US military, technology, arms, tactics

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brar_w
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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Skyborg Demonstrates Unmanned-Unmanned Autonomous Teaming at Orange Flag


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The Skyborg team conducted a multi-hour flight test on October 26 of the Skyborg autonomy core system (ACS) aboard two General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger tactical unmanned vehicles during the Orange Flag (OF) 21-3 Large Force Test Event at Edwards AFB, California.

Skyborg is focused on demonstrating an open, modular, government-owned ACS that can autonomously aviate, navigate, and communicate, and eventually integrate other advanced capabilities.

This experimentation event built upon the basic flight autonomy behaviors demonstrated at OF 21-2. The flight demonstrated matured capabilities of the ACS that enabled two MQ-20s to fly autonomously while communicating with each other to ensure coordinated flight. Additionally, the aircraft responded to navigational commands, stayed within specified geo-fences, and maintained flight envelopes. Both aircraft were monitored from a ground command and control station.

The test community, especially the 412th Test Wing, has been instrumental in helping to integrate government-owned autonomy into operational test events. These test events facilitate trust between the warfighter and autonomous technologies to help inform future operational use cases.

“These operational experimentation tests continue to demonstrate emerging technologies and helps the enterprise posture to transition this capability to the warfighter while preparing for the high-end fight,” said Brig. Gen. Dale White, Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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US Air Force tests cross-country data sharing across three Flag exercises

For the first time, the Air Force last week carried out three major test flag events at three separate locations simultaneously to see how well the service can share data electronically across different battlespaces.

The Orange Flag, Emerald Flag and Black Flag large force test events were held Oct. 26 in California, Florida and Nevada, the Air Force said in a Monday release.

The Air Force said it used a series of data transfer networks to transmit targeting data over long distances. The tests created their own airborne Link 16 networks — the military’s main tactical data exchange network — to transmit data to ground links, and then transferred that information between each flag event.

Maj. Theodore Ellis, director of the Black Flag event at the Nevada Test and Training Range, said the experiment was a success.

“It took two months of preparation between the three separate bases and connecting 10 different agencies to culminate all three flags in a single day, at the same time, for the first time,” Ellis said in a statement to Defense News. “We are still in the process of going through all the data, but the events were executed successfully.”

Maj. Daniel Prudhomme, the director of Orange Flag at Edwards Air Force Base in California, said it was the first time the test flag enterprise had tried to connect more than two geographically-separated areas with low-latency data link networks. The Air Force previously linked Orange and Emerald flag events in June.


Orange Flag involved aircraft such as the F-35A Lightning II and two General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger drones, which carried the Skyborg autonomy core system for a flight test that lasted several hours.

Capt. Joe Haggberg, deputy director of Emerald Flag at the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range in Florida, said that test focused on connecting systems under the Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept. JADC2 ties systems across the services together to securely pass data between forces working in different locations.

“The [Emerald Flag] team gleaned valuable information that will fundamentally transform the way we think, fight and employ capabilities at further range,” Haggberg said.

And the Black Flag event involved testing the electronic warfare capabilities of the EC-130H Compass Call, F-15E Strike Eagle, and EA-18G Growler, testing non-traditional combat search-and-rescue methods, and other capabilities and tactics in scenarios similar to what they would encounter in actual combat.

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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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A good summary on the current state of the F-15EX program. Two test jets were delivered to USAF within 8-9 months of contract award. Remaining 6 test jets will be delivered in 2022 and by late 2022 - early 2023 the first jets destined for the ANG schoolhouse will also be delivered. Following this, the first Air National Guard squadron will receive its aircraft in 2023 with aprox one ANG squadron converted to the type (from F-15C) each year until program end. Not all F-15C units will convert to F-15EX. Some will go to F-35A in addition to the F-16 units already having converted or scheduled to convert to F-35A. No determination yet on what the ANG's F-22 pilots will retain in the post 2030 timeframe but it is possible that they transition to the F-15EX particularly the east coast units.

Report to Congress on F-15EX Eagle II Fighter
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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USS Connecticut’s leadership fired following undersea mountain collision
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-nav ... collision/
04 Nov 2021

The Commander's LinkedIn Profile ---> https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-aljilani-72517790
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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https://mobile.twitter.com/DARPA/status ... 1375594496 ----->
DARPA’s Gremlins project successfully flew an unmanned air vehicle (#UAV) and then retrieved it into C-130 aircraft while in flight. The complex maneuver is another step toward expanding the use and range of #drones in distributed air operations. http://darpa.mil/news-events/20
Video showing the capture in the tweet
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Here's the YT link to the video. Recovery opens the possibility to some fairly significant increase in the sophistication and cost of potential ISR and jammer payloads that you can integrate that you couldn't really do on something like a MADL-J or X.

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DARPA has caught a Gremlin drone in midair. Can it grab four in a half-hour?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Dynetics proved they can catch an X-61A Gremlin drone in flight and bring it aboard a C-130A mothership. But the next step will be more difficult.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, Dynetics’ Gremlins program manager Tim Keeter said the program now must prove it can recover multiple drones repeatedly, reliably and quickly enough for real-world operations.

For DARPA, Keeter said, making the American program work at an “operationally relevant rate” would mean being able to recover four drones within a half-hour. He called last month’s successful test — the Gremlins’ fourth such deployment — a milestone for both the program and unmanned aviation, adding that the effort could “dramatically expand” the military’s ability to carry out distributed airborne operations.

He also expressed confidence that with the program over “the biggest hump” of proving airborne recovery can work, it will be able to reach its goal.

“Now we feel the momentum and the wind in our sails, and we’re ready to get this thing moving towards an initial operational capability,” Keeter said.
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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https://twitter.com/RealAirPower1/statu ... 81920?s=20 ---> Did you know that F-117's canopy windows were laminated to prevent radar waves from entering the cockpit? Without the special coating, the radar reflection from the pilot’s helmet would be greater than that from the entire aircraft! #AvGeek #Aviation #FunFacts #USAF

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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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Good summary and the significance of reactivation of this historic unit. What they get wrong is that the "Dark Eagle" would not have been banned under INF. The US Dept.of State allowed the US Army to pursue the LRHW program during INF as it complied with INF because >50% of its flight profile was non-ballistic (this was demonstrate in H-BGV flight test demonstrations before the ruling was issued by DOS) and it was also not a powered cruise missile. These type of weapons were not covered in the INF because they didn't exist when the INF was created. All the other systems were banned by INF and this is why their demonstration (land based TLAM launched form a prototype land based launcher) only happed after the treaty ended and why they will begin fielding in 2023 instead of earlier (even though the weapons themselves have been in service with the Navy for many years).

