BULLHORN 58    8 January 2010

ANAers, 

We hope 2010 has started comfortably for All Hands.

2010 continues many of the challenges of prior times, some of which we should be careful to keep on our scope.  The challenges for Naval Aviation are many and, especially, include keeping our badly needed warfighting programs on track.  Procurement, sustainment, personnel issues, training, operations - each need our attention.  Watch the scope.   Where problems are found, sound the alarm, alert your friends, let our legislators and other government officials know of our concerns!

Lots of news – please be sure to pass this to ALL HANDS!

Dutch

INDEX

Flag Officer Announcements

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) Testing

P-8A Test Plan Changes

Brunswick Naval Air Station Closing

Presidential Helicopter

USS FORD

Japanese Biggest Helicopter Destroyer

OSPREY Exhaust Heat Issues

GROWLER and PROWLER

JSF Test Program May Change

F-35 Purchases Delayed in 2011 Plan

The Osprey Goes to War

New Warfare Designator

HM-15 Final Flight from NAS Corpus Christi

USS Eisenhower Leaves For Six-Month Deployment

P-3s Join Pirate Patrol In The Seychelles

Flag Officer Announcement

                Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced today that the President has made the following nomination:

                  Navy Vice Adm. David Architzel for reappointment to the rank of vice admiral and assignment as commander, Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. Architzel is currently serving as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Navy (research, development and acquisition), Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Vice Admiral David Architzel
Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
(Research, Development, and Acquisition)

Born in Ogdensburg, N.Y., and raised in Merrick, Long Island, Vice Admiral David Architzel earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1973. Concurrent with his designation as a naval aviator in November 1975, he earned a Master of Science in Aeronautical Systems from the University of West Florida. 

Architzel served in Sea Control Squadron (VS) 30, deploying aboard USS Forrestal (CV 59), and as maintenance officer in VS 28, deploying aboard USS Independence (CV 62). He later returned to VS 30 as executive officer and subsequently as commanding officer. After selection to Nuclear Power Training, he served as executive officer of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), the “Big Ike.” During his tour, Ike was awarded the 1992 Naval Air Force Atlantic Battle Efficiency Award. Following this tour, he served as executive officer of PCU John C. Stennis, and commanding officer of USS Guam (LPH 9), flagship for Amphibious Squadron 2. During this tour, Guam won three consecutive Battle Efficiency Awards, making deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, which included Adriatic operations in support of the U.S. Ambassador to Somalia. He became the 6th commanding officer of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) on Nov. 1, 1996. His command tour included a deployment to the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf, during which time the battle group conducted operations in support of Joint Guard and Southern Watch.

Ashore, Architzel was selected for the Navy’s Test Pilot School, filled a critical billet at the Spanish Naval War College in Madrid, Spain, and was department head of the Warfare Systems Group at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River. 

Architzel’s first flag assignment was to Iceland, where he served as commander, Iceland Defense Force and Commander, Fleet Air Keflavik. His follow-on flag assignments were commander, Naval Safety Center, Norfolk, commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, commander of Operational Test and Evaluation Force, Norfolk, and program executive officer for aircraft carriers. On Aug. 6, 2007, Architzel assumed the role of principal deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition. 

Architzel has accumulated over 5,000 flight hours, 4,300 in the S-3 and the remainder in some 30 other aircraft types. His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, four Legions of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal and various service related awards and campaign ribbons. He was also awarded the Spanish Naval Cross of Merit from His Majesty, King Juan Carlos of Spain, the Navy League’s John Paul Jones Leadership Award for 1998, and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon presented by the President of Iceland.

Updated: 19 November 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                      No. 999-09
December 23, 2009

Flag Officer Announcement

                Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced today that the President has made the following nomination:  

                Navy Vice Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. for appointment to the rank of admiral and assignment as commander, Northern Command/Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. Winnefeld is currently serving as director, strategic plans and policy, J-5, and as senior member, United States Delegation to the United Nations Military Staff Committee, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

Vice Admiral James A. "Sandy" Winnefeld, Jr.
Director for Strategic Plans and Policy, The Joint Staff

Vice Admiral Winnefeld graduated with high honor in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received his commission from the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps program. After designation as a Naval aviator, he served with two fighter squadrons and as an instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School (Topgun).

His command tours include Fighter Squadron 211, USS Cleveland (LPD 7) and USS Enterprise (CVN 65), the “Big E.” He led “Big E” through her 18th deployment, which included combat operations in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom immediately after the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, 2001. As commander, Carrier Strike Group 2/Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, he led Task Forces 50, 152 and 58 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and maritime interception operations in the Persian Gulf. He most recently served as commander, United States 6th Fleet, commander NATO Allied Joint Command Lisbon and commander, Striking and Support Forces NATO.

His shore tours include service as an action officer in the Joint Staff Operations Directorate, as senior aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as executive assistant to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations. As a flag officer he served ashore as director, Warfare Programs and Transformational Concepts, United States Fleet Forces Command and as director of Joint Innovation and Experimentation at United States Joint Forces Command.

Winnefeld’s awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and five Battle Efficiency awards.

                Rear Adm. (lower half) James D. Cloyd will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Five, Yokosuka, Japan. Cloyd previously served as associate director, Assessment Division, N81D, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.

Rear Admiral Cloyd is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, the United States Naval Test Pilot School, the Navy Nuclear Power Program and the National Defense University with a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy.

He’s served at sea with Fighter Squadron 31 embarked in USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), and Fighter Squadron 74 and Carrier Air Wing 17 embarked in USS Saratoga (CV 60). He also served as executive officer in USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).

Cloyd commanded Fighter Squadron 84, Fighter Squadron 143 embarked in USS George Washington (CVN 73), the fast combat support ship USS Sacramento (AOE 1) and the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).

Ashore, he served as a test naval flight officer at the Pacific Missile Test Center; as an action officer in Joint Operations Division and as executive assistant to the vice director for Operations, the Joint Staff; as chief of staff, Naval Air Force, United States Atlantic Fleet; as director, Strategic Actions Group, supporting the deputy chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy; and as associate director, Assessment Division, staff of the chief of Naval Operations.

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Officials To Test E-2, JSF, UCAS On Carrier Launcher

General Atomics, Navy Negotiating Lower Price For Next EMALS System... Dan Taylor

NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER LAKEHURST, NJ -- General Atomics is negotiating with the Navy a lower price for the second installment of the unproven Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) for the service’s next-generation Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, according to Scott Forney, vice president of the company’s electromagnetic systems division.

The EMALS program has been hampered by cost increases, which resulted from material price increases and underestimates of the amount of testing needed to develop the system, according to the program. However, once the first EMALS system is installed on a carrier, subsequent installations will be cheaper and General Atomics is negotiating just how much of a decrease in price there will be, Forney told Inside the Navy Nov. 12 following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the system here. He was joined by Capt. Randy Mahr, EMALS program manager for the Navy.

“We, as a company, have agreed with the Navy to reduce the price on the next ship, so we’re working on that,” Forney said. “We’re discussing that with the Navy, but we’re in negotiations in the first place right now, and until that’s done I’d rather not discuss [specific figures].”

In June, the Navy awarded General Atomics a $573 million contract for the system.

Despite cost increases in the program, Forney said he was confident the program had come through the most difficult of the problems.

“The biggest thing we’re doing is proving the software right now,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, we worry all the time about finishing the test program, but the learnings that we got out of the way was getting it up to full power and getting all four drive trains and their four motor generators working together with each other.”

The next challenge for the program will be reducing the electrical noise as the system begins ramping up in power and taking on dead-weight loads, Forney said.

He defended the program’s concurrent development and production, saying it is “not quite as concurrent as it sounds.”

“We have certain test sequences that we’ve planned in our program that, before we buy certain hardware, before we go to full assembly, we’ve gone through significant testing,” he said.

He added that the program has resolved any issues in the hardware.

“I would say a majority of the unknowns, most of the anomalies have been found,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s a surprise coming up, but our confidence is very high.”

He said he was “absolutely, unequivocally” confident the system would be ready when the carriers are ready.

“We are submitting our proposal to the government, and in there we show what the schedule is for every piece of hardware, and our confidence has not wavered in the last year,” he said.

The program has also bought all the copper wire it needs, which should protect the program from further material  price increases, he said.

The program plans to test-launch an F/A-18 Hornet for the first time in the summer of 2010, but other aircraft will be tested as well, Mahr, the Navy program manager, said. That would include all versions of the F/A-18, the E-2C/D Hawkeye and Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, the Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant when it becomes available, the unmanned combat air system (UCAS) and “whatever generation of [unmanned aircraft] that will ultimately come up here as well,” he said.

