Boeing's NGAD Jet Fighter Concept

The DEW Line got a exclusive it seems from Boeing in being allowed to use images of Boeing's NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) fighter concept. Boeing showed off their new proposal of a tailess 1/16th scale model and poster at the Navy League event recently.

Primary designed to be a carrier airplane, the fighter is a 40,000 pound design. If the U.S. Air Force went for this design, it would have to be almost 50% larger in size to replace the 60,000 pound F-22 type fighters. The larger engines will allow the aircraft to go into supercruise, and be low observable that has internal weapons bays and extreme agility. This will be a 9g-rated airframe and take on the old air-to-air performance once performed by the now retired F-14. Avionics between the USAF and the USN version will no doubt be the same.

Boeing really wants to get back into the fighter market. Lockheed Martin has taken a hit over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. What is interesting is that its the same airframe, but will come in two versions - if you go by the image. The aircraft banking towards you is a unmanned vehicle and the aircraft still flying level is manned.

NGAD is planned to be a replacement for the F-22/F-35 and be operational by 2025-2030.

For the entire article, please visit the link below.

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Ref. DEW Line. May 7, 2010. "Boeing plots return to next-generation fighter market" by Stephen Trimble.(http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2010/05/boeing-plots-return-to-next-ge.html). Image is from that website/Boeing.

F-35 Cost Soar - America is SO Screwed!

Discovered this article by the Star-Telegram (and use the link in the Ref section below to read the entire article) that was posted on April 6, 2010.

What a surprise!? Costs for the F-35 program, when inflation is also counted in, have gone up. Once upon a time, it was tought that a F-35 would come out with a per unit cost of $62 million (with a purchase over time of 2, 457 airframes). That estimate was given in the year 2002. Now in 2010, that cost per airframe will no doubt rise to $133.6 million when inflation is included in the figures.

The average cost of the F-35 has risen 57% before the Pentagon included inflation. And it is STILL rising!

Builder of the F-35, Lockheed Martin spokesman Chris Geisel replied in a email (to the Star-Telegram I assume) the following quote: "We can foresee no scenario in which the F-35 unit costs are even close to the projections... cited in the Inside Defense article."

Foreign countries that were thinking about getting the F-35 are now re-thinking their decision. Boeing's F-18 E/F looks better and better to them all the time. Plus this blogger thinks the re-vamping of the F-15 would be a wiser decision to make. Or even buying Typhoons from the Europeans would be better than this F-35 headache. I mean, what is Great Britain going to put on the decks of her two new aircraft carriers if this cost turkey isn't put under a cost control plan?

Mr. Geisel also said, and I'm quoting from the article, ..the actual cost of building airplanes is now trending lower than expected. "We believe the final price per aircraft will be well below the independent estimates the government has adopted."

My opionion - By allowing our defense industry to consolidate itself like it did over the past 20-30 years; our nation is now at risk of being unable to AFFORD to purchase the weapon systems it needs to protect the country.

I might also add the following.

It makes great "copy" to say that the USA has the finest weapon systems in the world. But if they COST so damn much that you cannot use them (or I might also add here, train with them) - then they are really worthless investments. We're getting 270 something F-22s! Thats it!

Over the next 30 years, lets guess that there will be some training accidents. Lets say 5 per decade. Thats 15 airframes right there. Then, if they are ACTUALLY used in combat, that loss level will no doubt go up. So after 30 years and maybe one 'warm' war that we really get some usage out of those remaining airframes.. What are you going to guess our fleet level for the F-22 will be at. 250? 245? 240? 230 working airframes maybe?

I now write this with my tongue planted in cheek, but we should really give consideration to buying a few squadrons of Mig-29s or Su-27s from the Russians!

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Ref. Star-Telegram.com. April 6, 2010. "Cost estimate for F-35 to soar, Pentagon says" by Bob Cox. (http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/06/2094443/cost-estimate-for-f-35-to-soar.html).

image taken from a google search request.