US Army Revives Cold War Nuclear Missile Unit To Deploy New Long-Range Weapons In Europe

The U.S. Army has officially reactivated the 56th Artillery Command in Germany. This unit was previously active in that country between 1963 and 1991, during which time it commanded battalions armed with Pershing and Pershing II nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. In its new guise, it will serve as a hub for artillery operations across Europe, including deployments of new ground-based hypersonic weapons and other longer-range missiles in the coming years. This reflects just how important the Army feels these new capabilities, and artillery in general, would be in any future major conflict in the region, especially against Russia.

The Army officially stood up the 56th Artillery Command in Mainz-Kastel, Germany, today, but news that the unit would return to active duty had emerged in August. The command is assigned to U.S. Army Europe and Africa, which oversees all conventional Army operations on both of those continents.

"The reactivation of the 56th Artillery Command will provide U.S. Army Europe and Africa with significant capabilities in multi-domain operations," Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Maranian, the head of the newly revived unit, said in a statement on Nov. 3. "It will further enable the synchronization of joint and multinational fires and effects, and employment of future long-range surface to surface fires across the U.S. Army Europe and Africa area of responsibility."

Maranian's mention of "future long-range surface to surface fires" is clearly a reference, at least in part, to two new missile systems the Army hopes to begin fielding in the next few years — Dark Eagle and Typhon.


Dark Eagle is the still relatively new name for the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), which it is developing as part of a joint program with the U.S. Navy. The service is already in the process of standing up the first battery that will be equipped with these missiles, each of which carries an unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicle, as part of the MDTF at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Typhon, which the Army has also referred to as its future Mid-Range Capability (MRC), is a multi-purpose system that includes launchers and fire control systems that will be able to employ various types of missiles. At present, the service plans to use Typhon to fire land-based derivatives of the Navy's SM-6 missile, which has air- and missile-defense capabilities as well as the ability to strike surface targets, along with ground-launched versions of the Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile. The Army is expected to use its version of the SM-6 as a surface-to-surface ballistic missile.

The Army is in the process of acquiring a new conventionally armed ballistic missile, the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which could eventually have a range of over 310 miles. There has been talk in recent years about the service fielding other new longer-range ballistic missiles, as well.

There is historical significance to reactivating the 56th Artillery Command, specifically, to oversee the future employment of these weapons in Europe. Dark Eagle, Typhon, and a future PrSM, would all have previously been banned under the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which collapsed in 2019.

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One of the first launchers for the future Dark Eagle missile arrived at Joint Base Lewis-McChord earlier this year.
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A U.S. Army briefing slide providing an overview of the components of the future Typhon weapon system.
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US Air Force-Backed Startup Reveals Hypersonic Aircraft Prototype

Air Force-backed startup Hermeus rolled out a hypersonic aircraft prototype, firing the drone’s afterburning engine during a ceremony at an Atlanta airport.

The unveiling of the non-flying Quarterhorse prototype marks the latest step in the Georgia company’s effort to make reusable hypersonic aircraft and eventually jetliners that can fly passengers at five times the speed of sound.

“Hypersonics needs a unifying vision,” Hermeus CEO A.J. Piplica said at the prototype unveiling. “That vision should be accelerating the global human transportation network.”

The Air Force, which along with venture capital firms contributed $60 million to speed Hermeus’ work, wants hypersonic technology for gathering intelligence and flying its officials around the world.

The prototype unveiled at last week’s private ceremony is being used for ground-based hardware development and integration; it is not designed to fly, the company said in a statement.

“Building this vehicle was an exercise in multidisciplinary design, manufacturing, and the integration of complete systems,” the company said.
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https://twitter.com/RealAirPower1/statu ... 68050?s=20 ---> The composition of @USNavy's Carrier Air Wing (CVW), via USNI News. #AvGeek #Aviation #Navy #INFO

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Two air wings have already transitioned to the F-35C and have changed some of their ratios so the composition is dated. The Aircraft Carrier Vinson is currently sailing with 10 F-35C's, 7 EA-18G's (+2), and 5 E-2D's (+1). Next year, they'll sail a Carrier air wing with 14 F-35C's, 7 EA-18G's, and 5 E-2D's. Once all the air-wings field F-35C, the Pacific focused air-wings will likely increase their F-35C strength from 14 per wing to 20. East Coast carriers will likely remain at 14 for a while and perhaps indefinitely. And in 2024-2025 timeframe 5-6 F/A-18E/F's in each wing will be replaced by 3-4 MQ-25's serving the same role (recover tanker) and adding additional capability (mission tanker).
Last edited by brar_w on 10 Nov 2021 21:13, edited 1 time in total.
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Metallurgist Admits To Falsifying Navy Submarine Steel Strength Test Results For 36 Years
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... r-36-years
09 Nov 2021

https://twitter.com/InsightGL/status/14 ... 34371?s=20 --->
-Wow
-And they always told us that this happens in 3rd world countries only
-A USA metallurgist admits faking steel-test results for US Navy submarines
-If that is state in US, then just imagine how much falsification happens in China where scientists work under constant threat :lol:

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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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The FY2022 NDAA is set for $777.9 billion USD. Some $740.3 B for DoD and $20.1 B for DoE nuclear materials handling. Right now there is some argument over policies of DoD between parties, but nothing over numbers. Some of the disagreements are over reforming the military justice system.