“Whatever the Navy flies, we’ll test,” he said.

Lawmakers have expressed concern that the electromagnetic pulses from the system could potentially disrupt electronics on the aircraft and its weapons. Aircraft carriers currently use steam-powered launchers.

Mahr said the program has been getting data from testing that show otherwise, but the program will continue to examine the issue.

“It’s a core part of the testing we’re going to do for the next year and a half,” he said.

General Atomics paid for the transportation to Lakehurst.

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Changes To P-8A Test Plan Hint At Challenges

(C4ISR JOURNAL NOV 09) ... Laura L. Myers

Now that the U.S. Navy and Boeing have pushed the $30 billion P-8A Poseidon aircraft program into its flight test phase, a big date is looming on the horizon: 2013. That is when the first of the Boeing 737-derived next-generation anti-submarine, maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft are to begin replacing the decades-old P-3Cs the U.S. has pressed into service as one of the ISR workhorses of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2009 has been a year of changes for the P-8A program, changes that hint at the scope of the technical challenges ahead of Boeing as it attempts to deliver six operational versions to the Navy in 2013 to form the first squadron and an initial operational capability.

On Oct. 15, a Navy pilot flew T-1, the first of six planned test aircraft, for the first time in a mission over Puget Sound in Washington. The event marked a major change to the test plan. The Navy was going to fly T-1 to its testing team at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., soon after its first flight, but decided to conduct more flights near Boeing’s Renton, Wash., factory, “just to be sure we have shaken down issues right where the design team is,” said Bob Feldmann, Boeing’s vice president for antisubmarine warfare and ISR, and until his recent promotion, the P-8A program manager. “When you have enough risks reduced, then it’s ready to go to” Patuxent River, he said.

Boeing and the Navy also added construction of three more test aircraft to their plan in 2009. Those aircraft will be specifically for the Navy test and evaluation team that will assess the aircraft before the Navy accepts them into its fleet. The change means Boeing will now build six flying test planes on top of two nonflying versions for static testing.

The P-8A is a difficult program because the Navy is demanding a massively armed, “multimission” ISR aircraft for everything from submarine hunting to reconnaissance flights against terrorists and pirates, and peacetime aid following natural disasters. Not everyone sees the wisdom in developing one plane to do so much. It is a “Ferrari” when the Navy needs a “pickup truck,” one industry insider said.

In an attempt to provide all this capability without busting budgets, Boeing engineers have redrawn the design of the company’s 737-800 fuselage to include a weapons bay in its tail area for torpedoes. The aircraft will need the stronger wings of the 737-900 series to make tight turns low over the sea as it scours for submarines. Crews will drop acoustic sonobuoys beneath small parachutes to search for those subs, and they will be ready, if necessary, to release torpedoes. The wings will need to be extra strong to carry air-to-surface missiles. The P-8A must be able to fly as high as 41,000 feet and as low as 500 feet, where it faces the corrosive effects of saltwater spray and the threat of icing. Because of the icing issue, engineers decided not to use the winglets seen on commercial 737s.

All told, about 75 percent of the aircraft’s parts will be different from those of a commercial 737. The Government Accountability Office predicts that each P-8A will cost $262 million.

But it is the plane’s ISR cabin that is home to what Boeing expects will be its biggest challenge: the computers that will process, fuse and display signals intelligence, radar pictures and full-motion video for the plane’s crew of seven ISR operators and two pilots. These mission systems will be driven by more than 2 million lines of computer code. Earlier this year, Boeing’s Feldmann predicted there will be “anomalies” to work through, and it is no accident that Boeing chose someone with a software engineering background to oversee the program.

Over the course of the next three years, Boeing must test all these systems and deliver the first squadron on the way to a fully operational fleet of 12 squadrons in 2018. The first three test aircraft have already flown but only the first, T-1, is in formal flight testing.

The Navy and Boeing are exuding cautious confidence because of the $6 billion spent on the program so far. Over the last five years, officials have set up production processes, outfitted test facilities and built the first test planes. Feldmann summarizes the program as “a typical integration that’s proceeding to plan.” The Navy agrees that the program is on schedule, and Capt. Mike Moran, the service’s P-8A program manager, said the Navy is taking methodical steps to keep it that way.

“One of the key metrics of successful programs is how quickly they’re able to ramp up the staff. In a program as heavily laden with software as this one, getting software engineers on the team fast was one of our focuses,” Moran said. “We actually plussed up our contract with Boeing, immediately after contract award, to hire software engineers and bring them on the team.”

Boeing also tapped veterans of the company’s work on the U.K.’s Nimrod aircraft modernization program. Boeing developed the mission systems for the modernized versions of the Nimrods, known as the Maritime Reconnaissance and Attack 4 aircraft. Nimrod development was delayed for years when engineers had trouble installing new wings on the original Nimrod fuselages. Boeing was not involved in that aspect of the program.

In the case of the P-8A, the stakes are high for the Navy, which has increasingly been called on to fly ISR missions over land, especially in Afghanistan to hunt Taliban, and also along the coast of Somalia to find pirates. Today, the service is counting on the P-3s, the land-based, turboprop submarine hunters that have been flying since 1961, the era when the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly provoked a nuclear war. Like Fidel Castro, the P-3 is still alive and kicking, but sputtering with an aging body and fragile bones that the Navy is gradually replacing.

The Navy grounded about 25 percent of its fleet in late 2007 for the wing replacements.

“The P-3 has been a great platform, but it’s time for a new airplane,” said Fred Smith, Boeing’s P-8A business development senior manager.

The Navy plans to purchase 117 P-8As to replace the 164 P-3s still in service. Upgrades for the P-8A are planned in two increments, in 2015 and 2017. The Navy plans to fly the planes in conjunction with the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance unmanned aircraft, versions of the Air Force Global Hawk that Northrop Grumman is on contract to develop for the Navy.

‘UNIQUE’ MILITARY DERIVATIVE

Boeing describes the P-8A as a first for the company. Other ISR aircraft, such as Northrop Grumman’s Joint Surveillance and Target Attack System aircraft and Boeing’s Airborne Warning and Control Systems command-and-control planes, are based on Boeing commercial airliners. But those aircraft do not carry weapons or skim near the surface of the ocean. “What’s unique is that this is a first-of-its-kind military derivative,” Smith said. “People will have to rethink how an airplane will be redeployed tactically.”

Like Feldmann and the Navy, Smith said the P-8A team is progressing according to plan: “We’re on schedule and on budget,” Smith said.

The company also points to confidence on the international front. India’s government has committed to purchasing eight similar aircraft, Australia has signed a memorandum of understanding, and Boeing anticipates new markets from governments in Italy, Canada, New Zealand, Greece, Spain and Germany.

Specifically, the P-8A airframe is derived from the design of the 737-800, with a range of 1,200 miles, an on-station time of four hours and an altitude ceiling of 41,000 feet. The aircraft will be propelled by two CFM International 56-7B engines, each with a 27,000-pound thrust.

The P-8A will use the heavier wings of the 737-900, which has backswept, or raked, wingtips. The weapons bay will be in the fuselage’s lower aft section.

Key weapons will be Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response air-to-surface missiles. Those will be carried on underwing hard points. P-8As also will carry mines, free-fall bombs, Raytheon Mark 54 torpedoes and depth charges.

KEY CHALLENGES

Testing the aircraft’s onboard mission systems remains “our biggest challenge,” Smith said. The computers on the pilots’ flight deck, for example, must be linked with those of the mission systems.

The second test aircraft, T-2, is being prepared for a series of flights that will focus on those missions systems starting in May. T-3, which was flown on a repositioning flight earlier this year, will be tailored for weapons tests and mission-system tests. Its formal test flights are scheduled to start in “late 2010,” Navy spokesman Doug Abbotts said. As for T-1, the Navy will not say exactly when it expects the test team at Patuxent River to begin flying the plane. Abbotts said it will be “in the spring.”

In October, a Navy team ran through 20 operational scenarios at the program’s weapon systems integration lab in Kent, Wash.

The mission systems will ingest data from the aircraft’s sensors, including the plane’s radar, Raytheon’s AN/APY-10 Multi-Mission Maritime and Overland Surveillance Radar. It is designed to provide high-resolution imaging modes for maritime and overland capabilities. Crews will use the radars for periscope detection and surface search, and in color weather modes.

The mission’s computing and display subsystem is designed to have high-resolution 24-inch screens, common tactical situation display available to the onboard ISR operators, onboard and off-board track data in one view, multiple layers with variable transparency for maps, tactical overlays, and operator-customized display settings and filters.

