Friday 27 April 2012

Boeing Rolls Out First 787 Dreamliner Built in South Carolina



Thousands gather to witness historic Boeing moment

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C., April 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The first Boeing (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliner to be assembled in South Carolina rolled out of final assembly today to great fanfare from the crowd of nearly 7,000 Boeing employees and invited guests. The festival-like atmosphere, featuring aerial displays, music and entertainment, was a fitting celebration to commemorate assembly completion of the first 787 built at the North Charleston, S.C., facility.
The airplane's rollout marks the first time that a Boeing commercial airplane has been produced in the Southeastern United States. "This is a proud moment for Boeing as we roll out an airplane from our third final assembly site," said Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive officer, Commercial Airplanes. "Today I welcome the South Carolina team into a small and elite fraternity – a fraternity of workers who have built one of the most complex machines in the world – a commercial airplane."
Boeing announced that it had selected North Charleston, S.C., as the location for the second 787 final assembly line on Oct. 28, 2009, and broke ground on the site in November of that year. The South Carolina final assembly facility was completed in June 2011, and production began later that same month.
"Every one of our South Carolina teammates should be extremely proud of this historic accomplishment," said Jack Jones, Boeing South Carolina vice president and general manager. "This team has shown that we can build airplanes in South Carolina that meet the high Boeing quality standards, and do so with an exceptional workplace safety record."
The airplane next goes to the flight line, where it will go through systems checks and engine runs in advance of taxi testing and first flight. The airplane remains on schedule for delivery to Air India in mid-2012.
"We'll celebrate today, and tomorrow we begin the process of getting the airplane ready for delivery to our Air India customer," said Jones. "What this team continues to achieve is remarkable, and is the result of the team's energy and dedication, as well as the great partnerships with the Boeing enterprise, Commercial Airplanes, the 787 Dreamliner program, our suppliers, local community and the state of South Carolina. It's the outstanding support we've received from each one of these groups that has made this day possible."
Boeing South Carolina also has responsibility for fabrication, integration and assembly of the 787's midbody and aftbody fuselage sections. Once complete, the fuselage sections are either delivered to the South Carolina Final Assembly facility, or transported via the Dreamlifter to Final Assembly in Everett, Wash.


A cheering sight for Typhoon fans.....

F-16 caught bang to rights....


http://theaviationist.com/2012/04/26/typhoon-kill/


While the French have never been shy about leaking stills from Rafale HUD video, showing other aircraft being 'disadvantaged' during DACT, the air forces of the Eurofighter partner nations have always been more circumspect. 


Thus the RAF (for example) have never wanted to talk about DACT, let alone to reveal HUD video that might embarrass their opponents, fearing that to do so might upset the enemy, and might lead to a withdrawal of training opportunities in the future. 


So while RAF Typhoon HUD video exists showing a range of aircraft being soundly beaten, some effort is made to ensure that such video remains unseen by the wider world. 


The Spanish, the Germans and the Italians all have a similar attitude.


But when you're fighting against another aircraft type from your own air force, the sensitivities and sensibilities are perhaps a little less delicate, and so here we have what appears to be an AMI Typhoon showing an F-16 (almost certainly another AMI aircraft) who's boss.


Intriguingly, though, the blogger says: "Soon. Keep reading this blog. ;-)" in answer to the question: "When will we see a capture of a Rafale in this hud?" 


Later, he says: "I’ve not said I hope some day a Typhoon will score a Rafale kill. It’s already happened and there’s a HUD camera video. I’m just trying to get the screenshot…"


Daily Telegraph report suggests Burma Spitfire recovery is turning into a farce

What a shame!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9228910/Its-Spitfires-at-dawn-in-Burma.html

Daily Telegraph link

Russia's Golden Eagles celebrate 20th anniversary



Torzhok, Tver region, 27 April 2012 


Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Golden Eagles, the formation display team that has become the symbolic calling card of the Russian helicopter industry, and of Russian Army Aviation. Based at the Russian Army's Flight Training Centre in Torzhok, the Golden Eagles are one of the few helicopter display teams to perform flight acrobatics in both the horizontal and vertical plane at low altitude. 