The link below is the breakdown of funding:
https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/i ... Tables.pdf

Note, the requests made by the services and what the US congress is giving them. Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) budget is $116.1 B as opposed to the request of about $112 B. Also note, DoD civilian pay increase of 2.7% has been assumed, but not finalized and uniformed service member pay will increase too.
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While the number will be higher compared to what the Biden administration requested, it in many areas simply baselines to what the services actually requested as far as funding is concerned. This is the same each year. The President's budget is presented and includes everything that the services could fit into it based on the OMB topline that the DOD had to stay within. The service chiefs and other officials are then required to provide Congress a list of items that they consider a priority (for FY-22 funding), but that they couldn't fit into the OMB topline.

Just like last year (and years before that), the services sent more than a dozen UPL's to Congress totaling $20+ Billion. This year they sent nearly 300 distinct priority items that they wanted funded (if more money was available) across procurement, sustainment, R&D and construction. In most cases (once the Senate and House agree to the NDAA) they would have just plussed up based those requests though in some areas the plus ups will most definitely be Congress driven). So while the numbers may appear a significant jump to what was in the PB request, they are generally small (if that) increases to the overall PB+UPL process which should (they've been doing it this way this for ages now) be treated as the de-facto "service request" (given that its now a formal and mandated process of budget submission + UPL submission by individual service chiefs, secretaries or department heads).

So as a whole, the Senate side (appropriators) added about $24 Billion to the Biden request but the UPL's themselves request more than $22 Billion above PB so they are in fact very close to the PB + UPL number. Once the negotiations conclude with the house, they will likely land PB +15-20 Billion range which means that the would have funded the base request and about 2/3 of the unfunded priorities which is pretty good from the services' perspective as long as it arrives relatively sooner and doesn't force them into a 6-month CR.
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Hermeus Unveils Hypersonic Manufacturing Prototype


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Start-up hypersonic aircraft developer Hermeus has unveiled a manufacturing prototype of the single-engine flight demonstrator it will test in advance of the development of a Mach 5 turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) powered transport concept.

“We’ve framed it as less a mockup and more of a prototype,” Hermeus CEO A.J. Piplica said. “Internally the purpose of building it was to go through a full-scale manufacturing process and to get the team to build a full-scale aircraft. We’ve gained a lot of insight going through this process over the past four months, and we are rolling that back into the design of the vehicle for both manufacturing integration and operations.”

Dubbed the “Quarterhorse,” the single-engine structural prototype is just under 40 ft. in length and has a wingspan of almost 12 ft. Although the prototype is largely representative of the sharply swept Mach 5 demonstrator vehicle Hermeus plans to flight test in 2024, Piplica said “there’s obviously quite a bit of iteration still to come over the next few years, but it’s in the ballpark for what we expect to fly.”

Hermeus has meanwhile moved into its recently completed 5,000-ft.2 propulsion test facility near Atlanta, Georgia. There it will build the flight demonstrators as well as evaluate a larger, flight-scale version of its TBCC engine. Testing is intended to pave the way for the follow-on development of the first of three flight-test vehicles to be built under a $60 million U.S. Air Force contract awarded earlier this year under the U.S. Air Force’s recently launched Vector Initiative.

Supported by the AFWERX Strategic Funding Increase program led by the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate, the work is a follow-on to an earlier Phase II small business innovation research contract covering potential development of a high-Mach capable Air Force One transport. The collaboration also includes support from the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Each demonstrator vehicle will incorporate a General Electric J85-21 turbojet at the heart of the TBCC propulsion system. “We’ll be getting into ground testing within the next couple of weeks on the other side of the roll out,” Piplica said. “We’ll look to get that wrapped up early next year and then complete all of our high-speed testing by the end of the first quarter.”

Testing, which for this phase continues at the company’s original engine test site in DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, Georgia, will be focused on mode-transition work in a series of direct connect runs. For these tests, the flowpath will include all major components apart from the inward turning inlet. “We will connect to the front of the pre-cooler at the test facility, and then everything downstream—including the bypass system, turbojet, ram-burner and nozzle,” Piplica said. “The major goal is really demonstrating transition from the ramjet mode to turbojet mode and back. That’s the real key risk that we’re looking to reduce here.”

The mode-transition testing builds on initial subscale prototype tests in 2019-2020 that were based on a 290-lb. thrust, off-the-shelf TJ100 turbojet supplied by Czech-based high-speed turbine maker PBS. The combined cycle elements include Hermeus’s in-house developed pre-cooler and ramjet. The turbojet is designed to operate from a standing start to Mach 3.3, while the ramjet operates over the transition range from approximately Mach 2.8 to above Mach 3 and then onward to power the vehicle to Mach 5.

“We are also starting to build out our manufacturing capabilities in the new facility,” Piplica said. “By early next year we’ll be able to do a lot more in-house fabrication than we’ve been able to do so far, and we are starting to really build up that ability to vertically integrate the company. We can’t do it all up front but we are starting to get into [it] a lot faster than we maybe thought we were a year ago.

“All the design, analysis, integration and tests for the first prototype happened in-house with some of the fabrication, but for the most part we continue to leverage our network of suppliers that we’ve built over the past couple of years,” he added. “These are valuable partners across the board, both on the airframe side as well as the propulsion side and we expect that to continue going forward. However, I think when you look at the supply chain challenges that really everybody has seen, then being vertically integrated is incredibly important to really limit your exposure to those types of risks. We don’t necessarily see those going away anytime soon.”
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Post by Mort Walker »