The P-8A’s sonobuoy system, with 36 percent more buoys than on the P-3, includes three rotary sonobuoy launchers, three pressurized chutes and a free-fall chute to handle a processing capacity of 64 passive sonobuoys and 32 multistatic buoys. The aircraft’s acoustic analysis system will use algorithms to automatically detect undersea noise in readings transmitted from the sonobuoys. It will process the sound energy and display the readings on a high-resolution, color display that will show sonobuoy positions.

“It’s a tremendously sophisticated mission,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at the Virginia-based Teal Group. He said the P-8A could be used for overland counter-narcotics missions in Central America. “There’s no competition,” he said.

Analyst Scott Hamilton, managing director at Leeham Co. LLC in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Wash., suggested that Boeing’s KC-X tanker team should turn to the P-8A program for leadership guidance “to learn how to do a job well done. With the P-8A, there are no show-stoppers that I know of,” he said.

P-8A engineers have overcome several problems.

The aircraft’s weight had to be reduced by about 3,500 pounds to improve its range and endurance, Moran said. Its maximum gross weight stands at 189,200 pounds.

In mid-2008, the Navy decided that the aircraft’s acoustic and other sensors could find submarines well enough to delete a requirement for magnetic anomaly detection equipment. That system would have detected the disruptions submarines cause in Earth’s magnetic field. Eight P-8Is for India would retain the magnetic-detection capability, however.

Another challenge facing Boeing was organizational. Managers and engineers at Boeing’s Commercial Aircraft and Integrated Defense Systems Divisions had to learn to work closely. In previous military derivative programs, Boeing’s commercial aircraft managers would deliver completed aircraft without exterior paint — dubbed “green aircraft” — to their defense counterparts. The defense team would have to tear apart the green aircraft to make modifications. Now, features that are unique to the P-8A are built in sequence on a commercial production line while the parts common to the 737 are assembled on another line.

“We had some struggles early on, integrating [the P-8A] to the commercial production line. That is since behind us,” Moran said. “These airplanes are truly built on the commercial production line.”

The Navy extended the Seattle-area flight test phase into 2010 to capitalize on the expertise of Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems and Commercial Airplanes divisions, Moran said.

“We really want to leverage Boeing’s commercial 737 expertise,” Moran said.

The decision to delay the transfer to Patuxent River was about more than a matter of proximity. It also was made take advantage of Boeing’s tests of Project Wedgetail, the 737-based airborne early warning aircraft for Australia, Moran suggested.

The P-8A program does have at least one critic who would not speak on the record. “Testers at Pax River won’t get their hands on it until May,” the industry insider predicted. “They’re not happy about that. I hope that the program is as rosy as [Boeing representatives] make it out to be.”

Boeing has tweaked more than the test program over the early phase of the program. The lavatory and galley, first designed aft as in commercial 737s, have been moved forward in the P-8A.

Initially, the P-8A’s wings proved problematic with hard points on outside wings that were too weak to attach weapons, according to an industry insider.

But recent static tests in late September on the aircraft’s wings went “very, very well,” Smith said. “I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

That is not to say Boeing and the Navy do not expect the tests to reveal problems. “It’ll be difficult and challenging,” Smith said.

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Military Planes to Fly Out of Maine as New England's Last Active-Duty Air Base Closes

Saturday , November 21, 2009

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BRUNSWICK, Maine — 

The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station.

While much of the nation prepares for Thanksgiving, air crews from VP-26 are prepping to ship out for a six-month deployment to El Salvador, Italy and the Horn of Africa. After that, they'll rejoin the rest of Brunswick aircraft that have relocated to Florida's Jacksonville Naval Air Station.

Cmdr. Mike Parker, commanding officer of VP-26, begins the final wave of departures on Sunday, marking a milestone in the closing of the last active-duty military air base in New England.

"It's a heartbreaking situation to leave the base knowing that no P-3 is going to return to this base," said Parker. His massive three-bay hangar was filled with equipment being loaded on pallets and sailors getting heavy gear ready to be shipped out starting next week.

Come January, with the aircraft long gone, the twin, 8,000-foot runways will be closed and the snow plows will be idled, allowing snow to pile up on the long expanses. The fuel tank farm will be drained. Through the year, there'll be a gradual drawdown of personnel until the base closes for good by May 2011.

Activity on the sprawling coastal base 20 miles northeast of Portland has been winding down over the past year since the first P-3 Orion squadron departed.

Once there were 4,000 sailors, but the number has dwindled to roughly 500. After VP-26 and its 350 personnel leave, only a skeleton crew will remain.

"It's definitely a ghost town," Cmdr. John Coray, chief staff officer for Patrol Wing 5, said after finding himself alone in the gym during a workout.

Situated on 3,200 acres, Brunswick Naval Air Station opened during World War II to train British and Canadian pilots. After the war, the base was deactivated for a time before the U.S. Navy moved in.

Since then, maritime patrol aircraft including the P-3 Orions, which first flew in the early 1960s, have operated from the base.

They use four turboprop engines that sip fuel, allowing them to fly for 12-hour stretches either over the deep blue ocean hunting enemy submarines, or over land where they've flown missions over Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The base saw its heyday during the Cold War, when the Navy had patrol aircraft stationed at the four corners of the continental United States to interdict Soviet subs.

The decision to shutter Brunswick Naval Air Station was made in the final round of closings by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission in 2005.

The Navy initially wanted to mothball the base, keeping alive the possibility of future activation, but that would've meant an uncertain future in which the community would be unable to redevelop the property. So commissioners decided to shutter the base altogether.

Studies have put the economic impact on the local economy at $187 million. But there's a social impact as well. Base personnel and spouses served as teachers, Sunday School volunteers and Little League coaches. Their children used to fill 20 to 30 percent of the desks in local schools.

"The realization is starting to hit home that the base is closing," said Steve Levesque, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which is tasked with finding tenants for the property. "It certainly is an end of an era, with a rich history of naval aviation."

Even though the base won't close until 2011, the redevelopment authority hopes to begin reusing the twin runways for general aviation this summer, Levesque said.

The first tenants are Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which has residential campuses in Florida and Arizona, and Southern Maine Community College, which will open a branch at the base. There also has been talk of Oxford Aviation coming to Brunswick. The company provides custom painting and alterations on private aircraft.

The recession hasn't created the best environment for redeveloping the base, but the redevelopment authority is getting a base that's in shipshape condition.

Before deciding to close the base, the Navy resurfaced the runways, overhauled the control tower and refurbished most of the base housing to the tune of more than $100 million. There are airplane hangars, baseball fields, 700 family homes, a bowling alley, and new townhouses with Corian countertops.

For VP-26, it seems fitting that it's the last squadron to leave Brunswick, since it was the first squadron to call Brunswick home after World War II, Parker said.

Some personnel already have relocated their families to Florida. Others, like Parker, will let their children finish the school year in Maine and move later.

There's real sadness, particularly for those "homesteaders" who've spent multiple deployments in Brunswick because they like it so much. Parker, himself, has spent six years in Brunswick over three separate deployments.

Coray said it'll be a tough adjustment.

"Most people really like Maine and have a real affection for Brunswick. It has been a very challenging change for them, especially the older personnel who've been stationed here before. They've grown roots and they're comfortable. So this has been painful," he said.

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Pentagon And White House Explore Options For Presidential Helicopter

TheHill.com
November 23, 2009

By Roxana Tiron

The Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Ashton Carter, on Monday said that defense and White House officials are meeting to map out a new presidential helicopter program.

Carter told reporters Monday that he hoped to start another program to replace the decades-old presidential helicopter fleet next spring, “around a reasonable set of requirements and a new acquisition strategy.”

The Pentagon formally canceled the VH-71 presidential helicopter replacement program in mid-May, after it suffered from delays and ballooning costs. That decision followed remarks President Barack Obama made in February in which he called the VH-71 helicopter an “example of the procurement process gone amok.”

Carter said that in order to keep costs in check, the White House and Pentagon would prefer to use an existing helicopter platform instead of building a new helicopter from scratch.

“Obviously, for affordability’s sake one would like to be able to adapt an existing helicopter rather than start all over on a helicopter. Obviously that would always be our wish,” he said.

Pentagon and White House officials have reviewed 48 approaches to replacing the existing presidential helicopter fleet, so far whittling the list down to 17 possible alternatives, Carter said. Those approaches include using different helicopters to meet the mission, he said.

“The problem this project ran into last time was the piling-on of requirements to such a degree that no helicopter could satisfy all of them simultaneously,” Carter said. “We can’t let that happen this time. We need to shape the requirement so that the program becomes doable, and the White House is very intent on doing that.”

