US Air Force: Discussion and News

F-16 crash in Gulf of Mexico

"As many as 12 people were killed when a C-130 military tactical transport plane crashed near Jalalabad in Afghanistan, according to defense officials.

Two defense officials told NBC news that the plane crashed by the Jalalabad airport a little after midnight. It is unclear how many people were aboard the C-130. The US Military later confirmed that ten people had died in the crash: five service members and five civilian contractors, Reuters reported. Fox News and NBC reported the death toll at 12. A defense official earlier said casualties were expected."



Source: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20151002/1027881614/US-Military-transport-plane-crash-Afghanistan.html#ixzz3nMUeYGWK

"The US-based defense giant Lockheed Martin has announced a 'verbal agreement' with the US Air Force to build a new fleet of C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. According to the 5-year contract, Lockheed will deliver a total of 83 C-130 transport planes to the Air Force, Coast Guard and Marine Corps through 2020, Reuters said. Lockheed Martin has reached a verbal agreement on a multi-year contract to produce C-130J the USAF and other armed services, according to a Reuters’ report. When it will finally be signed, the company will produce up to 83 Super Hercules transport aircraft for more than USD5.9 billion.

Production will be for the next five years, considering that the company expects the contract to be signed by the year’s end. The recipients of the new transport aircraft will be the US Air Force, the US Marine Corps and the US Coast Guard. The initial, verbal agreement, has been the culmination of two years of negotiations between Lockheed Martin and the US Government. Although no further details have been released on the actual cost of the agreement, a multi-year contract is considered to offer great savings compared to the acquisition on a yearly basis.

Up to now, more than 330 C-130J transport aircraft have been delivered to 16 customers all over the world. The Super Hercules built on the legacy created by the older versions of the C-130 family. The turboprop-engine aircraft can even operate from airfields and dirt strips, and in high mountain ranges. It is a multi-mission platform performing a big range of operations, such as special operations, air refuelling, close air support, humanitarian and disaster relief, SAR or even maritime ones."



Source: http://www.airrecognition.com/index.php/archive-world-worldwide-news-air-force-aviation-aerospace-air-military-defence-industry/global-news-2015/october/2038-lockheed-reaches-initial-agreement-on-multi-year-contract-with-usaf-for-83-c-130j-super-hercules.html

"Raytheon Company and the U.S. Air Force have completed the latest in a series of successful flight tests for the HARM Control Section Modification (HCSM), the newest product in the HARM missile inventory. An upgrade to existing HARM missiles, HCSM dramatically increases effectiveness against even the most modern enemy radar while reducing the possibility of collateral damage. During the test mission, an F-16 aircraft fired an HCSM AGM-88F against an emitter located outside a pre-planned zone of exclusion. A similar radiating emitter within the ZOE attempted to confuse the HCSM so it would engage the decoy target. Using its new GPS/inertial measurement unit (IMU) capability, HCSM successfully impacted the correct target.



"HCSM provides the warfighter an effective, affordable solution that improves the probability of hit, defeats counter-HARM tactics and controls where the missile can and cannot fly," said Mike Jarrett, vice president of Raytheon's Air Warfare Systems. The U.S. Air Force will make a fielding decision once the test series is complete, and declare the new HCSM capability operational. The Air Force awarded Raytheon the HCSM contract in 2012. The missile was recently cleared for full-rate production."

Wonder tho how this new version will do aganist radar signal imitators since they did not perform well in Yugoslavia.

Source: http://www.airrecognition.com/index.php/archive-world-worldwide-news-air-force-aviation-aerospace-air-military-defence-industry/global-news-2015/october/2039-raytheon-and-the-usaf-successfully-achieve-flight-tests-for-the-harm-control-section-modification.html

"The A-10 is going to war once again — this time in Syria, where its particular brand of close-air support is needed to augment the faster jets that have been bombing ISIS targets for more than a year. “There are A-10s arriving in Incirlik [Air Base], and I don’t have the exact number…and this was part of a regular rotation that was planned,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. It’s not the first time the Thunderbolt II has been sent to fight ISIS — last November, several Indiana Air National Guard were sent to help out in Iraq — but this latest deployment is sure to add fuel to the long-simmering debate over the Air Force’s push to retire the cheap, slow-flying, highly effective attack planes.