It is unlikely for the FY22 NDAA not to be approved by January. The House and Senate are in general agreement on the numbers and programs from the PB and UPL, the differences are on some policy and UCMJ changes. Although funding increases beyond the PB are small as percentage, some +$20-$24B is not peanuts (for non-DoD agencies). What seems to be baked in is the assumption of a 2.7% civilian DoD pay increase. Given inflation, there will be pressure by congress from both parties, and federal unions, on OPM to increase that amount. Uniformed services pay increase may also be higher due to inflationary pressures. DHS is getting a big pot of money from the first "infrastructure" bill of $1.2T, and DoD has been eyeing some of that $74B for climate and cybersecurity.
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Yes the numbers are sealed that it will be +15-20 Bn over PB which is fairly close to PB+UPL levels. Media will hype that it is $20 Billion over the request when it would really be in line with what was requested (UPL's and the Congressional workflow has basically changed how funding gets requested these days). When it will come is the unknown at this point and each month they are late means a lot more paperwork and delay on critical programs (not to mention that in a CR you can't start new programs that weren't programmed in last year's budgets so those get delayed) in trying to keep this funding into the next fiscal year because they can't spend it all. This is the usual chaos of the usual yearly negotiations but much like the last several years they should be able to get it through before the current term ends as they have done practically forever. They will eventually need to get into the two year deals that they had during Obama and early during Trump.
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Obama numbers were somewhat controlled as they had sequestration from the 2011 BCA. The Trump administration basically went along until they didn't for a variety of IMHO legitimate reasons. The barking dogs of the left, like AOC and IO, were basically ignored concerning the FY22 NDAA. Two year NDAA deals will depend on what happens to the economy in the next two quarters. Inflationary pressures are the highest in over 30 years and the administration has other domestic priorities as you don't hear much from them on the NDAA.
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How The Pentagon Is Moving Toward ‘Smart’ Jet-Powered UAS

Two newly awarded contracts show the U.S. Air Force’s long series of experiments with software-piloted, low-cost aircraft will continue beyond the Skyborg program with future rounds of tests on a second generation of so-called “attritable” designs configured for carrying sensors and weapons.

The Off-Board Sensor Station (OBSS) will follow the ongoing Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) experiments with the Skyborg autonomy control system on a first generation of attritable aircraft platforms. Meanwhile, Air Combat Command (ACC) and other services are plotting additional paths to introducing the first truly autonomous, reusable aircraft in their operational fleets, with an early focus on augmenting adversary air training with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) equipped with Skyborg or similar autonomous control systems.

Meanwhile, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) have been selected by AFRL to develop competitive designs for the new OBSS. The two companies beat out five other undisclosed competitors for contracts valued at roughly $17 million each over the next 12 months. The AFRL will then pick a single company to build prototypes of the sensor-carrying aircraft for the OBSS demonstration.

The OBSS contract does more than just give Kratos a chance to develop a new version of the XQ-58A Valkyrie with landing gear for runway operations and GA-ASI a lifeline to a future beyond the MQ-9 Reaper in the nascent market for autonomous, attritable aircraft systems. It also helps define the next phase of the AFRL’s long-term Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) strategy, which begins with the ongoing Skyborg program.

The ultimate goal is to field a new class of jet-powered UAS that are “smart” enough to fly missions in coordination with manned aircraft with little human intervention and control. The design goal is simple but challenging: Given that these aircraft will be tasked with some of the riskiest missions, they must be designed to be cheap enough to lose in large numbers, yet advanced enough to reliably carry out missions such as surveillance, strike and jamming. The AFRL has identified a cost range of $2-20 million for each attritable system.

But the aircraft first must prove they are capable of performing the mission, and it is unclear how long that will take. Last December, as the first phase of the ACP strategy, the AFRL selected three companies for the Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experiment series. Boeing, GA-ASI and Kratos were chosen to build attritable aircraft that can host the government-owned Skyborg autonomy control system. Flight tests of the Skyborg software code have already begun this year on the Kratos UTAP-22 tactical UAS and GA-ASI MQ-20 Avenger, and trials are scheduled to continue on the newly built Skyborg attritable aircraft in 2022.

The AFRL has not publicly released a schedule for starting flight tests of the follow-on OBSS program. But an official familiar with the ACP strategy tells Aviation Week that the OBSS schedule calls for flying experiments to start in 2024 with sensor-equipped aircraft. The OBSS could be followed by additional phases staged in two-year intervals, the official says, beginning with experiments on an armed Off-Board Weapon Station in 2026 and possibly an Off-Board Electronic Warfare Station two years later.

But the Air Force’s operational commanders may not need to wait until the end of the decade to see autonomous aircraft migrate from AFRL experiments to combat units.

In August 2020, the ACC approved the Adversary Air Unmanned Experiment (ADAIR-UX) initiative, seeking to augment adversary, or “red air,” forces in training missions with a fleet of low-cost, autonomous UAS. Although limited to training missions, the ACC’s plan also creates new options as Air Force leaders consider strategies for replacing at least part of the MQ-9 fleet over the next decade.

When asked about options for an MQ-9 replacement on Oct. 25 during an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute, Gen. Mark Kelly, the ACC commander, pointed to the potential evolution of the ADAIR-UX concept as an example. The ACC initially plans to use the ADAIR-UX fleet for adversary air missions on the western ranges at Nellis AFB, Nevada, but already sees an opportunity to use them for evaluating stealthy UAS designs for the MQ-9 replacement, Kelly says.

When they’re not providing that adversary air look, they’re sitting over some pretty powerful ground sensors that we use to replicate the adversary,” Kelly says. “We’ll use those [sensors] to assess the capability of a faster, lower radar cross-section multispectral unmanned system in and around those threat arrays. I think it will inform our way ahead [on MQ-9 replacement.] So I think we’ll get two different efforts out of that ADAIR-UX investment.”

Other services are also active in this arena. Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) has established a new office called the Research & Autonomy Innovation Development Environment & Repository (Raider), which is based on software demonstrated under DARPA’s Collaborative Operations in Denied Environments (CODE) program. In August, Navair officials declined to comment to Aviation Week on the activity and plans of the new Raider staff, saying they do not wish to be as public with their efforts as the Air Force has been with Skyborg.

But clues have emerged elsewhere of possible Navy activity with UAS flown by autonomous control systems. In September, Raytheon announced completing a series of flights on Navy-owned BQM-34 target drones operated by autonomous software. Raytheon’s demonstrations were funded by the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO). Although an organization within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the SCO had previously collaborated with the CODE program for the Avatar autonomous flight demonstrations in 2015 and 2016. The CODE software, which Raytheon helped create under a DARPA contract, now belongs to the Navy.

The precise path to transitioning autonomous UAS to operational units is still a mystery, but the momentum has clearly excited some industry executives.

Speaking to industry analysts on a third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 4, Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco boldly predicted that demand for such low-cost, tactical UAS will dwarf “orders of magnitude” in sales for the company’s popular target drones, such as the BQM-167. Kratos is considering accelerating deliveries of 12 self-funded XQ-58s and starting production on a second batch of 12 more, DeMarco says.

