Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) successfully completed more than 1,700 rigorous wind tunnel tests on the newest, extended-range variant of the combat-proven AMRAAM® air-to-air missile. Testing is a major step in the missile's qualification for integration with the NASAMS™ surface-based system.
The AMRAAM-ER missile is a ground-launched weapon that will intercept targets at longer distances and higher altitudes. The missile's bigger rocket motor and smarter flight control algorithms give it a boost in range.
"During these tests, we put AMRAAM-ER through a full range of potential flight conditions to validate the missile's future performance on the battlefield," said Kim Ernzen, Raytheon Air Warfare Systems vice president. "Raytheon is developing this missile to enhance ground-based air defense for our customers worldwide."
Raytheon engineers will now analyze data from the wind tunnel test runs to verify and update the AMRAAM-ER missile's aerodynamic models to maximize its performance.
Squadron exchanges were a regular occurrence at Coltishall,Here.
and while on 41 Mike participated in a particularly interesting one
with F6 wing of the Swedish Air Force at Karlsborg, flying the AJ37
Viggen. Right from the start, he and his colleagues realised that much
was exceptional about the way the Swedes trained and operated, not
least considering that the majority of the pilots were effectively doing
national service. ‘When you looked at the people who were flying the
aeroplanes, I thought that we could learn from this, definitely. The
guy who flew me was a Honda 500cc works motorcycle rider; they
had rally drivers, go-kart racers, all kinds of things. These weren’t
people with good degrees in underwater basket-weaving, these were
people who were recruited to fly the Viggen. ‘The first to go up in the Viggen was our boss, Hilton Moses. I
remember going out with him to the aeroplane and seeing him laughing and smiling, and then seeing him getting out and coming back to
the crewroom looking like he’d just been put through some kind of
crazy combination between a fairground ride and a washing machine.
Then I went flying in the afternoon, and it changed my life.
‘They would fly around at Mach 0.95, 650kt give or take a bit, and
they trained at 10m. We flew through firebreaks in trees, we flew all
over northern Sweden at 30ft, and we never went below 600kt. All of
this, I should add, was done under about a 150 to 200ft overcast with
no breaks. In the RAF, anybody who wanted to get old would not have
flown in that weather. After about 40 minutes, we pulled up into cloud,
and the pilot then flew a 4-degree hands-off approach with his hands on
his head into a remote airstrip, landed, reversed into a parking bay, did
an engine-running refuel without any communication with the people
on the ground except hand signals, taxied out and took off in the direction that we’d landed in. Wind
direction just wasn’t factored.
Then we did some approaches
onto roadways, flying at 15 or
20ft to clear the cars and warn
them that there were going
to be some aeroplane movements before doing practice
approaches. And the aerobatics
beggared belief.
‘The next day, it was time
to take the Swedish pilots flying
in the Jaguar. I was at a bit of a
loss as t o how I was going to
explain to this guy that we
flew at 420kt when they flew
at 620kt. So I decided that the
way ahead was to leave the
part-throttle reheat in, accelerate to 620kt and then give
him the aeroplane. That’s what
I did — I took off, and gave
him control at 620kt and about
150ft. He pushed the nose
down, took the Jaguar down to
30ft and proceeded to fly it at
about 30 to 40ft and 600kt-plus quite happily. It knocked all the myths
about who’s got the best aeroplanes, who’s got the best-trained pilots
and so on. The Swedish Air Force had aeroplanes that were light years
ahead of anything the RAF had, or was going to get, or has got now,
and their pilots were in a totally different league to us. This was not
just an individual — I flew with three of them, and all three were like
that. Each of them was able to fly the Jaguar faster and lower from the
back seat than I cou ld from the front seat.
‘After that experience, I didn’t think that I would be able to cope
with continuing in the Jaguar
Over eight million lines of code have already gone into the F-35’s highly sophisticated networked computers, and Lockheed’s proprietary ALIS logistics system ties F-35 maintenance and repair activities directly to the company. However, early production Block I and II F-35s were delivered at full price lacking software for full combat capability. Only with the Block IIIF model entering service in 2019 will fully combat capable F-35s enter service.Story here.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is planning a major patch for F-35 software and hardware called Block 4 that will add or fix fifty-three capabilities—including nine capabilities planned to be in Block IIIF, but which were deferred due to implementation challenges. These include major performance upgrades and new weapons integration, as well as bug fixes and minor performance improvements.
And because this is the F-35 we’re talking about it, it’s also the most expensive patch ever. An earlier GAO cost estimate of $3.9 billion for Block 4 implementation was revealed to have quadrupled to $16 billion in hearing in March 2018: $10.8 billion for development and testing, and $5.4 billion for procurement of the upgrades. And according to an analysis on Defense-Aerospace, even $16 billion is likely inadequate.
Meanwhile, though the Pentagon has begun outlaying hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for Block 4 development, it doesn’t have the funding to pay for it all—even though foreign F-35 partners are on the hook to pay $3.7 billion in development costs, whether or not they procure Block 4.
Despite a total blackout on information and military censorship, a member of the Syrian Kurdish political-administrative body confirmed yesterday a bomb attack on Tuesday, February 12, 2019, the headquarters of military intelligence French and a branch of the DGSE (Directorate General of External Security) in the city of Raqqa by attributing it to Daesh.
The explosion, heard for miles around and felt as far as the US forward stations, destroyed the entire building occupied by the French services. MSF forces rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded.Story here.
US forces would have secured the perimeter of the attack and blocked access to what remains of the complex.
