacity to the customer orbit)  $45.8M
LEO (s/c>80% capacity to the customer orbit)  $51.5M
GTO (s/c<3,000 kg)**                          $45.8M
GTO (s/c up to 4,680 kg)                      $51.5M

*Standard Launch Services Pricing through 6/02/10.

Code: Select all

Launch Site:                       Cape Canaveral AFS      Kwajalein
Mass to Low Earth Orbit (LEO):     10,450 kg (23,050 lb)   8,560 kg (18,870 lb)
Inclination:                       28.5 degree             90 degree (polar orbit)	  	 

Mass to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO): 
                                   4,540 kg (10,000 lb)    4,680 kg (10,320 lb)
Inclination:                       28.5 degree             9.1 degree

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 05 Jun 2010 06:37

Note to ISRO - please put cameras on your rockets - even cheap ones will do!

A modern Howard Hughes:

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Spa ... n_999.html

The not-so-distant future:

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 06 Jun 2010 19:22

Austin wrote:Not sure if this has been posted but Air Fleet carried a nice review on Tejas and J-10 development program.

Clicky Pdf

Page 25:

«In the summer of 2007 a Chinese J-10 fighter
“Tzianbin-10”, created on Israeli Lavi basis with
Russian engines АL-31FN, managed to shoot
down an American multipurpose fighter of the 5th
generation F-22 Raptor above the Taiwan Strait.
During the incident subflight Su-30 blocked other
American Air Force aircraft off the “Feathered
Raptor”. The shot down Raptor fell down the
continental part of China and after that was taken
to pieces “for spare parts” by the locals. And the
successfully catapulted F-22 pilot was “quietly” –
by mutual consent of the parties – sent by the
Chinese to the American Command…».

: )

Vivek K · Post by **Vivek K** » 06 Jun 2010 20:51

What a load of cr$p!!

Brando · Post by **Brando** » 06 Jun 2010 22:29

NRao wrote: Page 25:

«In the summer of 2007 a Chinese J-10 fighter
“Tzianbin-10”, created on Israeli Lavi basis with
Russian engines АL-31FN, managed to shoot
down an American multipurpose fighter of the 5th
generation F-22 Raptor above the Taiwan Strait.
During the incident subflight Su-30 blocked other
American Air Force aircraft off the “Feathered
Raptor”. The shot down Raptor fell down the
continental part of China and after that was taken
to pieces “for spare parts” by the locals. And the
successfully catapulted F-22 pilot was “quietly” –
by mutual consent of the parties – sent by the
Chinese to the American Command…».
: )

How do they say Horse manure in Mandarin ?

The J-10 is barely as good as the F-16 and that is without an AESA radar. The probability that ANY fighter aircraft that the Chinese have could actually shoot down the F-22 is so remote it is statistically improbable. Even the Russians wouldn't be so bold as to make such a ludicrous claim. It would be surprising, even amazing if the Chinese could shoot down the now retired F117 .

I guess, their "analysis" of the LCA should be taken with the same credulity as to their "F-22" report.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 06 Jun 2010 22:41

Well he does mentions in the next para that such news appeared in Mass Media , Although he could have avoided putting those stuff

This message as well as other ones of the kind
appeared in the mass media and in the Internet in
the autumn of 2008, having caused great anxiety
in aviation related circles. Chinese aircraft industry
was traditionally discussed as something inferior
and ineffective, incapable of manufacturing battle
planes that can compete with those produced by
USA or European aircraft industry. Now a number
of commentators have radically changed their
point of view evaluating Chinese fighters as almost
the best in the world, being capable of shooting
down the newest American “invisibles” of the
5th generation. So, we’ll try to figure out what
«Tzian-10» (the very plane that is said to have
shot down F-22A) actually is and to what extent it
is dangerous to American “Raptors” (and not only
to them)?

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 06 Jun 2010 22:44

For hypothetical argument sake lets assume if a J-10 or Tejas manages to shoot a F-22 ( ok I know USAF will tell you it will take a UFO to shoot the F-22 ) will this be an unbelievable news ? But if a PAK-FA manages to do the same that would be more explainable or believable ?

negi · Post by **negi** » 06 Jun 2010 22:55

Well our Bisons took on the F-15s in cope India and came out on top on at least one occasion and iirc an USAF F-16 managed to get F-22 in its cross hairs during a WVR simulation so Tejas taking out a F-22 is not unbelievable ; platform capability is just one of the several variables which govern the outcome of one on one engagements.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 06 Jun 2010 23:01

True , Bison do take part in our internal BFM with MKI and others and they are known to come up well and yes it did well in Cope.

There is this certain urban myth about F-22 ( 200 - 0 etc etc ) but indeed platform capability is just one of the many variables that can decide the fate in BVR and WVR engagement

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 07 Jun 2010 02:46

Orbital Sciences gears up for competition against SpaceX

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/Publica ... I_Fact.pdf

Their upcoming Taurus-2 rocket has almost 3/4 the payload capacity as SpaceX's Falcon-9

Likewise, their Cygnus space capsule would be a rival to SpaceX's Dragon capsule.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Jun 2010 08:00

which companies are making the engines for these private space cos ?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 07 Jun 2010 08:29

SpaceX makes its own engines (Merlin and Kestrel), while Aerojet makes the engines used by Orbital Sciences.

Meanwhile, here's a story from WSJ on SpaceX:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 70696.html

This is certainly a potential renaissance for the Space industry