Kratos also is involved in efforts to introduce new manufacturing techniques. AFRL selected Kratos for the Design for Manufacture of Attritable Aircraft Primary Structure (Dmaaps) program. On Sept. 14, Kratos displayed a composite wing and fuselage developed from Dmaaps technology. The AFRL did not say whether Dmaaps includes out-of-autoclave composite resins for aircraft primary structure, but it displayed the characteristics of such technology by “achieving the lowest possible cost and faster, more agile production for airframe systems,” according to AFRL.

But the challenge still remains to transition the technology into a program of record. Kratos and GA-ASI are working on producing the next generation of attritable UAS under the OBSS program. But the OBSS aircraft depend on the successful development of the Skyborg autonomous control software. The Defense Department’s poor track record with transitioning demonstrators into operational systems still weighs on industry officials.

“We are absolutely,” DeMarco says, “in the infamous [Defense Department] ‘Valley of Death’ with a number of our tactical drones.”
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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As the distributed, and space based AMTI capability is demonstrated and matured, an interim purchase of 10-15 E-7 AEW&C is now virtually guaranteed for the USAF. This will allow the oldest E-3's to be replaced which will free up the O&S resources, and spares pool to support higher readiness for the remaining fleet.

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US Air Force will buy E-7 Wedgetail in 2022, Boeing exec claims
DUBAI: Boeing expects the US Air Force to announce plans to purchase its E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control plane in 2022, a Boeing defense executive said Saturday, ramping up speculation that the service could include money for the aircraft in its next budget.

“I’m very confident that the Air Force is choosing the E-7 to replace its E-3 fleet,” Mike Manazir, Boeing’s vice president for defense business development, said during a news conference ahead of the Dubai Airshow.

How confident?

“I believe they’ll be announcing sometime in 2022 that they’re going to move forward on the E-7,” Manazir said. “I think we’re going to be able to capitalize with all of our allies and bring that great capability to the United States Air Force.”

The Air Force is considering buying the E-7 Wedgetail — a Boeing 737 derivative that has been purchased by Australia and the United Kingdom — to replace its fleet of 31 E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system planes, colloquially known as AWACS.

The AWACS planes date back as far as the 1970s, and obsolete parts have driven up sustainment costs while leaving the aircraft with a dismal 40 percent availability.

As a result, some senior Air Force officials — including Air Combat Command head Gen. Mark Kelly and Air Force Pacific Command head Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach — have come out as strong supporters of replacing AWACS with the Wedgetail as soon as the budget allows.

The Air Force’s top two leaders, Secretary Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, have also indicated their interest in the Wedgetail, although neither official has been willing to publicly commit the service to a buy ahead of the fiscal year 2023 budget release early next year.

There are signs that the service may be moving closer to an acquisition strategy. In October, the Air Force indicated it would award Boeing a sole-source contract to perform analysis related to the E-7 and determine what additional work the baseline design would need to be able to support US-specific requirements.

Boeing continues to be in “close discussions” with the Air Force on a potential Wedgetail sale, Manazir said.

From an article going back to September of this year:
Ultimately, Brown said, military commanders want to move the mission to track moving targets in the air and on the ground) to space-based systems, as first announced by Space Force head Gen. Jay Raymond in May.

“When you look to the future, ideally you’d like to be able to look at capability that can be defensible,” he said.

But the Wedgetail could fill the gap in the meantime. Brown explained that the service’s analysis is looking at the AWACS “mission capable rates, and how much it cost to be able to maintain and keep those aircraft viable. And this is why we are taking a look at the E-7.”

Acquiring the Wedgetail “gives us a path” while the service awaits a space-based capability, he said, as “an option to be able to get the capability much faster than if we were to start a new start from scratch.” LINK
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EXCLUSIVE: General Atomics is secretly flying a new, heavily armed drone
General Atomics has built and flown a prototype of a deadly new drone with significantly more firepower than the US military’s current unmanned aircraft inventory, including the capability to launch a whopping 16 Hellfire missiles.

The unmanned aerial system — whose existence has not been previously been reported — made its first flight this summer at the company’s Desert Horizon test grounds in the Mohave Desert, two sources with knowledge of the program told Breaking Defense.

General Atomics spokesman C. Mark Brinkley declined to comment on this story.

The new drone, which was funded with internal investment funds, features key enhancements meant to make it more suitable to operate in austere conditions. It needs less than 800 feet to take off or land the aircraft, making it possible to launch and recover it from rough airfields, dirt roads, dry riverbeds, or possibly even onboard ships, one source said.

Its maximum payload of 16 Hellfire missiles is double the MQ-1C Grey Eagle’s Hellfire loadout, and four times as much as the typical number carried by the MQ-9 Reaper.
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

Post by kit »

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... ord-blades

Meet the Ninja missile !!


Extremely precise highly lethal (read shredded human bodies) and less collateral damage
The perfect missile for counter insurgency
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A great shot for a size comparison (F-35B, F/A-18E/F and the F-35C) -

LINK

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Rapid Dragon conducts palletized munition demonstration using production long range cruise missile separation test vehicle


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The US Air Force Rapid Dragon Program, a fast-paced experimentation campaign led by the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation (SDPE) office, completed another successful flight demonstration November 3.

The test, conducted at White Sands Missile Range, demonstrated the deployment of a production long range cruise missile separation test vehicle, or STV – a cruise missile without an engine and warhead – from the palletized weapons system.

While the aircraft was enroute to the White Sands Missile Range drop zone, the crew used a beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) command and control node to receive new targeting data for the onboard Battle Management System (BMS). The BMS then uploaded the targeting data to the palletized weapon. The aircraft agnostic BMS’s inflight receipt and upload of the new targeting data into the STV was a first-time achievement; all previous BLOS retargeting demonstrations used a cruise missile emulator.

At White Sands Missile Range, the MC-130J airdropped a four-cell Rapid Dragon deployment system containing the STV and three mass simulants, which sequentially released from the palletized system. Seconds after release, the STV deployed its wings and tail, achieved aerodynamic control, and began a pull-up maneuver as it glided toward its new target.