F-15 Silent Eagle blog post (http://aerospacedreams.blogspot.com/2009/06/f-15-silent-eagle-movie-on-dew-line.html).

Russia's F-22 Unveiled! Meet the T-50 from Sukhoi

Whether its known as the PAK FA in the west (man - that's stupid sounding!) or what the Russian's call it (Sukhoi T-50 - hey, I think that's easier to say.); its a new 5th generation fighter jet and goes head to head with the American F-22.

Reported performance suppose to be like 2,100 kilometers and hour and can fly up to 5,500 kilometers. The new fighterjet made its test flight lasting 45 minutes from the Sukhoi's home base of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Far East Russia. And its able to operate from short-field runways.

Sergei Bogdan, the test pilot said the following (according to the AFP news article): "The aircraft performed well in all stages of the flight programme. It is easy and comfortable to pilot."

The T-50 is suppose to be a replacement to its MiG-29 Fulcrums and Su-27 Flankers in the Russian Air Force inventory. Phase in of the new aircraft to begin by 2015.

The T-50(PAK FA) is using (2) Saturn 117s engines that produce 14.5 tons of thrust each.

India’s Defense Ministry already plans to purchase 250 such planes from Sukhoi.

Hmmm. I need to do a search for a CD of the movie's Firefox soundtrack. Picture is from the AFP article.

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Ref. (AFP), Moscow, January 29, 2010. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g1pM1xcmleffdDk4xv1LGakTO_Cw).

Pravda. January 28, 2010. (http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/28-01-2010/111914-fifth_generation-0).

USAF getting Back into COIN Fighters

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is overcoming the "Legacy" pros in the Air Force. aka the jet fighter jocks who still are fighting World War Three instead of the Counterinsurgency operations it has found itself in over the past few decades. With the Stop order in place to end procurement of the F-22 at 187 airframes, the USAF now has some money to actually spend on other projects.

Such as their recent request to launch a program to buy 100 small, light fighter aircraft for strike, armed reconnaissance and aircraft training duties that can support Irregular Warfare.

What are the possible candidates for this USAF 100 palne buy?

(1)Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano

(2)Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 Texan II

(3)Korean Aerospace KO-1 Wong Bee

(4)Pilatus PC-9M.

(5)Air Tractor AT-802U (outside chance - but I like it)

(6)Revive the old Piper "Enforcer" (aka a upgraded P-51)

While researching this article, I came across an osting on www.wired.com about (former) Blackwater private security contractor (now known as "Xe"); was also getting into the COIN airforce picture. However, that was back in 2007. Nothing new so far in 2009 if Xe getting into COIN ops.

Did discover a photograph on Danger Room on April 10, 2009 that I wanted to post with this article. Its a photograph of a F-22 parked on the ramp and in the background, the typical "Air Raid: Pearl Harbor" airshow was taking place. A AT-6 converted into a Japanese Zero for the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" lays down a fake smoke trail after a Kate has "dropped" a bomb in the background. I view this picture symbolic of what the USAF is actually facing in the world today.

Its a COIN World and you need some "slow, low" movers to haul bombs to drop on the enemy than the sleek machine parked in front.

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REf. Wired.com/Danger Room "Air Force Stalled for Years on New 'Light' Fighter" by David Axe. August 19, 2009. (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/air-force-stalled-for-years-on-new-light-fighter/).

Wired.com/Danger Room "Air Force to Get New "Light' Fighter. by David Axe. August 11, 2009. (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/air-force-to-get-new-light-fighter/).

Wired.com/Danger Room, "Blackwater Buying Counter-Insurgency Aircraft (Updated)" by Sharon Weinberger. August 27, 2007 (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/08/blackwater-buys/).

Storming Media.us. a 35 page monograph created in December 2005(A383444) "Back to Basics: An Aviation Solution to Counterinsurgent Warfare" paper by Arthur D. Davis, Air Command And Staff Coll Maxwell, AFB, AL. to order a copy, this is the link (http://www.stormingmedia.us/38/3834/A383444.html).