Mentioned airbase in Turkey

Cook also said that U.S. and Russian defense officials had signed a memorandum of understanding that lays out safe-conduct measures for each nation’s pilots over Syria. “The [memorandum of understanding] includes specific protocols for aircrews to follow,” he said. “These protocols include maintaining professional airmanship at all times, the use of specific communication frequencies, and the establishment of a communication line on the ground.” Cook stressed the memo should not be viewed as an “agreement” because Washington does not agree with Moscow’s actions in the Syrian crisis. “The MoU does not establish zones of cooperation, intelligence sharing or any sharing of target information in Syria,” he said. “The discussions through which this MoU was developed do not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria. In fact, far from it. We continue to believe that Russia’s strategy in Syria is counterproductive. And their support for the Assad regime will only make Syria’s civil war worse.”

Both nations will also form a working group to ensure the measures are followed, Cook added. Meantime, while the Pentagon laid out these new safe conduct measures, the Russian defense ministry released footage of its jets circling what appears to be a U.S. Reaper drone in the Syrian skies."

Source: http://www.defenseone.com/management/2015/10/a10s-are-heading-back-war/122961/

Repeat from Syria thread as it really should be here. Interesting that they mark up the planes with bomb symbols. Must be pretty sure they are not going to get shot down. There seems to have been 18 of the F-18s in Jordan and the route home to Florida seems to have been, Jordan/Crete/UK/Florida.

On Oct. 21, a U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet belonging to VMFA-232 crashed shortly after take off from RAF Lakenheath. Unfortunately, the pilot died in the incident: according to some reports he didn’t manage to eject but avoided the plane from crashing on some houses.

The aircraft was part of a flight of four Marines Hornets returning stateside after being deployed to the Middle East (Jordan) to support Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The first 6 out of 18 VMFA-232 F/A-18C arrived at Lakenheath from Souda Bay, on Oct. 17. The Aviationist’s photographer Tony Lovelock was there and took the photographs you can find in this post. All the aircraft had bomb markings painted below the cockpit: the CAG bird had 72 ones, whereas the 165230/WT-11 sported 55 bombs.

http://theaviationist.com/2015/10/21/vmfa-232-crash-in-uk/

"U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa Public Affairs

10/21/2015 - RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- An Air Force MQ-1 Predator Remotely Piloted Aircraft crashed in Southern Turkey at approximately 9:36 p.m. local time, Oct. 19, 2015.

The aircraft experienced mechanical failure after conducting a mission in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.  The Air Force maintained positive control and brought the aircraft down in an unpopulated area.

There were no military or civilian injuries. The U.S. Military and Turkish officials have positive control of the aircraft. An investigation is underway to determine the specific cause of the crash."

Source: http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123461411

Lockheed Martin Completes Maiden Flight of New F-16V Jet

According to company press release, US aerospace company Lockheed Martin has successfully completed the maiden flight of a new F-16V jet.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – US aerospace company Lockheed Martin has successfully completed the maiden flight of a new F-16V jet, the company said in a press release.

"This flight marks a historic milestone in the evolution of the F-16. The new F-16V configuration includes numerous enhancements designed to keep the F-16 at the forefront of international security, strengthening its position as the world’s foremost combat-proven 4th Generation fighter aircraft," Rod McLean, the vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group, said Wednesday.

According to the company, the flight took place on October 16.

The F-16V "Viper" has a new mission computer and a high-capacity Ethernet data bus among other enhancements that add to its combat capabilities.