In addition to showcasing the utility of delivering stand-off munitions en masse via mobility aircraft, this palletized munition demonstration repeated and validated several milestone events from previous Rapid Dragon tests using a production long range cruise missile, including:

Successful high-altitude airdrop using a modular Rapid Dragon deployment system
• Successful jettison of multiple weapons from the Rapid Dragon deployment system
• Weapon de-confliction through the clean separation of the STV and multiple cruise missile simulants


“In future conflict scenarios against strategic competitors, the ability to cost-effectively deliver long-range standoff weapons en masse from non-traditional platforms expands warfighting flexibility and introduces new deterrence options,” said Dr. Dean Evans, Rapid Dragon program manager.

This demonstration paves the way for the first deployment of a live long range cruise missile under powered flight from an AFSOC MC-130J. This test will inform potential design refinement and accelerate the maturation of these systems for further experimentation and rapid fielding. A follow-on program will look at expanding the Rapid Dragon portfolio to include additional weapon systems and multiple effects capabilities.
Here's a video of the concept once it is fully developed for the C-17 and C-130 aircraft.

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US Army buying the Sentinel GMTI and ISR aircraft the UK are divesting/retiring (around Mid-Life) for budget reasons -

Unwanted British Sentinel Radar Planes To Be Picked Up By US Army: Report


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Citing an unnamed source on the team charged with scrapping the Sentinels, the U.K. Defence Journal (UKDJ) website today reported that the aircraft would be made airworthy again and flown to the United States. A deal has apparently been struck between the U.K. Ministry of Defense and a joint Raytheon/Bombardier team and, according to the same industry source, the end-user is the U.S. Army.

“Work has started to make them serviceable for flight already,” the industry source told the UKDJ. “Just enough to get them over the pond. Nothing to do with the mission side.”

That would tally with reports that work was already well underway to remove the mission systems from the aircraft. Among other things, the Sentinels carried the Airborne Stand-Off Radar, or ASTOR, which was developed and supported by Raytheon. ASTOR was capable of being used to produce highly detailed synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, as well as track moving targets on the ground and at sea, as you can more about here.

Provided that the five aircraft — or a portion of the fleet — is delivered to the United States in a stripped-down condition, then the bizjet platforms could be adapted for a wide range of possible missions. The Bombardier Global Express airframe was originally selected as the basis for the Sentinel on account of its high-altitude performance, long-range capabilities, and expansive interior, all of which would lend it to other standoff surveillance missions.


What’s unclear is how the reported transfer of the Sentinel fleet fits in with the U.K. MoD’s previous statement that the aircraft would only be offered in the form of spare parts and were “not for reuse.”

Perhaps, providing the aircraft in a fully stripped-down condition is enough to circumvent this, but it would also not be a surprise if this guideline had been bent to accommodate the sale of these aircraft to a close ally. After all, in recent years, deals have been struck to transfer examples of the C-130J transport and E-3D radar plane from the United Kingdom to the United States.

The Sentinels, which were officially retired in February, only entered service in 2007. As early as 2010, there was discussion about divesting them, despite proving their worth in support of various combat operations around the world.
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They are now even joking about "Shikaka" in official videos. I suspect the RQ-180 official reveal is imminent (though they've clearly relaxed its secrecy and are flying it in day-time so its not a secret (size, deployment etc) anymore from an adversary intel perspective). I wonder if they'll release it together with the B-21 rollout as they are designed to team.

Secret RQ-180 "White Bat" Spy Drone Alluded To In New Air Force Video

It seems like the drumbeat of news regarding the existence of the U.S. Air Force's secret 'RQ-180' high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) flying-wing stealth drone is really picking up in tempo. After three sightings of such a craft, two over America's premier flight test airspace in California and Nevada and another seemingly over the Phillippines, it seems like an official disclosure of the aircraft could potentially happen soon. Further evidence of this possibility comes directly from the Air Force's Profession of Arms Center of Excellence (PACE).
See: 2:20 of the video

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Filmed in July 2020 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, AK. during a F-22 "Raptor" demonstration by pilot Maj. Joshua "Cabo" Gunderson. All footage was shot on the Phantom Flex4K at 1000FPS out of the open door of a UH-60 "Black Hawk" helicopter hovering at about 3000 feet.
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

Post by Raman »

That is an incredible video.

In my opinion, the F-22 is one of the most remarkable aircraft in history. Although it first flew in the 90's and has been in service for over 15 years, it still has no real comparable peer competitor in terms of raw kinetic performance (supercruise), and low observability. I can only imagine the mayhem an opposing force will have experienced if it actually fought in a hot war. The only downside is the low number of aircraft inducted. Even the issues with high cost would have been amortized out.

One of the GOATs, along with the F-4, MiG-21, F-15, F-16, Su-27.

Are any avionics upgrades planned for it?
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The Raptor has been modernized over the last decade plus. Increment 3.2 and now a more agile development cycle. They've done the radar T/R modules, computer hardware, crypto and a bunch of other systems. Several restricted (classified) sensor modifications are currently ongoing, and they are also changing the mission computer components to make it OMS compliant in line with the F-35 and F-15 EX. Beyond that its weapons (AIM-260 will first be integrated to it) and mostly EW which again is going to be restricted (budgets are open source but content of the upgrade is classified).

This budget alone, they asked for nearly 500 million USD for sensor procurement (upgrades to or new h'ware) for the F-22 fleet. It was about the same last year so the raptor fleet is currently undergoing some pretty serious sensor modernization -

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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

Post by Cain Marko »

Raman wrote:That is an incredible video.

In my opinion, the F-22 is one of the most remarkable aircraft in history. Although it first flew in the 90's and has been in service for over 15 years, it still has no real comparable peer competitor in terms of raw kinetic performance (supercruise), and low observability.
Not 100% on this but other than the lo observability bit, I think the rest has been overtaken by the su57.
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There are several aspects where even the F-35 is superior to the F-22A. But the Raptor is still very very credible, and can supercruise at beyond the F-35's top speed etc not to mention other things that are classified.. There are only two serial produced stage I SU-57's in existence, whereas the entire raptor fleet has been fielded (since 2013) and the combat coded fleet has been upgraded to beyond increment 3.2 standards. It's a fully mature platform so difficult to compare to the PAKFA where the program has more prototypes than actual production aircraft ATM and the definitive stage of the program has yet to fly and be cut into production.