The Golden Eagles’ Mi-24 attack helicopters have been regulars at the regular Zhukovsky air shows and have taken part in ceremonial parades in Red Square. 


Russian Helicopters, a leading global designer and manufacturer of helicopters and producer of some of the world’s most iconic, innovative and widely operated models, today congratulated the Golden Eagles on their 20th anniversary, issuing a press release (on which this blog post is based) and these photos.


To mark the occasion, Russian Helicopters' new light, multi-role Ansat-U helicopter was demonstrated at Torzhok, alongside the Mi-26, the heaviest-lift helicopter in the world, and the stalwart Mi-8.

The foundation stone of a memorial to helicopter pilots who died in the line of duty was also laid. 


The press release included the following statement: "The pilots will mark this anniversary in new helicopters – the Mi-28N Night Hunter, which was adopted as the Russian Armed Forces main attack helicopter by presidential decree from 15 October 2009, and the all-weather day/night Ka-52 Alligator, which Russian Helicopters supplies under the state defence procurement programme." 


Does this mean that we'll see the team re-equipping with these new types?





F-35A COMPLETES FIRST IN-FLIGHT REFUELING MISSION WITH EXTERNAL WEAPONS

FORT WORTH, Texas, April 24, 2012 






On Saturday, Apr. 21, a Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35A Lightning II conventional takeoff and landing aircraft completed the program’s first in-flight refueling mission while configured with external weapons at Edwards Air Force Base, California.  


US Air Force Lt. Col. George Schwartz piloted the test aircraft, known as AF-4, with two external inert AIM-9X weapons and four external stores. Internally, the jet was carrying two Joint Direct Attack Munitions and two Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles.  


The two-hour mission tested the flying qualities of the aircraft while maneuvering with external weapons. This test paves the way for weapons separation testing later this year.

UK Defence Exports figures

(This was embargoed until 00:01 am GMT on Friday 27th April, and posted here about nine hours later). 



·      UK DEFENCE AND SECURITY EXPORTS 2011 – UK MAINTAINS ITS POSITION AS SECOND MOST SUCCESSFUL DEFENCE EXPORTER
·       
·      The UK exported £8 billion of defence and security goods and services in 2011. This compared with £8 billion in 2010. Defence exports were down by £400M at £5.4 billion but security sector exports increased by £600m to £2.6 billion.
·       
·      In 2011 UK gained over 15% of the world defence market, ahead of Russia and France. US led the market with 35%. Measured over a ten year rolling average which smoothes fluctuations caused by major contract awards, UK retains 20% of the global market and is the second most successful exporter behind the USA.
·       
·      Lord Green, Minister for trade and investment said: 

“These figures show the strength and breadth of this important high technology sector and its contribution to advanced manufacturing trade. They are all the more encouraging in the absence of a major defence platform export from UK last year, illustrating the remarkable breadth and depth of the UK’s defence industrial base which is rich in SMEs. The increase in the security sector reinforces a consistent picture of year on year growth. Growth is also particularly strong in the cyber security area. The UK Government will remain committed to support UK industry as it continues to excel in this very fast growing global market, which is also so critical to our own national security.”     



  • This was another strong year for UK industry in a very competitive market. Some big contracts were won by others in 2011 in the largest of which UK industry was not in a position to compete.

  • We remain strongly placed on a number of key prospects around the world in 2012 and into the future. Also, the security sector is still growing strongly. If you measure across a longer period to iron out fluctuations then UK is still winning 20% of the world defence export market on average, well ahead of Russia and France.

  • The biggest contracts included submarines for Israel and Indonesia, area air defence for Saudi Arabia and UAE and Mirage upgrades for India.

  • Top destinations for UK exports were The Middle East, USA and India for defence; USA, China, Japan and India for security.