Photograph from wired.com from article "Obama Asks for Stealth Jets in Iraq, Astan Budget" (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/obama-asks-for-stealth-jets-in-iraq-astan-budget/).

Aerospace, Technology, Paranormal, and UFOs News, July 26, 2009 (http://aerospacedreams.blogspot.com/2009/07/return-of-ov-10-what-about-f-7f.html)

F-22 Saved From the Budget Ax!

The fiscal 2010 budget for the Pentagon moved through the House Armed Services Committee, where the lawmakers approved a $550 billion defense bill to keep Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor program going on for another two years.

The fighter jocks where all upset and up in arms over the fact that their 5th generation plaything was going to be cut. A last minute amendment provided $368.8 million towards the purchase of 12 of the fighter jets in fiscal year 2011. Measure passed by a 31-30 vote.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) told reporters, "It does send a message that we do want to keep the production line open. And does give us the chance to fight again. Rep. Bishop was the sponsor of the bill.

This was a slap in the face to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who decided to cut more than 50 weapon systems in his 2010 defense budget proposal. Gates was wanting to just get four more Raptors and then shut the production line down. Instead, he was planning on a multiyear procurement of Navy fighter jets and buying just one type of jet engine(the one used in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)). He also wanted to stop research into the developement of a new bomber.

The committee did add the money for purchase of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter and the EA-18G Growler. It also granted the Navy the authority to sign a multiyear contract. They pulled funding from the JSF to do this.

One of the key reasons that this vote went the way it did was a letter sent out to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) by General John Corley, the current commander of the USAF Air Combat Command, who wrote that a "fleet of 187 F-22s puts execution of our current national military strategy at high risk in the near-to midterm."

The F-22 survival still must pass senate approval when the Senate Armed Services Commitee meets to mark up its own defense spending bill. It might provide for 20 F-22s in 2009, four in 2010, and 12 in 2011. Critics are correct in pointing out that this is an inefficient way of going about building a fighter plane.

Pratt & Whitney has to ward off somehow a upcoming battle on the hill about the House support to have another company come in to build an alternative second engine for the JSF. Rep Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) - chairman of the Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee summed things up this way.

"Being tied to one engine is too high an operational risk to take." He told reporters that 90 percent of the US airfleet of JSFs would be powered by the P&W engine.

Still on the cutting room floor is the Airborne Laser, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, and the Multiple Kill Vehicle.

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Ref. Politico.com, "Defense cuts rolled back in House" by Jen Dimascio, June 18, 2009 (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23858.html#ixzz0IoZs5rZf&C).

American Defense Cuts

AP News Report (Washington D.C.) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates announched deep cuts to some of the Pentagon's biggest weapons programs like stopping production of the USAF's $140 billion F-22 fighter jet prgram.

The U.S. Army modernization program will be rolled back and a new search-and-rescue helicopter will be cut out as well.

So far, it looks like the battle between the air-tanker companies will go on and more and more KC-135s are grounded for much needed repairs and upgrades.  

UPDATE:  F-22 not totally cancelled.  Enough pressure was brought forth to keep production going at a trinkle.  Boeing's C-17 was also, it seemed, saved. New replacement long-range bombers have been scrapped. 

What appears to be scrapped right now Future Combat System.

Missile Defense Program scaled back program cost by $1.4 billion.  The second Boeing airborne laser demonstration aircraft is cancelled.

For the Navy, Gates proposes a 5-year build cycle of Aircraft Carriers. (This projects the Navy operating just 10 aircraft carriers by the year 2040). Plus the new DDG-1000 destroyers are to be built in just one shipyard in a cost savings move.  And at General Dynamics, they will restart DDG-51 building at the Northrop shipyard.

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Ref.  ( http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97D47CG0&show_article=1 ), ( http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0640476720090406)