By the time a decent number of stage II SU-57's are fielded operationally and the system is iterated to a point of maturity, the raptor will probably begin to undergo its last set of upgrades prior to retirement which is currently planned to begin occurring in the early 2030s, and conclude by roughly the middle of the decade. So it would have done what it was designed to do which was to hold USAF's air-superiority mission for about three decades, which is just about where you can stay with evolving and advancing capabilities around VLO and other areas. A decade from now, NGAD would take over that role from the F-22A just like the F-22 did from the F-15C's in the early to mid 2000s.
Last edited by brar_w on 20 Nov 2021 20:59, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: US military, technology, arms, tactics

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brar_w wrote:
Filmed in July 2020 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, AK. during a F-22 "Raptor" demonstration by pilot Maj. Joshua "Cabo" Gunderson. All footage was shot on the Phantom Flex4K at 1000FPS out of the open door of a UH-60 "Black Hawk" helicopter hovering at about 3000 feet.
Surreal !., the background music Centrifuge quite apt ., now if only someone made a Tejas video like that .. good for psyops !
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Lockheed Completes Final Assembly Of NASA’s Supersonic X-59

Lockheed Martin has completed final assembly of the X-59 Low Boom Supersonic Demonstrator in Palmdale, California, and is preparing to ship the experimental aircraft to Fort Worth for structural testing, a company executive said.

The flight-test airframe for NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) program will be transported to Texas in December, Greg Ulmer, executive vice president of Lockheed’s Aeronautics Div., told Aviation Week at the Dubai Airshow.

“It will go back to Palmdale and then we’ll fly sometime next summer,” Ulmer said.


NASA’s goal is to perform an acoustic survey with the X-59 over communities in 2024, allowing officials of the QueSST program to inform an International Civil Aviation Organization Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection meeting, which is scheduled in 2025 to establish a standard for an allowable loudness level created by a sonic boom.

The GE Aviation F414-powered X-59 features shaping technologies aimed at lowering the “double thump” of a sonic boom to 75 perceived decibels (PLDB) or less in supersonic cruise at Mach 1.4. The acoustic survey of various communities will be used to validate whether 75 PLDB is quiet enough to avoid bothering people and animals on the ground.

U.S. and European governments effectively banned overland supersonic travel by civilian aircraft in the early 1970s. At the time, supersonic aircraft, such as the Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde, created a window-rattling boom of 105 PLDB on the ground at supersonic cruise speed.

Lockheed designed the 99.7-ft.-long X-59, including a 30-ft.-long nose section forward of the cockpit, to spread out the supersonic shockwave, which is expected to reduce the high- and low-frequency acoustical peaks of the double-thump boom.

The aircraft also has been used to demonstrate a new manufacturing philosophy at Lockheed. The airframe was assembled using precisely located pre-drilled holes for fasteners and sectional splices. The process should minimize or eliminate the need to make time-consuming corrections in the assembly process for misaligned holes.

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Appears to be an operational aircraft and not an Operational test equipped F-22 -
F-22 Raptor Covered In Mirror-Like Coating Photographed Flying Out Of Nellis AFB

Ahighly intriguing U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter was caught in the camera lens of talented aviation photographer Santos Caceres as it blasted out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada on the morning of November 19th, 2021. The aircraft is seen largely covered in a tile-like reflective metallic coating that is unlike anything we have seen on a Raptor ever before.

While the F-22 can look drastically different when its intricate skin coating and delicate composite stealthy structures are in various states of repair, one sporting polished metal has never been seen before nor does it make any outright operational sense. Note how the coating has been carefully applied to not interfere with the jet's many key access points, sensor and antenna areas, and other critical systems.

While what we are exactly seeing here is still up for debate, it looks like the Raptor in question has a mosaic of reflective material applied to its normal skin for some sort of testing purpose. It just so happens that we have seen something uncannily similar before, but on an even more exotic airframe.
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Follows similar testing on Northrop/Scaled Composite's Model 401 last year which involved some sort of highly reflective surface applications -

Stealthy 'Son Of Ares' Jet Seen Covered In Mirrors During Mysterious Test Flights


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ShivS wrote:
If a missile needs a second seeker and is short ranged, a MMW seeker is a great option because of the capabilities it provides. That said the US is very comfortable and has tremendous capabilities with laser designators - technology capability, manufacturing and operational skills and tactical comfort.

As a complete outsider, it seems to me to be their go-to solution for A2G munitions.
There is not one go to solution as munitions have varying needs. GPS and now GPS with M-CODE is probably the most common. SAL is used because of its low cost and because everything from RPA fleet, fixed or rotary winged manned fleet, can designate targets or utilize a source can. IIR exists on certain munitions to provide a backup to GPS. Finally, when all weather attack requirements are added they tend to move towards MMW seekers, or multi mode seekers like what the SDB II does (IIR in addition to SAL, MMW and GPS). US Army and Air Force have determined the MMW to be a better option to IIR for performance in bad weather or through obscurants so they tend to go there if this is a requirement. Raytheon's JAGM variant would have utilized the same SDB II seeker. Lockheed's original tri-mode seeker wasn't very different (they flew theirs as well). In fact Raytheon even conducted 4-5 succesfull test shots in that environment. But the high cost of a tri-mode seeker moved the US Army away to restructure the program as a simpler dual mode seeker upgrade to the Helfire which resulted in the current JAGM. They will upgrade other elements (propulsion section etc) and may even add a tri-mode seeker in the future once the cost to mfg. these becomes lower. HF already has a very wide menu of warheads to chose from so they are good in that department. A simple IIR seeker will be fairly affordable, but not as cheap as a SAL seeker and will still require some sort of laser feature as this is important for CAS and other missions. So they for many years kept these lines distinct on the HF family with the SAL version being the cheaper mass produced variant and the MMW version being what was added to the Longbow Apaches and the LCS ships. JAGM merges these two with the hope that once they sunset HF production and scale it to the full production rates of HF, the cost increase compared to either of the two HF variants would be acceptable given the capability they get in return. That needs to pan out and until that they will continue to produce both the HF-Romeo and the JAGM concurrently.