The F-16 is one of the oldest and most popular combat aircraft in the US Air Force, with over 1200 of the fighters currently in use. It became operational in 1978, and is still flown by many air forces around the world, including Israel, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20151022/1028924459/US-F-16V-Jet.html#ixzz3pKmsrvYa

Pentagon extravagant stuff yet again:

Pentagon Ready to Build a $ 550 Mln 'Bomber So Good It Will Never Be Used'
Oops! This should be moved on to Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) Thread. Sorry.

Freshly released HD video of B2 by Northrop Grumman.

Sikorsky Showcasing S 97 RAIDER Helicopter First Time to the Public AUSA 2015

Video: http://defensewebtv.com/index.php/component/contushdvideoshare/player/army/sikorsky-showcasing-s-97-raider-helicopter-first-time-to-the-public-ausa-2015-defense-web-tv

Militarov wrote:Sikorsky Showcasing S 97 RAIDER Helicopter First Time to the Public AUSA 2015

Video: http://defensewebtv.com/index.php/component/contushdvideoshare/player/army/sikorsky-showcasing-s-97-raider-helicopter-first-time-to-the-public-ausa-2015-defense-web-tv

You gotta love the U.S Pentagon meatheads, they went from claiming that "Coaxial helicopters are unsafe, unreliable and complicated", to demanding Sikorsky to be a Kamov clone!

Sikorsky was bought by Lockheed Martin.

max steel wrote:Sikorsky was bought by Lockheed Martin.

Bad day for sikorsky, great day for rest of the world. Now any future project will end up with high costs and low probability of actually being effective, F-35/F-104 niveau.

magnumcromagnon wrote:

Militarov wrote:Sikorsky Showcasing S 97 RAIDER Helicopter First Time to the Public AUSA 2015

Video: http://defensewebtv.com/index.php/component/contushdvideoshare/player/army/sikorsky-showcasing-s-97-raider-helicopter-first-time-to-the-public-ausa-2015-defense-web-tv

You gotta love the U.S Pentagon meatheads, they went from claiming that "Coaxial helicopters are unsafe, unreliable and complicated", to demanding Sikorsky to be a Kamov clone!

Hell no. Those are only Russian coaxial rotors. When US makes them they are safe, reliable and very simple. Also they cost less and have zero need for maintenance.

US Air Force Orders 28 More C-130 Hercules Aircraft - Lockheed Martin

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20151027/1029148758/us-air-force-hercules.html#ixzz3pkWWIvhp

"Northrop Grumman has won the contract to build the US Air Force’s next-generation Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), an industry-shaping deal that breathes new life into the world's sixth-largest defense company. After US financial markets closed Tuesday evening, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Air Force leadership announced that Northrop beat out the team of Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the contract, which is expected to top $55 billion over the life of the program. It's the largest military aircraft deal since Lockheed Martin won the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) more than a decade ago.

Northrop now has the Pentagon's blessing to build a new fleet of aircraft to replace the Air Force’s aging B-52s and B-1s. As builder of the B-2 stealth bomber, Northrop beat out a joint Lockheed Martin-Boeing team in a closely watched competition that has lasted months longer than anticipated. Speaking at the announcement, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the bomber would "allow the Air Force to operate in tomorrow's high-end threat environment" and praised the work that went into the selection, in a move that sounded like a preemptive shot to any attempt by Boeing and Lockheed to challenge the award decision. James said service acquisition officials “carefully considered” the offers from both teams, with the entire process carried out “with a high level of transparency with our industrial partners… we believe our decision represents the best value for our nation.”

The service requested that two independent government cost estimators look at the program. The two groups projected that each bomber will cost $511 million in 2010 dollars on average if 100 planes are built, Air Force officials told reporters on Tuesday — substantially less than the original $550 million target cost set by then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. This translates to $564 million per plane in fiscal year 2016 dollars. LRS-B’s projected unit cost is higher compared to the B-1, but significantly lower relative to the $1.5 billion price tag of Northrop’s B-2, according to an Air Force handout. The expected development cost overall for LRS-B is also lower than for the B-2, at $23.5 billion. The Air Force did not say the value of the contract announced on Tuesday.