  • The 2011 headline figure for security exports was £2.6 billion. But this is not a real 30% increase from last year’s £2 billion. The like for like increase is about 5%. The remainder arises from our rapidly developing understanding of the size and complexity of the Cyber security market, which has led to a new definition of the security sector, and a substantial increase in the figures. We now estimate the global security export market at £62 billion, larger than defence. The UK share however, at around 4%, is much smaller than our 20% of the defence market. UK is the 6th largest security exporter behind USA, China, Japan, India and Germany.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Saudi Typhoons

Weapons display raises interesting questions




The weapons arrayed in front of the aircraft appear to be:

Storm Shadow
1,000-lb inert UK EPWII+ (blue body) 
MBDA Meteor BVRAAM
AIM-132 ASRAAM
500-lb Paveway IV
AIM-132 ASRAAM
Brimstone
Damoclès LDP 
Dual Mode Brimstone (on triple launcher?)
Brimstone

To the right, roped off
500-lb Paveway IV
500-lb Paveway IV
Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM

The aircraft appears to be carrying IRIS-T, AMRAAM, and 1,000-lb inert UK EPWII+s.


This is interesting. 

Quite apart from the inclusion of future weapons like Storm Shadow, Meteor and Brimstone, there are some unexpected features.

Saudi Arabia took IRIS-T because it was not allowed to take ASRAAM, and yet here is ASRAAM.

Saudi Arabia has not been allowed to purchase Paveway IV, and yet here is Paveway IV.

It would be easy to write the display off as a broad-brush, aspirational 'Farnborough Airshow' type of weapons display, except that it does seem to include only those weapons that are in service with the RSAF (those actually fitted to the aircraft) and those for which Saudi Arabia has expressed a requirement.


Saudi Arabia is pushing the pace of air-to-ground activity with the Tranche 2 Typhoon.






After a slow and disappointing start to the type's service in the Kingdom (thanks to problems with the buggy initial Tranche 2 SRP 5.0 software load), the introduction of SRP 5.1 allowed the RSAF to press ahead with the aircraft, declaring the type operational and on QRA (actually mounting QRA operations with its Tranche 2 aircraft before the RAF did!), and rapidly gaining a night AAR clearance.

But it was in the Air-to-Ground environment that the Saudis pressed hardest. When the RSAF was briefed on P1EA its representatives reportedly simply said: “That’s great! When can we have it?” Work is reportedly underway on incorporating P1EA software by UOR, even before a NETMA clearance is issued. 


When I spoke to Colonel Hammad Alhammad, deputy commander of the Third Squadron, at the Bahrain International Air Show he confirmed that the Third Squadron had begun air-to-ground operations late in 2011, dropping significant numbers of LGBs, and using Tornados equipped with the Thales Damoclès pod for target designation. He was coy as to exactly what bomb was involved, though it now seems clear that it was the Paveway II Plus, as seen in the photos at the top of this blog post.








The Paveway II Plus (also known as the 'Frankenbomb') is a hybrid developed under a UOR for the RAF Harrier force, and aimed to give a dual mode capability for use in Afghanistan, the Paveway IV then encountering delays due to problems with its advanced fusing system.

The Paveway II Plus was produced by combining the Paveway IV's Enhanced Computer Control Group (ECCG) with the body and aerodynamic control surfaces of a standard UK 1,000-lb Paveway II. This did not give the weapon all of the functionality Paveway IV had to offer, though I'm not clear as to how the Paveway II Plus differed, in capability terms, beyond the obvious fact that it used a 1,000-lb warhead and 'bang-bang', non proportional guidance. The latter limitation may well prevent Paveway II Plus from enjoying Paveway IV's ability to attack targets from almost any direction and angle.



Nor is it clear to me how the Paveway II Plus is exportable to Saudi Arabia, when it seems as though Paveway IV is not.