The choice of seeker used is very much a result of the target effect and accuracy needed, platforms, mission need, and cost threshold. So depending on that mix they could go wither either option or a combination of a couple or all. It's the same with networking. Sometime adding a weapons data link is absolutely a must to achieve the sort of effects they are seeking. Other times it is too expensive and may result in a high unit cost and a failure to meet objective inventory requirements within provided budgets. You have to make those trade offs in the requirements phase and see what solution works best.
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This is an important contract for risk-reduction and follows comments shared earlier about new technologies enabling glide phase intercept. H-BGV's are slower than ballistic missile so many existing systems are capable of intercepting them in their terminal phase, but the limited envelope (just a few dozen km's) means that you can't place these everywhere as you won't have enough. This necessitates a glide-phase intercept capability allowing air-defense systems to provide area defense against these threats.

Here are the three companies selected to design hypersonic missile interceptors for MDA

The Missile Defense Agency has chosen Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Missiles and Defense to design the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) for regional hypersonic missile defense, the agency announced Nov. 19.

The agency awarded other transactional agreements for an “accelerated concept design” phase of the program, according to the statement.

The interceptors are intended to counter a hypersonic weapon during its glide phase of flight, a challenge as the missiles can travel more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver, making it hard to predict a missile’s trajectory.

The interceptors will be designed to fit into the U.S. Navy’s current Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense destroyers. It will be fired from its standard Vertical Launch System and integrated with the modified Baseline 9 Aegis Weapon System that detects, tracks, controls and engages hypersonic threats, the statement notes.

“We are pleased to have these contractors working with us to develop design concepts for the GPI,” Rear Adm. Tom Druggan, MDA’s Sea-based Weapon Systems program executive, said in the statement. “Multiple awards allow us to execute a risk reduction phase to explore industry concepts and maximize the benefits of a competitive environment to demonstrate the most effective and reliable Glide Phase Interceptor for regional hypersonic defense, as soon as possible.”

The initial development phase “will focus on reducing technical risk, rapidly developing technology, and demonstrating the ability to intercept a hypersonic threat,” according to a Nov. 19 Raytheon statement.

“Raytheon Technologies systems are the cornerstone of today’s ballistic missile defenses. We’re building on that knowledge to advance the missile defense system for future threats,” Tay Fitzgerald, Raytheon’s vice president of strategic missile defense, said in the statement. “GPI’s speed, ability to withstand extreme heat, and maneuverability will make it the first missile designed to engage this advanced threat.”

All three companies have experience in hypersonic weapons development.

Both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are also competitively developing scramjet-powered hypersonic missiles as part of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program run by the Air Force and DARPA.

And Lockheed is the lead systems integrator for what will be the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike offensive hypersonic missile and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon. Northrop Grumman designed the motor for both weapons.

Lockheed is also developing the Air Force’s hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon.

Northrop began a push to develop hypersonic missile capability in 2019 when the Pentagon made hypersonic capability a priority and Lockheed Martin broke ground on a new facility in Alabama that same year geared toward developing, testing and producing hypersonic weapons.

The Missile Defense Agency hit the pause button on its effort in the summer of 2020 to bring a defensive hypersonic weapon online. But MDA took steps this year to move forward again and received feedback from industry confirming a glide phase interceptor is something that can be done “and we shouldn’t be afraid to go do it,” Vice Adm. Jon Hill, MDA director, told Defense News earlier this year.

Just a year ago, MDA had a different answer on where it was going with hypersonic defense, focusing on solutions under development in the science and technology phase, Hill said.

But after taking a step back and assessing the U.S. ballistic missile defense capability, the agency realized it already had some means to tackle hypersonic weapons using sea-based assets like a Navy Carrier Strike Group with the ability to engage high-speed maneuvering threats during the terminal phase of flight.

The Aegis ship, which boasts launch-on-remote weaponry, is capable of seeing hypersonic weapons in the battlespace because, “remember, they’re not very high,” Hill said. “They are around 70 kilometers.”

Future efforts already scheduled to come online are systems like the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS), a satellite that will be placed in low-earth orbit to spot hypersonic missiles in flight, and the SPY-6 radar will further increase the ability to track hypersonic threats, Hill added.

The agency decided it would make the most sense to focus on taking out hypersonic weapons in the glide phase of flight, where they are most vulnerable, Hill said.

MDA then assessed current and possible capability and concepts to be able to detect, track and intercept a hypersonic weapon in that glide phase.

The agency also studied data from adversaries’ systems. “Our adversaries are constantly flying these things and we are collecting that data with the existing sensor architecture,” Hill said. “We were pulling that data down and we could run it through our high fidelity systems models.”

Taking that data, MDA asked, “What sort of material do we need on the seekers? What sort of divert capability do we need? Do we use a fragmentation warhead or do we want to do hit-to-kill in the glide phase because it’s a different battle? It’s a different environment,” Hill said.

MDA has discovered it can use the existing booster stacks and can focus on developing a front end for an interceptor, Hill said. What’s missing now is the weapon, he noted.

Armed with the new strategy, the agency came out with a solicitation to industry asking for white papers on solutions for its GPI in April.

While the MDA is still doing risk reduction for more exquisite capabilities to be brought online later, Hill said, “from a regional perspective, we can go after this now.”

The agency will first focus on providing a capability to the Navy. “If this is successful,” Hill said, “we can move it to the land-based battery to protect other things against that sort of hypersonic threat.”

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Testing Of Air Force’s Secretive New Long-Range Air-To-Air Missile Is Now Well Underway

The U.S. Air Force has been busy flying QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Target, or FSAT, missions in support of the Lockheed Martin AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program. While the AIM-260, or JATM, remains a highly secretive weapon, it’s now clear that test work is well underway, with around 30 FSAT missions last year alone. This would make sense given that the goal is to have the new missile start arming Air Force and Navy aircraft as early as next year...
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