At the announcement, service officials revealed:

According to Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the military acquisition deputy, the two bomber teams offered up proposals with all industrial partners included — meaning providers for subcomponents such as engines have already been decided. However, Bunch said that information would remain secret for security reasons. Risk-reduction efforts cost $1.9 billion from FY11 to FY15. A tentative date for initial operating capability is 2025, although Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Global Strike Command, indicated that could change. While many have referred to the bomber as the “B-3” as shorthand, Rand’s office will have final say on the designation, which has not been reached. Air Force officials will make themselves open to Boeing and Lockheed as early as Friday for an explanation of why Northrop was selected, Bunch said. What remains unknown at this time — details about the plane itself. The size, weight and payload remain unknowns, as do the extent of its stealth capabilities.

Northrop’s win is a game-changer for the aerospace company, which is currently the sixth-largest defense contractor, behind Lockheed and Boeing. With the contract in hand, Northrop will no longer struggle to retain its grip on the combat aircraft market. Not only does the bomber contract boost Northrop’s aviation capital, it also likely keeps the company’s Palmdale, California, facility afloat. Northrop's win is unlikely to directly result in a seismic reshaping of the aerospace and defense landscape, analysts said.



The bigger issue for the defense industrial base is who the subcontractors are for engines, avionics and other major subsystems on the project, many areas of which are classified, said Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners. “As much as there’s all this attention on Lockheed/Boeing and Northrop Grumman, it has much broader implications for the rest of the aerospace defense industry,” he told Defense News before the announcement revealed that the subcontractors had already been selected. A spokesman for engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which makes the F135 engine used to power the F-35 joint strike fighter, said the company "congratulates Northrop Grumman for their selection on this very important program" but declined "to comment on any other questions regarding the Long Range Strike Bomber program."

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2015/10/27/northrop-grumman-wins-usaf-bomber-contract/74661394/

"The blimp from USAGAPG has come off its tether. If you see it on the ground, call 911." - yep, on Twitter.

"The FAA and NORAD are working to ensure air traffic safety as the un-tethered Army blimp holds at 16,000 feet above Pennsylvania"

"Two F16 fighter jets from Atlantic City National Guard base are tracking the untethered Army blimp from Aberdeen Proving Ground--NORAD"

"A U.S. military 240-foot long blimp has broken loose from its moorings at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and is drifting northeast above the fall foliage of Pennsylvania. The Air Force has scrambled two F-16s from the Atlantic City Air National Guard base to track the blimp, which officials say is holding at 16,000 feet. The blimp broke free at 12:20 eastern time. “NORAD officials are working closely with the FAA to ensure air traffic safety, as well as with our other interagency partners to address the safe recovery of the aerostat,” NORAD said in a statement.



The aircraft is part of a Pentagon plan to create a net to hunt enemy drones and cruise missiles along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. The Pentagon has spent $2.55 billion on the program. The much-maligned Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated netted Sensor System, or JLENS, is not technically a blimp because it it has no propulsion, rather it is a tethered aerostat. Similar but smaller aircraft have been used for overwatch surveillance to protect U.S. bases overseas for years, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The JLENS has been in testing since 2009. Raytheon, the manufacturer, has billed the JLENS program as a meant to detect missile and large drones via radar. Raytheon demonstrated that the X-band radar could pick up multiple ballistic missiles back in 2012. The JLENS’s ability to track other other objects like drones is much less clear."

Source: http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/10/breaking-us-military-blimp-loose-over-pennsylvania-f-16s-scrambled/123218/



At this moment they say its slowly moving towards Canada

"According to manufacturer Raytheon, each JLENS aerostat is helium-filled, "almost the size of a football field," and can carry a payload of up to 3,500 pounds as well as a sophisticated radar system. Each one costs $175 million.