The price tag for the canceled VH-71, developed by Lockheed Martin and the Italian-U.K. venture AgustaWestland, rose from an estimated $6.5 billion to $13 billion in part because of growing technological requirements from the Marine One Squadron, which flies the presidential helicopters.

Now the Pentagon is working with the White House to “explain the trade-offs between different attributes” of a new presidential helicopter program, Carter said.

Variables include the range of the aircraft and the equipment and number of passengers it can carry, Carter said. The approach allows the White House “to make intelligent trade-offs with the requirements,” Carter said.

The Pentagon will periodically brief the White House on the possible solutions to make sure that officials there "are comfortable with a presidential helicopter for a lot less money than the canceled program would have cost had it continued," Carter said.

Lawmakers like House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), a defense appropriator whose district houses the Lockheed plant that built the VH-71, have argued that starting another new helicopter program would be even more expensive and take longer than continuing a scaled-down version of the VH-71.

House defense appropriators have been looking for a way to tap into the $3.2 billion already spent on the program. For 2010 they allocated $485 million to make operational five VH-71 helicopters that have already been delivered.

The Senate did not include any funds to continue the work on the VH-71, but included $30 million for the development phase of a follow-on chopper.

The Obama administration has said that the replacement helicopters will be cheaper to operate and fly longer than the VH-71.

Funding for the VH-71 program is an issue of conference negotiations between House and Senate appropriators. Murtha told The Hill earlier this month that he received “clear” signals from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), National Security Adviser Jim Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that President Barack Obama won’t sign the 2010 Pentagon spending bill if it contains money for the VH-71.

The Office of Management and Budget in July said it would advise the president to veto the bill over funding for the VH-71. Gates last month wrote to Murtha saying he would recommend a veto to the president if the final 2010 defense appropriations bill included funding for the new helicopter.

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USS Ford Brings Significant Changes To Navy's Future Aircraft Carrier Fleet

 (DEFENSE DAILY) ... Geoff Fein

The recent keel laying for the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) marked a new beginning for the design and operation of the Navy's future aircraft carrier fleet.

Additionally, the Ford will be the first carrier and largest warship to be built using 3-D modeling, Capt. Brian Antonio, program manager for future aircraft carriers, told media during a briefing at the Navy Yard last week.

"We are very close to finishing the 3-D product model," he said.

The Navy and Northrop Grumman [NOC] Shipbuilding got off to a running start with the Ford, Rear Adm. Michael McMahon, program executive officer carriers, told reporters.

"We've done a lot of work up front. We've worked a lot on this ship. It's not your typical keel laying where you are just starting structural work," he said. "We've actually been working this for years."

At the time of the Nov. 14 keel laying, 577 of the ship's 1,177 structural units have been completed, Antonio said.

Antonio also oversees all the concurrent development efforts including the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and the advanced arresting gear. It's those systems that make CV-78 unique, he added.

"When we get to delivery in September 2015, which we are on track to do, part of my responsibility is to make sure those other developmental systems come along and hook up with us at the right time," Antonio said, "so that we deliver a fully capable, fully integrated ship in 2015."

EMALS, which is going through testing at the Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, N.J., has had a tough go of it. Lawmakers have routinely questioned whether the technology is too advanced at this point in time and debated whether the Navy needs to install steam catapults on the Ford.

For its part, the Navy has stuck with EMALS. In April, the service reaffirmed its commitment to the program (Defense Daily, April 17).

EMALS will bring the ability to launch a variety of aircraft, from unmanned aircraft up to Super Hornets and the Joint Strike Fighter.

EMALS is in System Functional Demonstration, Antonio said.

"We are getting ready to start counting for score...start launching no loads at full speed, then dead loads at full speed," he said. "Hopefully, by next summer, we will be up there launching aircraft."

The Navy's plan is to launch a F-18 from EMALS in July 2010, Antonio said.

Additionally, the Navy and General Atomics are conducting high cycle testing on an individual generator, Antonio added.

To date, the Navy and GA have run close to 30,000 cycles pulses on the generator, he said.

"We've learned a lot about the motor generator, which is a subcomponent of EMALS. We've learned a lot...we are retiring risk all the time on the SDD side," Antonio added.

The Navy is continuing negotiations with GA on a fixed-price contract for the first ship set of EMALS components for CVN-78, he added.

As the EMALS effort progresses, the Navy is keeping an eye on other potential challenges including electromagnetic interference and environmental impact, to the EMALS' components, Antonio said.

"We have designed, based on analysis and initial readings on earlier version of EMALS, a production demonstration risk reduction version. [It] shows we are OK," he said.

However, now that the Navy has a full representative model of EMALS, there are plans to conduct another set of readings, Antonio said.

"[We are] already looking forward to what risk mitigation efforts would need to be put in place for that sort of thing," he added.

The Navy has also put the linear motor through extensive temperature and salt spray testing, McMahon noted. "The whole intent is to find issues."

Although the first at-sea use of EMALS won't occur until the system is installed on the Ford, by that time the Navy and GA will have had five years of experience of continually running the new technology at the Lakehurst site, Antonio said.

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Japan To Build Fleet's Biggest Helicopter Destroyer To Fend Off China

(THE TELEGRAPH (UK) 23 NOV 09) ... Danielle Demetriou

The nation's Maritime Self-Defence Force is reportedly planning to construct a new 284 metre long destroyer capable of transporting 14 helicopters, 4,000 people and 50 trucks.

The purchase is part of a wider military build up in which the Defence Ministry has sought funds to purchase around 40 F-35 fighter jets which will become the future mainstay of the nation's air force, according to Kyodo News.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), is projected to cost around £61 million (nine billion yen) and is currently being developed by the United States, with Britain and Australia as founding partners.

Japan's decision to expand the role of its military despite its pacifist post-war constitution is a reflection of growing concerns surrounding military tensions with regional neighbours.

The new destroyer, which will become the largest in the nation's fleet of 52 vessels in the class, will also provide fuel to other carriers, transport servicemen and assist with emergencies and international peace keeping missiles.

"Helicopters are needed to seek out and keep an eye on submarines as well as to patrol surface ships from as far away as possible outside the range of enemy missiles," a defence ministry official told the Asahi Shimbun. "For those reasons, a large destroyer that can carry many helicopters is necessary."

Its primary function will be to patrol seas contested by China. Japan's neighbour has strengthened its naval capabilities and advanced destroyers armed with cruise missiles have been spotted near gas fields in the East China Sea.

Japan's defence expansion is also believed to be fuelled in part by growing tensions with North Korea over its nuclear weapons and refusal to rejoin multi-party disarmament talks.

Reports of the expanded role for Japan's military coincided with a pledge from Chinese and North Korean defence chiefs to strengthen the long-standing military alliance.

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Flight Decks Buckle From Heat In 10 Minutes

(NAVY TIMES 23 NOV 09) ... Andrew Tilghman

Leaving an MV-22 Osprey’s rotors idling on a flight deck will create enough heat to melt and buckle the deck in about 10 minutes.

Repeated deck buckling will ruin the flight deck in about 40 percent of the ship’s projected life span.

And introducing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jump-jet variant will only add to the problem.

Those are among the issues cited by the Office of Naval Research as it seeks a modification for flight decks to better withstand and distribute the heat from the new aircraft’s exhaust and downwash.

ONR is seeking proposals on how to build a “flight deck thermal management” system that will help distribute the heat from the aircraft and keep the deck temperatures below 300 degrees.

Testing shows Osprey downwash can raise deck temperatures as high as 350 degrees.

“Currently there are no available solutions other than heavy structural modifications to mitigate deck buckling and thermo-mechanical deck failure,” according to a recent document seeking proposals from private companies, known as a broad agency announcement.

The new systems — which could involve a one-inch plate on top of the deck or a cooling system installed below the deck — will likely be installed in the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships and future America-class flattops, according to the ONR document.

The ONR announcement reveals the Navy’s challenges as it tries to introduce a new generation of aircraft with tilt-rotor and short-take-off-vertical-landing ability on ships designed for traditional helicopters.

The Ospreys, the military’s first tilt-rotor aircraft, create extraordinary heat and force when the nacelles are tilted upward and the rotors muster enough force to lift the aircraft like a helicopter.

The F-35B Lightning IIs that are expected to join the fleet in 2012 have a unique vertical-landing feature that turns the jet’s thrusters to face downward during landing and expose the flight deck to hot exhaust that could damage the flight decks.