Writing in Defense News, Andrew Chuter reported that US opposition was threatening to halt Saudi plans to acquire around 1,000 Raytheon Paveway IV dual mode laser/GPS-guided bombs for its Tornados and Typhoons, citing Britain’s defense attaché in Washington, Major General Francis Hedley Robertson ‘Buster’ Howes as confirming the problem.

It's hard to see exactly how the weapon can be blocked by the USA, as it is a product of Raytheon Systems Limited of Harlow, Raytheon’s UK arm, which is the Weapon Design Authority for Paveway IV. The weapon is viewed as being UK intellectual property, though the warhead case was the responsibility of Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) in Tucson (filled by SEI in Sardinia), Arizona, and the Enhanced Computer Control Group (ECCG) uses technology provided by Raytheon Missile Systems. This seemingly gives the USA the power to dictate who will, and who will not receive the weapon. But Paveway II Plus presumably uses the same technology! 





Though the RSAF’s Typhoon’s will receive the P1E upgrade, they will not be equipped with the two items which together form the core of the upgrade for the air forces of the European partner nations - the Paveway IV bomb, and the Litening 3 laser designator pod (LDP).



The Litening 3 LDP is of Israeli origin, and is thus not acceptable, though it is built in the UK by Ultra, and UK offers of what some wags termed an ‘uncircumcised Ultra Pod’ (a Litening in all but name, with its origins obscured) were rejected. Instead (and not before reportedly considering the Lockheed Martin Sniper pod), the RSAF has opted for the Thales Damoclès pod – already being built in Saudi Arabia by AEC for the RSAF Tornado fleet. Integration work on the Damoclès pod is believed to be about to begin at Warton, probably using an existing test fleet aircraft, probably BT017 – though it could involve a Typhoon bailed back from the RSAF.




Instead, the RSAF is understood to be acquiring the Sagem AASM (Armement Air-Sol Modulaire) Hammer in place of Paveway IV, and is looking to integrate this on both the Tornado and on the Typhoon as well.
The AASM Hammer is a family of modular, rocket-boosted and winged bombs with a choice of GPS/INS guidance (SBU-38), or GPS/INS with imaging infra-red terminal guidance (SBU-54) or GPS/INS with laser terminal guidance (SBU-64), 
and with 125-, 250-, and 1,000-kg warhead options. The Hammer is significantly more expensive than unpowered Paveway-class weapons, with an estimated unit cost of $300,000 (€200,000). Moreover the weapon still lacks some fusing options (eg airburst) and other capabilities and development is continuing.


The Saudi plans to integrate Damoclès and AASM onto Typhoon demonstrate a hitherto unexpected capability for integrating new weapons and systems onto the Typhoon flexibly and in a rapid timescale, and seems to show that the hitherto slow pace of weapons integration has been imposed by funding constraints and not by any inherent technical difficulty.

It is believed that BAE Systems is offering further air to ground weapons options and integrations to the RSAF (perhaps including an early integration of the Storm Shadow cruise missile), and in shorter timescales, supporting the RSAF’s aspiration to keep the aircraft at the core of its future fleet plans. These could see the Kingdom ordering further Typhoons.





This ability to integrate new weapons quickly and easily could prove to be of pivotal importance to a number of potential Typhoon customers, including the UAE, who could perhaps see the Saudi example as evidence that a similar standalone integration of their ‘Black Shaheen’ stand off missile on Typhoon could be achieved before any NETMA clearance of a Taurus/Storm Shadow integration.
Saudi Arabia intends to grow its fleet beyond its current planned total of 72 aircraft*, and industry may be working hard to offer advanced weapons and capabilities in an effort to win further orders.



*Writing in the Washington Post, David Ignatius suggested that, as part of a wider more assertive policy, Saudi Arabia was planning to double its Armed Forces over the next 10 years while simultaneously modernising many capabilities. Ignatius said that the Royal Saudi Air Force would introduce between 450 and 500 new aircraft as part of this process, including 84 F-15SA Silent Eagles and a further 72 Typhoons. 


Boeing IDS Awards for Best Defence Submission, Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards, 2008 and 2009