JLENS is normally stationed at an altitude of 10,000 feet, where it looks upon the surrounding area to detect low-flying missiles. The Pentagon deployed the system after it was discovered Russia had placed nuclear-capable cruise missiles on its submarines. The fear was that such missiles could be used to inflict a so-called "decapitation strike" against the U.S. government in the Washington D.C. area. Even if it is attacked by fighters, JLENS could be difficult to shoot down. Raytheon says the aerostat is "neutrally buoyant", meaning the air pressure on the inside is almost the same as on the outside. If shot at, it won't pop like a balloon—just slowly hiss out helium for a long, long time.

On its website, Raytheon notes (now with a bit of irony): "It's anchored to the ground by a 1/8-inch thick super-strong cable. The tether is strong enough to withstand 100-mph winds… and during testing, it accidentally was exposed to a 106 mph storm and did just fine."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/news/a17981/massive-us-army-blimp-on-the-loose/

Those JLENS blimps can't detect cruise missiles on US soil. Read my article on it , i shared it earlier somewhere.


US Air Force faces growing and costly problems with its new GPS next generation operational control system

And it touched the ground Seems Airforce did not have to destroy it after all >.<

Here you can see the video too: http://www.airlive.net/2015/10/breaking-us-army-aerostat-has-broken.html

Militarov wrote:





And it touched the ground Seems Airforce did not have to destroy it after all >.<

Here you can see the video too: http://www.airlive.net/2015/10/breaking-us-army-aerostat-has-broken.html

"State police brought the wayward JLENS back to Earth in the Pennsylvania countryside on Oct. 28 with around 100 shots using shotguns. U.S. Army Captain Matthew Villa said sensitive radar equipment on board have been removed and it may take up to Friday to remove the blimp. A spokesman for the Army Combat Readiness Center said the incident is being classified as a Class A mishap. Meanwhile, the second JLENS at Aberdeen Proving Ground has been grounded."



Source: http://alert5.com/2015/10/30/jlens-was-shot-down-by-the-police/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

"Researchers with the U.S. Air Force may have found a way to detect hypoxia in pilots in real-time during flights by measuring volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, in their breath, according to a new study.
Hypoxia is a deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues. A sudden loss of cabin pressure, speeding up the lack of oxygen flowing through the body, could result in a pilot losing consciousness before being able to take actions in the cockpit for both passengers and to keep the plane in the air.

Researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base think an automatic system may be able to detect hypoxia based on pilot's breath, allowing either the pilot or systems on the plane to take action.
"Despite the myriad of advances in aerospace technology, many modern, high-performance aircraft still rely on the pilot to recognize the symptoms of hypoxia in order to initiate appropriate procedures in the event of a malfunction," said Dr. Claude Grigsby, a technical advisor in the Human Signatures Branch in the 711th Human Performance Wing, in a press release. "This research provides the basis for both the utility of exhaled breath monitoring to monitor for hypoxia as well as targets for future solid state senor development." The researchers worked with eight pilots, simulating a "fairly standard" hypoxic event while in flight. The volunteer participants were exposed to five minutes of reduced oxygen levels to simulate higher altitudes, and then were given five minutes of oxygen "recovery," a typical in-flight response to the condition.
For each of the participants, VOC levels were measured before and after the simulated hypoxia and recovery, as well as every minute during the simulations. Although the results showed VOC levels drop after a hypoxic event, researchers are unsure how this works.

"We are working to better understand hypoxic episodes mechanistically to validate our findings and to improve our non-invasive chemical sensing platforms," said Dr. Sean Harshman, a research scientist in the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. "Our future and ongoing studies seek to confirm the data presented in this manuscript, develop a flight worthy chemical sensor, and begin further mechanistic studies of respiratory hypoxia."

American logic. If you have fighter that has issues with oxigen delivery sistem to the pilot...build extremly expencive system that will monitor hypoxia....

Source: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/10/31/scientists-develop-quick-way-for-pilots-detect-hypoxia-symptoms.html?ESRC=todayinmil.sm