Osprey’s downwash creates enough force to knock sailors and aircraft off the flight deck, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

Naval Sea Systems Command has not made any determination on the need for flight deck modifications, and potential solutions are still under consideration, NavSea spokesman Alan Baribeau said. Procedures used on the Osprey’s first at-sea deployment aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan were effective and will be used again, he said.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Office of Naval Research’s proposed timeline aims to develop a flight deck cooling system by 2014:

• 2010: Award contract.

• 2011: Test materials to handle aircraft heat.

• 2012: Build a large-scale test panel.

• 2013: Conduct land-based testing.

• 2014: Install the Thermal Flight Deck Management system on a ship.

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U.S. Navy's New Growler Electronic Attack Platform Completes Testing And Preps For Deployment

(AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY) ... Amy Butler

The U.S. Navy's EA-18G Growler is now operational, marking a new era in the Pentagon's ability to conduct electronic attack missions more effectively around the globe.

The fast-moving aircraft's introduction will bring much-needed relief to a heavily overtasked and aging EA-6B fleet, which has single-handedly been conducting the Pentagon's escort jamming mission since the U.S. Air Force's decision to retire the EF-111 fleet prematurely in 1998.

The Navy declared initial operational capability for the Growler in September, indicating that one squadron has fully transitioned from the legacy EA-6B Prowler. The squadron must also have sufficient personnel and training to support preparations for deployment on board an aircraft carrier, which is expected next year.

Capt. Mark Darrah, the Navy's Super Hornet and Growler program manager, would not say what specifically the Growler will be doing while abroad, citing sensitivities with mission details. However, it will "do the exact same missions" as the Prowler, he says, indicating it will be used for overland electronic attack (EA) and could potentially support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The system could even be enlisted in the Pentagon's continuing quest to halt attacks from improvised explosive devices, many of which use low-frequency communications to command detonation.

Although some items on the Boeing EA-18G had to be corrected based on the findings of the operational evaluation, the progression of the Growler program to this point is unique among many in the Pentagon's developmental portfolio. The first Growler flight took place one month early, production aircraft are being delivered ahead of schedule, and the research and development phase did not experience a major cost overrun, says Darrah. In contrast, several other big projects-such as the F-22 software development effort, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and KC-135 aerial refueler replacement-have been mired in technical problems and oversight issues.

Darrah and Rick Martin, Boeing's Growler program manager, say the smooth development is largely due to basing the system on proven technologies, reducing the level of risk to cost and schedule estimates. The Navy intentionally avoided risk in the hopes of fielding a system soon and to begin relieving the Prowler fleet.

The EA-18G is built on the F/A-18F Block II Super Hornet platform, and its mission systems include technology from the Improved Capability (ICAP) III suite of receivers and jammers, which were originally fielded for the Prowler. The $1.9-billion development program incorporates some new items, including the relocation of the ALQ-218 receivers to both wingtips of the Growler. In the Prowler, a single receiver was located on the vertical tail fin.

In addition, the introduction of the Interference Cancellation System (Incans) enables operators to maintain communications using the ALQ-227 antenna on the top of the aircraft just behind the canopy even while jamming from up to five ALQ-99 pods. Typically, the aircraft would operate with three-one under each wing and one under the center of the fuselage. Two additional pods could replace the under-wing refueling tanks.

"One of the biggest issues we had for situational awareness [in the Prowler] was that when we turned on our low-frequency jammer, we would block our own communications, both on transmit and receive," says Darrah.

The Navy plans to use the EA-18Gs for standoff jamming of enemy air defense radars to allow friendly fighters to conduct operations inside their threat rings. The ALQ-99 pods could become less useful as enemy air defense systems continue to use lower frequencies to try to detect stealthier aircraft fielded by the U.S. and allied nations. Darrah notes, however, that the Growler is designed to operate through 2030.

Meanwhile, the Navy is considering its options for a Next-Generation Jammer, which would be placed on the Growler (and possibly other platforms in the Pentagon's arsenal) within the next decade.

Testing during the operational evaluation validated the Incans' functioning. It also highlighted a problem with the ALQ-218(v2) system. "In the wingtip pods, we had a system that was in there that told the pod where it was relative to the aircraft," says Darrah. "It had not worked as expected, and it was giving some erroneous information to the airplane" that provided false data on where the pod actually was.

An integrated approach to testing allowed the team to quickly validate a fix to this and other problems, Darrah asserts. "We were able to put a software correction onto the aircraft during the operational test period and demonstrated that we fixed it."

Martin says the combined-testing approach reduced the time needed to address problems found during the six months of operational evaluation. "Compared to traditional programs, this spiral process was moving much faster," he says.

The Navy also had to strengthen the hardback of the ALQ-99 to reduce the risk of electronic interference between the pod and the aircraft.

The operational evaluation period only scraped the surface of exploring the potential uses of the aircraft's active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar (AW&ST Apr. 13, p. 53).

"The AESA radar and the ALQ-218 [receiver] system-what we had to prove is that they are not going to interfere with each other," Darrah says. "There is no detailed or seamless integration of the AESA with the electronic attack system at this phase." However, Navy officials will be studying how to expand the AESA's capabilities, including the potential use of the sensor as an EA device or a communication system.

Adding the Growler to the Navy fleet should streamline EA mission system management. The Prowler's crew consisted of four officers: a pilot and three mission system operators. The Growler, however, automates many of the EA duties, allowing the single officer in the back seat to manage the mission while the pilot focuses on flying the aircraft.

Although the development process went smoothly for Growler, Darrah says there were challenges. The Prowler platform is a "modified cargo environment [and we are] going into a much more dynamic environment [with the Super Hornet]," he notes. "We are taking the receivers and moving them from the vertical tail onto a wingtip pod, and the environment out there on the ends of the wings is a little bit more dynamic."

One hurdle involved adding the wiring needed to run the pods while preserving the ability to fold the aircraft's wings (thus reducing the footprint on the carrier deck). "There was some tremendous work done on running some very sensitive radio-frequency coaxial cabling through the wing into the airplane, which is extremely challenging because we had a wing-fold and you had to take these very thick coaxial cables and fold them in the wing fold area."

Martin says the Growler has 300 more wiring bundles than the Super Hornet Block II. "These are like your little finger-a cable about that big around. It is not trivial. You can imagine a big bundle of those going through the wing-fold section," says Darrah. Designers sectioned off the cables and hinged them without compromising their ability to transmit signals.

During operational evaluation, officials conducted live-fire trials of the AGM-88 HARM and AIM-120C Amraam. The Amraam will give the Growler some self-defense, whereas the Prowler employed only anti-radar weapons. Eventually, the Navy will equip the Growler with the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-a HARM with an improved guidance kit.

The Navy intends to buy 88 Growlers; 10 squadrons will receive five each. The remainder will be used for testing and attrition reserve.

The first operational Growler squadron will be VAQ-132, the "Scorpions," based at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash. The Navy recently received the 14th aircraft. The final Growler will be delivered in 2013 to complete the transition from the Prowler. Each aircraft must be ordered and purchased two years in advance, so the final 10-Growler buy will be documented in the Navy budget in Fiscal 2011.

Though deployment plans could spark interest from international customers, the U.S. has not signaled any intention to release the aircraft abroad. Since other nations also face defense budget constraints, funding could be an issue for new sales. However, Australia, the first Super Hornet customer, has expressed interest.

Based on Defense Dept. procurement figures for Fiscal 2010, each Growler costs roughly $73 million. Darrah notes that the aircraft's price tag is roughly $8-10 million more per unit than a Super Hornet. They are both built on the same Boeing production line in St. Louis.

As for Australia, one solution could be to retrofit some Super Hornets. "Every F/A-18F is provisioned to accept an electronic attack capability. We built in the ability for us to do that either in production or as a retrofit," Darrah notes. The shift would require several changes to the aircraft, but is a possible option.

Meanwhile, Boeing has Super Hornet orders from the Navy and Australia to carry it through 2014, according to a company official. The aircraft is also under consideration by Brazil, Japan, Denmark and Greece. And it is viewed as a potential gap-filler for the U.S. Navy and possibly Australia if the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter's operational capability date slips.

DoD ‘Moving Toward’ Keeping EA-6Bs Longer

Navy To Send 16 Prowlers To Marine Corps As EA-18G Begins Service

(INSIDE THE NAVY 23 NOV 09) ... Dan Taylor

The Navy will transfer 16 of the latest versions of the EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft to the Marine Corps beginning next year as the service replaces its Prowler fleet with the new EA-18G Growler, according to Navy Capt. Steven Kochman, airborne electronic attack and EA-6B program manager.

The Marine Corps, which will not be buying Growlers, has a requirement for a fleet of 32 of the latest Prowler versions, known as “ICAP 3.” The Corps has 16 of those aircraft on order which will start delivery in early 2010, and the remaining 16 will be transferred from the Navy between 2010 and 2011, Kochman told Inside the Navy in a Nov. 17 interview.

“The Marine Corps has got aircraft that are going through the pipeline getting upgraded, and then they’re going to take delivery from the Navy, and then we are going to retire a bunch of airplanes,” he said. He noted that the Marine Corps has a requirement to fly Prowlers through 2019, and the program could probably fly the aircraft through 2021 if need be.

The exact date of the transfer “is still somewhat in flux,” the captain added.

The Navy, which has a Prowler fleet of a little more than 100 aircraft, will just retire the rest of the airplanes as Growlers come online, he said.

In October, ITN reported that officials in the Defense Department were considering extending the lives of Prowlers to 2014 to mitigate an expeditionary electronic warfare aircraft gap in the coming years. The Air Force was supposed to take over that role, but the air service has had problems with the B-52 stand-off jammer.

Last week, Kochman confirmed that the program is “moving toward” -- although it has not been finalized yet – not retiring the Navy’s Prowler expeditionary squadrons in 2010, 2011 and 2012, which was the previous plan up until only about a month ago.

“The decision has been made that we’re not going to shut those squadrons down initially,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t translate into exactly what we’re going to do. It doesn’t say how long we’re going to keep those squadrons, how we’re going to deploy, whether we’re going to cover the expeditionary requirement with ICAP 2 aircraft, with ICAP 3 aircraft, with EA-18G aircraft. Those are all things that are on the table, but no decisions yet.”

A proposal to keep the expeditionary Prowlers until 2014 would likely involve a service life extension program of some sort.  The Navy has three four-aircraft expeditionary Prowler squadrons and one reserve squadron. The Marines, which are by nature an expeditionary force, have four five-aircraft squadrons, “so you could take those eight squadrons, which is 36 aircraft, and call them expeditionary,” Kochman said.

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Pentagon May Restructure JSF Test Program

(AVIATION WEEK 30 NOV 09) ... Amy Butler and Graham Warwick

The Pentagon appears to be willing to boost funding for the $300-billion Joint Strike Fighter program in an attempt to shore up the flight-test effort and minimize cost growth and projected delays.

But, even while top Pentagon officials are in the final throes of restructuring the program for the Fiscal 2011 budget proposal, hiccups are becoming apparent in the flight-test plan for the Marine Corps aircraft that was recently ferried to NAS Patuxent River, Md., for trials.

Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's acquisition czar, says he is considering a number of options for stabilizing the Lockheed Martin F-35 flight-test plan, and these could call for additional funds in the short term. Carter is also looking to Lockheed Martin to share the burden of the extra cost. The forthcoming funding boost would come on top of the $4.4 billion added over five years to the Fiscal 2010 budget from the Pentagon.

Smoothing the test schedule is critical to ensuring the operational in-service dates for three U.S. military services (Marine Corps in 2012, Air Force in 2013 and Navy in 2014) as well as forces of eight international partners. Worries include the pace of deliveries of flight-test aircraft and the ability to generate sufficiently consistent sorties to burn down test points.

Carter says he is considering adding more flight-test assets and software engineers to the program in order to avoid major delays to fielding the stealthy, single-engine aircraft. Likely changes include the addition of one aircraft, a naval F-35C, to the 12 already in the development program and "borrowing" aircraft intended for the operational test and evaluation phase to finish up development before returning them to the independent testers.

At issue is the continuing and, some say, widening gulf between the predictions of the U.S.-led Joint Program Office (JPO)/Lockheed Martin program management team and those of a Joint Estimating Team (JET). The JET consists of career cost estimators and program evaluators, and its findings include both predictions of leaps in technology based on the F-35's sophisticated software and modeling advances as well as historical trends in predecessor aircraft programs. Recently, the JET has found the Lockheed Martin F-35 program is at least $16 billion over its projected cost, and achieving the current flight-test schedule is unlikely.

Last year, Carter says, the JET's findings were "substantially similar" and some snags the team projected then have since come to fruition, adding credibility to its forecast. However, he says sound management from the Pentagon is needed to avoid throwing money needlessly at the problem. "We have to do the best we can in terms of cost and performance," Carter says. "I will say that, once we have an agreed [on a] realistic plan, that it's only reasonable for the government to hold those performing the program to that plan."

Carter expects Lockheed Martin to share in paying for the added cost. "We don't want to be in a situation where the government bears the cost of schedule slips all by itself," Carter says. "It is reasonable that risk in a program be shared" with the contractor. Carter has been a vocal advocate of structuring Pentagon contracts to shift at least some risk to contractors, even pursuing fixed-price development contracts in some cases.

Carter says the addition of more flight-test aircraft would help to conduct the extensive test program in a "compressed period of time." Another possibility is to add more software engineers, perhaps a shift of them, to "block and tackle" issues with the many lines of code needed to operate the aircraft and its mission systems, Carter says.

Though this would cost more upfront, he says this "investment" would likely produce a more stable program in the long term and could reduce the time needed to complete flight tests. "That's an investment that [is] sensible for the parties to make," Carter says. "And, I think both the government and Lockheed Martin should be prepared to share in those investments."

Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stevens and the company's JSF program leadership met with Carter during an unusual Sunday meeting Nov. 22 to review these issues, and Carter characterized the discussions as "productive and constructive."

Carter says some of these issues must be sorted out in the next "couple of weeks" in order to lay in the additional funding that would be needed in the Fiscal 2011 budget.

In past years, the Pentagon had removed two aircraft from the flight-test program, increasing reliance on Lockheed Martin's ability to validate the design using ground-based integration laboratories and mission system flying testbeds.

It is unclear whether this potential plan to add test aircraft signals a risk-mitigation strategy or a concern that modeling and simulation will not suffice for some of the workload that it was to address.

Meanwhile, the testing program is continuing, though not at the pace overseers had hoped. The first short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) test aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps, BF-1, finally arrived at NAS Patuxent River Nov. 15 to begin powered-lift flight testing, but it has not flown since. Instead, the aircraft is expected to remain on the ground until Dec. 7 for maintenance to replace a faulty fuel shutoff valve, time-expired canopy transparency-removal detonation cord and life-limited engine inlet pressure rake.

A partial malfunction of the fuel valve was observed during ground operations after arrival. Its replacement requires removal of the engine, grounding the aircraft for 10-12 days. Officials decided to use the time to conduct the scheduled replacement of the detonation cord and inlet rake, which otherwise would have further interrupted Stovl flight tests. Lockheed Martin says 12 flights are needed before the first vertical landing, which it still hopes to accomplish before year end.

With BF-1 grounded for maintenance, conventional-takeoff-and-landing aircraft AF-1 is the only production-representative F-35 still flying, having made its first flight Nov. 14. The second Stovl aircraft, BF-2, is expected to return to flight within the next few weeks after modification, and BF-3 is expected to fly soon, say Lockheed Martin officials. First flights of AF-2 and BF-4 have slipped into early 2010, as has the maiden flight of the first carrier-capable F-35C, aircraft CF-1, which is now expected "in the first quarter."

Carter also acknowledges that cost growth in the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine is a challenge, though he offered no specific remedies.

He also stuck to the Pentagon's position that a second, General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 engine is a liability to the program. No cost models predict that the benefits of competing two engines on the fighter will reap enough savings to justify the upfront cost of developing and producing them both, he says, and continuing to fund the F136 from the JSF program "has been disruptive" to its progress.

An Independent Manufacturing and Review Team commissioned by Carter's office to assess the processes at Lockheed Martin's F-35 assembly plant in Fort Worth may be able to outline some efficiencies that could amount to per-unit savings, Carter says.

Business Week (Wednesday, January 06, 2010) has article on direction by SECDEF to delay the F-35 program, cutting planned purchases by 10 aircraft in fiscal 2011 and a total of 122 through 2015. 

Excerpt: Along with the delay in Lockheed’s program, Gates is calling for spending a total of $2.4 billion in 2011 and 2012 to buy 26 F/A-18E/F planes that are capable of jamming enemy radar. Those aircraft are produced by Boeing Co., the second-largest defense contractor.

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===================================================================================================================

Lockheed F-35 Purchases Delayed in Pentagon’s Fiscal 2011 Plan

January 06, 2010, 03:24 PM EST

By Tony Capaccio

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed the military to delay the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 program, cutting planned purchases by 10 aircraft in fiscal 2011 and a total of 122 through 2015, according to a budget document.

More than $2.8 billion that was budgeted earlier to buy the military’s next-generation fighter would instead be used to continue its development.

The delay is a setback for both Gates and Lockheed.

The defense secretary said last year he wanted to accelerate jet purchases to complete the military’s most expensive weapons program sooner and possibly save money.

For Lockheed, the world’s largest defense contractor, accelerated purchases would be more profitable because a program’s production phase brings in more revenue than research and development. In addition, the Bethesda, Maryland-based company faces negotiations that may require it to absorb a share of cost overruns during what will likely be an extended development phase. The company now absorbs no overrun costs.

Along with the delay in Lockheed’s program, Gates is calling for spending a total of $2.4 billion in 2011 and 2012 to buy 26 F/A-18E/F planes that are capable of jamming enemy radar. Those aircraft are produced by Boeing Co., the second-largest defense contractor.

Navy officials warned that if the F-35 program slipped, they’d press for more F-18s to mitigate a “fighter gap” caused by their aging, carrier-based jets.

Cuts Itemized

Gates’s order is in an unreleased document he signed Dec. 23 that is the basis for the new defense budget to be released Feb. 1. The document was widely distributed within the Pentagon, including the military chiefs, inspector general, the intelligence agencies and regional combat commanders.

He directed the shift from the procurement budget to development of $320 million in fiscal 2011; $544 million in 2012; $716 million in fiscal 2013; $872 million in fiscal 2014 and $356 million in 2015, according to the document.

The document gives no indication that the program’s target quantity would be cut. The planes bought through 2015 would be used for training, testing and to fill the first operational squadrons.

The F-35 is intended to replace the F-16, A-10, AV-8 Harrier jets and earlier model F-18s.

2,456 U.S. Planes

The F-35 program’s current projected cost is $298.8 billion. The plan is to build by 2034 at least 2,456 U.S. aircraft with common parts for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

Gates’s decision appears to have been influenced by several independent assessments commissioned by the Pentagon, said Thomas Christie, who was in charge of the Defense Department’s weapons testing from 2001-2005.

One recent study agreed with a similar one from a year earlier that predicted a 2 1/2 year delay in development beyond the current target of October 2014 and an added cost of $16.5 billion. The new estimate recommended the Pentagon add $314 million to the five-year plan to beef up testing. Gates did so.

A separate review of Lockheed’s manufacturing raised questions about the company’s ability to meet its schedule for assembling the plane.

Production Rate at Issue

The deferral of buying 122 aircraft reflects concerns “about Lockheed Martin’s ability to produce aircraft at the previously planned rate,” Christie said in an interview.

“I have to compliment” Gates “for stepping up to the plate as opposed to once again letting the program go on as previously planned, with its clearly unexecutable cost and schedule profile,” he said.

Gates’s decision was made in parallel with a review by the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Ashton Carter.

Carter is assessing whether the program’s development phase should be lengthened beyond October 2014 because of delays in delivering 10 of 13 test aircraft needed to fly the 5,000 sorties required by the test plan.

“Senior leadership may have changes” to the schedule when the fiscal year 2011 budget is submitted, F-35 program manager Major General David Heinz said.

“The test aircraft are late to the schedule that was published more than a year ago and an update is currently part of the deliberation,” Heinz said in an e-mailed statement.

Carter is also preparing contract proposals that would require Lockheed to assume some of the financial risk for cost overruns. Its current “cost-plus” contract doesn’t require that.

Lockheed Martin spokesman Chris Giesel said in an e-mail the company understood the Pentagon was revaluating F-35 program funding and “this may have implications” for purchases in “fiscal 2011 and beyond.”

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to comment on what he said was pre-decisional budget material.

--Editors: Bill Schmick, Don Frederick

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at +1-202-624-1876 or acapaccio@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk in Washington at +1-202-654-4315 or jkirk12@bloomberg.net.

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The Osprey Goes to War

December 07, 2009

Knight Ridder

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan -- When a couple of MV-22 Osprey tilt rotors joined a fleet of CH-53 helicopters, dropping out of the predawn darkness Friday in the northern end of the Now Zad valley in Helmand Province to deliver the first of more than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops, it marked not only the first large assault since President Obama's announcement that the U.S. would be sending more troops here, it also was the first major combat operation for the Osprey.

The Marines are hoping that the operation - a sweep to begin to secure the area around the city of Now Zad dubbed Cobra's Anger - will become a key step toward resuscitating the image of the Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter, but in the air can tilt its motors forward to fly like a fixed-wing plane.

"It certainly passed its first big test here with flying colors," said Maj. William Pelletier, a spokesman at the Marine Corp's main base in Afghanistan and Helmand Province, Camp Leatherneck.

The Osprey suffered through a star-crossed development period that took more than 20 years and included several fatal crashes and huge cost overruns. Then, after production models entered service, on its only other combat deployment so far, in Iraq's Anbar Province in 2007 through 2009, the complicated aircraft was panned by the Government Accounting Office and critics in Congress because of various maintenance problems and questions about its performance.

In a report released June 23, the GAO essentially said that it wasn't worth the cost and that its ability to fly at high altitudes and to carry the number of troops it was supposed to with their gear was questionable.

At a hearing on the day the report was released, Rep. Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat, said: "It has problems in hot weather, it has problems in cold weather, it has problems with sand, it has problems with high altitude, and it has restricted maneuverability. The list of what the Osprey can't do is longer than the list of what it can do."

He then said that the Pentagon should quit buying them, and the GAO urged the Pentagon to look into other options. It declined.

The Marines countered that the aircraft can do extraordinary things because of its speed and range, and that it does better at higher altitudes than critics say.

Afghanistan, with its great distances and challenging terrain - and more likelihood that the aircraft will face combat - could start to make it clear whether the Marines are right and the MV-22 is worth the cost, now more than $120 million each.

"I don't think the Marines have satisfactorily answered that yet," said Richard Whittle, author of the upcoming book "The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey." "It's expensive to operate and it's going to take more time and more missions to answer that question, but this deployment will start to fill in some of the blanks on whether it's worth it.

"If it saves lives or somehow wins a battle, maybe people will say that it is," Whittle said. "But I think that to some degree that will always be in the eye of the beholder."

The 10 Ospreys arrived about a month ago and are being flown by Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (HMM-261) of Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina. At first, the crews mainly flew around Helmand to get familiar with the turf. They officially went operational this past week, beginning to fly troops and supplies around the province.

If this deployment goes well, it could start to repair the Osprey's tarnished image. The aircraft hasn't suffered a fatal crash since 2000, and the Marines think they're starting to get a handle on the maintenance problems, which in many cases involved shortages of relatively minor parts such as connectors and wiring insulation that had been expected to last longer, and therefore weren't stockpiled.

"The normal reliability and maintainability issues that you see early in ... an aircraft's life cycle, we are seeing right now," said Lt. Col. Rob Freeland, a Pentagon-based officer who deals with supply-chain issues for the Osprey and is himself an experienced Osprey pilot.

"What makes things get better in naval aviation?" Freeland said. "Time and money and a lot of engineering effort, and we're pulling all three right now, and we have every reason to expect, looking at all the forecasts, that we're going to push through this in the next three to five years.

"By that point we expect that the readiness of the aircraft, which is reliability, maintainability and supply and support, we expect the readiness of the aircraft to match its magical effectiveness, but that comes with time," he said. "It's very natural and that's what we're moving through right now."

Fixes are under way for the problems with parts shortages discovered in the Iraq deployment, he said.

The Marines in Afghanistan charged with keeping them in the air agree.

"With the right parts, these planes will be as reliable as anything out there," said Gunnery Sgt. Jake Korkian, 36, of Fort Worth, Texas, who has worked with the Osprey program since 1996 and is in charge of the squadron's maintenance for the airframe, hydraulics and other systems.

Among the parts that have to be replaced more often than expected are certain hydraulic lines - which on the Osprey are built of light but expensive and brittle titanium - and clamps for them.

"It's just nuisance stuff, like bushings," he said. "It's nothing major, it's just that these guys don't know what to stock, so you either waste money and build up a stock of stuff you don't need, or you let the supply system learn what it needs, and that's what it's doing right now."

"The next unit that comes out here won't have as many problems as us, and the unit that comes after that won't have as many problems as them," said Korkian

The Osprey squadron mainly has been moving troops and supplies between various bases. In Iraq, this duty led some critics to belittle it as no more than a fabulously expensive flying bus.

The squadron's commander, Lt. Col. Anthony Bianca of Huntsville, Ala., 42, laughed at that, saying it made no sense to criticize the Osprey for taking on its designated role.

"Yes, we're moving people and yes, we're moving supplies, that's what medium lift does," he said.

In Afghanistan, though, where distances can be much greater than Iraq, the additional speed and range it offers will boost what the Marines and other units can do.

For one thing, it will allow them to react to information about the enemy much quicker.

The aircraft is so fast, in fact, that it can sometimes make two trips back and forth in the time it takes a helicopter to make one trip.

That capability came into play Friday in the Now Zad operation, as the aircraft made several trips to deliver troops, Pelletier said.

When planning started on the Osprey's Iraq mission flying out of a base in Anbar Province, that area was the most deadly for U.S. troops. By the time it arrived, though, things had calmed down substantially as the Marines' efforts to form alliances with local sheiks against al-Qaida began working. Quickly the area went from being a hot combat zone to one of the safer parts of Iraq.

This time, though, the Osprey is arriving in the hottest combat zone in a war that has been getting tougher rather than easier.

That will be an important difference between the Osprey's two deployments, said Whittle.

"This time, I think it's a little tougher place to operate and the enemy is certainly more active and, I think, more capable than what they faced in Anbar," he said.

Luckily, the Ospreys are getting significantly more armament for this deployment. One of the criticisms of the Osprey early on was that it couldn't defend itself well, as it was equipped with only a light machine gun on the rear ramp and had no defenses that could face forward. At Camp Leatherneck, though, they are being retrofitted with a belly-mounted robotic machine gun and sophisticated targeting optics, all of which retracts into the aircraft before landings.

Also, the 7.62 mm machine gun on the back has been replaced with a much heavier .50-caliber gun.

Other issues that the Osprey has struggled with - its high-altitude performance and issues with de-icing equipment - may not be a challenge this time, as the Marines' turf doesn't include the high mountains, and is mainly desert. The aircraft are expected to perform some special missions in other parts of the country, but mainly will stay in the south.

Rotary-wing aircraft struggle with altitude and heat, and Helmand gets shockingly hot in summer, but Leatherneck sits at about 3,000 feet, and much of the area isn't significantly higher.

Still, the deployment should give a better sense of the Osprey's capabilities, Whittle said.

"The Marines have said after Iraq that they wanted to crawl with the Osprey first, then walk, then run," he said. "Well, maybe in Iraq they crawled with it, and now we'll see in Afghanistan if it's able to walk."

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New Warfare Designator Making Its Way To The Fleet

(NAVY.MIL 08 DEC 09) ... Special Navy Personnel Command Public Affairs

MILLINGTON, Tenn. -- Nine officers at Navy Personnel Command were among the first Sailors Navy-wide to receive the Professional Aviation Maintenance Officer (PAMO) warfare designator during a ceremony Dec. 4.

"I think it signifies the commitment to excellence in our community. Aviation maintenance is our forte," said Cmdr. Bill Edge, the aerospace maintenance duty officer detailer at NPC, after receiving his PAMO warfare device.

The PAMO qualification recognizes the significant contributions made by aviation ground officers in support of the Navy's aviation mission and warfighting capabilities.

"We did not have a professional warfare designator before. This is our first opportunity, and it is pretty historic for the community," said Edge.

The actual warfare device is a gold and silver metal showing the silver eagle and shield superimposed over gold aviation wings with a gold banner depicting aero maintenance.

Officers must have significant experience and display a high level of knowledge in all aspects of aviation warfare support, complete a PAMO personnel qualification standard and pass an oral board. Requirements include a minimum of 24 months at both an organizational and intermediate-level maintenance activity while assigned in an aviation maintenance officer billet and one operational deployment of at least 90 days.

Commander Naval Air Forces, Aircraft Maintenance Policy Officer is the final approval authority for all PAMO designators. To date 365 officers have qualified to wear this new insignia.

The PAMO community is comprised of aerospace maintenance duty officers, aviation maintenance limited duty officers, and aviation maintenance chief warrant officers.

Complete eligibility requirements can be found in OPNAVINST. 1412.11.

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HM-15 Launches Final Flight from NAS Corpus Christi

By Rod Hafemeister, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (NNS) -- The remaining members of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15 (HM-15) held up cell phone, digital and video cameras to record the departure of the last squadron MH-53 Sea Dragon to depart Naval Air Station Corpus Christi Dec. 7 for HM-15's new home in Norfolk, Va.

The lift-off of "Hurricane 17" from the sea wall airstrip ended 13 years of mine countermeasure helicopter operations in south Texas.

"HM-15 moved to NASCC in 1996 from Alameda, Calif.," said Senior Chief Jeremy Sturgeon, lead chief for the NASCC detachment. "Now, it's moved to Norfolk. Our mission has not changed at all. The only thing that has changed is our homeport."

HM-15's mission is to maintain a worldwide, 72-hour airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) rapid deployment posture. It also maintains four MH-53s and 100 Sailors forward deployed in the Arabian Gulf region on a rotational schedule.

The squadron has 14 MH-53 Sea Dragons, the largest helicopter in Western military use.

Hurricane 17's four-man crew – Lt. Cmdr. Ian Wolfe, Lt. Steve Mason, Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class Nicholas Reit and Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 3rd Class Mark Covington – were scheduled to follow the Gulf Coast to Destin, Fla., where they would rest overnight before continuing to Norfolk the next day.

That leaves 60 Sailors assigned to HM-15's Corpus Christi detachment, but only a dozen are slated to move to Norfolk.

"The other 48, including me, will be moving to new assignments," Sturgeon said.

HM-15's move to Norfolk is part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decisions to consolidate anti-mine warfare on the East and West Coast.

Minesweepers assigned to Naval Station Ingleside, which will close in 2010, moved to California this summer.
Most of HM-15 moved to their new home on the East Coast in September, but a detachment remained at NAS Corpus Christi to close down the operation and prepare Hurricane 17 for flight.

"When it lifted off the ground for the first time in November, there were a lot of cheers," Sturgeon said

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Carrier Eisenhower Leaves For Six-Month Deployment

(NORFOLK VIRGINIAN-PILOT 03 JAN 10) ... Kathy Adams

NORFOLK -- Despite freezing temperatures, several thousand sailors with the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower received a warm send-off Saturday morning as they departed for a six-month tour at sea.

With temperatures hovering just above 30 degrees, most said their goodbyes at home, in the car or after breakfast in the carrier's hangar bay.

But a group of about 75 dedicated and well-bundled parents, spouses, children and friends gathered on Pier 14 at Norfolk Naval Station to wave and cheer as the carrier moved slowly to sea just before 10:30 a.m.

Later in the afternoon, the destroyer McFaul also departed Norfolk Naval Station to join the Eisenhower, which will rendezvous with Carrier Air Wing Seven and the Mayport, Fla.-based cruiser Hue City and destroyers Carney and Farragut to complete the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group.

It's been just five months since the strike group's 6,000 sailors and Marines returned from their last long deployment July 30.

The regularly scheduled deployment will take them back to the Middle East, where they will assist with missions that will include counterpiracy efforts and supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, said Capt. Roy J. Kelley, the air wing commander.

The Enterprise carrier strike group was the last from the East Coast to face back-to-back deployments, returning in November 2006 and leaving again in July 2007, Lt. Courtney Hillson, a Navy spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Despite the short turnaround, the strike group completed all necessary training and work-up and is ready to go, said Rear Adm. Phil Davidson, the strike group commander.

"We'll be ready to do the full spectrum of operations," he said.

Just 10 percent of the crew turned over, said Capt. Dee L. Mewbourne, the Eisenhower's commander.

"The majority of the crew are returning varsity lettermen, so we are completely ready to go," he said.

It's tough on the families to have to say goodbye again so soon, said Eisenhower ombudsman Joanna Buesen, who serves as liaison between the carrier's command and the families.

"It's never easy to say goodbye to somebody that you love," she said. But "we were prepared for this."

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P-3s Join Pirate Patrol In The Seychelles

(NAVY TIMES 07 JAN 10) ... Andrew Tilghman

A detachment of P-3 Orions has moved to the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean to help fight pirates off the coast of Africa, a Navy official said.

The three maritime surveillance aircraft from Patrol Squadron 26 moved from Djibouti in December, said Cmdr. Monica Rousselow, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s 6th Fleet command.

“The P-3s are there to conduct surveillance missions that support U.S. Africa Command’s goal in promoting stability and security within the region,” she said.

The Seychelles are an archipelago about 15,000 miles off the coast of Africa.

VP-26 deployed from Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, at the end of November; the base will be closed in 2011. The squadron will head to Florida at the end of its deployment and settle into its new home at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

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