US Air Force: Discussion and News

George1 wrote:

US Air Force defends F-15X buy to skeptical Inhofe, Reed

....

Sad day for USAF when they have to defend first smart decision they made in very long time

Secret American kinetic ammunition R9X

According to the American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" in the article Gordon Lubold, Warren P. Strobel "Not Nearby Civilians", citing its sources, the armed forces and the CIA of the United States use in combat operations Middle East specially designed secret kinetic ammunition R9X, created on the basis of a guided missile Hellfire, but equipped with non-explosive warheads. As can be judged, the R9K ammunition is used mainly from reconnaissance-strike unmanned aerial vehicles of the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper family.


American high-precision kinetic ammunition R9X, created on the basis of a guided missile Hellfire, in the version with retractable blades (c) The Wall Street Journal


The main purpose of creating the R9X rocket was to minimize collateral damage, and first of all, to avoid civilian casualties during high-altitude "liquidation" attacks. Terrorist and rebel groups are widely used practice of "dissolution" among the civilian population, especially in human settlements. The creation of the R9X rocket was launched in 2011 during the presidency of Barack Obama, who pointed to the need to avoid civilian casualties as a result of attacks by American UAVs.

It is reported that the rocket R9X, has two types of warheads. In the first case, it is an inert warhead-weight weighing about 100 pounds (45 kg). In the second version, the rocket carries six retractable large long blades, which unfold a few seconds before the collision with the target. In view of this, R9X received the slang names “flying Ginza” (in honor of the brand of knives), or “Ninja bomb”.

According to newspaper sources, the R9X was used by the Americans in combat conditions at least six times. In particular, this ammunition was used on February 26, 2017 in Idlib (Syria) during the destruction of Ahmad Hassan Abu Khayr al-Masri, who was considered number two in Al-Qaida by the US intelligence services - the R9X rocket with knife blades exactly struck the passenger car, which was a terrorist. In January 2019, Jamal al Badawi, one of the participants in the terrorist attack on the American destroyer Cole in 2000, was killed in Yemen using R9X.



https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3638184.html

On September 16, 2019, U.S. Air Force Secretary Matthew Donovan, speaking at the annual Air Force Association's Air, Space and Cyber ​​Conference) in National Harbor, Maryland, announced that a promising jet training aircraft The TX joint development of Boeing and Saab, chosen to equip the US Air Force, received the official designation T-7A Red Hawk.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3775096.html

Its budget time in the US, so what is the USAF planning to cut, subject to Congress OK

Valerie Insinna
@ValerieInsinna
·
Feb 10
What is the Air Force cutting?
-17 B-1s
-24 Block 2 and 3 Global Hawks (but buying 5 E-11As over next 5 years)
-44 A-10s
-16 KC-10s
-13 KC-135s
-24 C-130Hs (but getting 19 Js)

The best bit is the cut in KC-135 tankers when their new KC-46 tanker ain't working and won't for years to come.

Robert Hopkins
@CobraBall3
·
Feb 10
Utterly insane.
DoD and combatant commanders have made clear that

1) they don’t (and won’t) have sufficient A/R resources
2) KC-46 isn’t ready
3) 179 KC-46s ≠ 440 KC-135s
4) AF needs 13 new tanker sqds

So, yeah, let’s cut KC-135s

Air Power
@MIL_STD
·
Mar 27
The AN/FSY-3 SSR, with its 36,000 transmit and 86,000 receive elements is one of the largest Gallium Nitride based sensor systems in the world. Today, the @usairforce
will declare it operational. #GaN
Down pointing backhand index

Breaking Defense
@BreakingDefense
· Mar 27
Gen. Jay Raymond says that Space Fence — the radar system for detecting space objects in Low Earth Obit — will become operational today.

The B-1B may not be withdrawn in a few tears as planned, due to their unique capabilities compared with B-52s. Some may be transferred to the USN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/03/asia/us-air-force-b-1-bombers-guam-intl-hnk/index.html

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/05/03/us-bombers-conduct-sorties-over-south-china-sea/

In fours two crashes F-35 and F-22. 240 million dollars worth of jets gone.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/240m-fighter-jets-crash-within-four-days-58fw8ts3z

Hahaha... how creative... calling a plane that cost 250 million to make that can no longer be made a 150 million dollar plane and a plane still in production that probably cost closer to 120 million a 90 million dollar jet is amusing because it makes the 340 million dollars actually wasted sound no so bad...

Which EU airforce can afford to fly a plane that costs more than 50K per hour to fly and 120 million to buy/replace...

HATO will have no problems spending more than 2% of their GDP on defence with these turkeys...

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/27/air-force-looking-to-up-gun-its-airlift-planes/

The VKS can do the same with its IL-76s & AN-124s.

I don't have a Facebook account so I can't post my reply there which was this:

The Soviets and Russians have had "palletized munitions" since the 1930s... they are called the VDV...

Looks like the F-15EX project is getting properly underway now. Outline contract and initial orders now placed.

July 14, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force’s new contract to Boeing for F-15EX fighters could fund as many as 200 aircraft, a service spokesman said, indicating that USAF could replace almost its entire inventory of F-15C/Ds with EX variants.

The $22.9 billion contract awarded to Boeing on July 13 calls for “a maximum of 200 aircraft, … but 144 is the projected minimum,” the spokesman said in an email clarifying the award. The total number to be procured “is yet to be determined,” he said, adding that the contract is “consistent with the approved Justification and Approval (J&A) document that will be posted in the next couple [of] weeks.”

The Air Force has about 211 F-15C and 23 F-15D fighters, which the service says have outlived their planned service lives and would be cost-prohibitive to be extend much further.

Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper, talking with reporters July 14, said the contract “gives us an upper limit on our total purchasing power.” Some of the contract is cost-plus, though, because “taking a system through test, we can always require something that’s ‘above and beyond.'”

The July 13 contract has a “10-year ordering period and a 15-year period of performance” for up to 200 airplanes, the spokesman said.

According to the contract, the flyaway cost of the F-15EX is $87.7 million, a figure that includes engines. On June 30, General Electric received a $101.4 million contract for the first batch of 19 F-15EX engines; eight pairs for the first eight two-engined jets, plus three spares. Without adjusting for the cost of installations and spare parts, that’s about $5.3 million per engine, or $10.6 million of the cost of every F-15EX.

By comparison, the unit flyaway cost of the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter model, the only other fighter the Air Force is buying, is $77.9 million in Lot 14, with a single Pratt & Whitney F135 engine installed.

The $1.2 billion obligated on July 13 buys the first two F-15EXs, plus nonrecurring engineering (NRE) and product support. “The remaining six” F-15EX included in Lot 1 are “priced options,” the spokesman reported. Those items that are fixed price under the contract include the aircraft, support equipment, initial spares, and most nonrecurring engineering tasks, the service said. “Software integration, test support, and interim contractor support will be purchased under cost-plus contract types,” he said.

https://www.airforcemag.com/air-force-now-wants-up-to-200-f-15exs/

A bit more on the F-15EX

July 13, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force made the first payment on what could be a $22.89 billion acquisition of F-15EX fighters, the service announced July 13.

The $1.2 billion contract to Boeing covers the first lot of eight aircraft, which are to be used as test machines, and they will be deployed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The first two aircraft will be delivered in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, and the remaining six in fiscal 2023. “The strategic basing process is in work to determine the fielding locations” for subsequent lots, the Air Force said in a statement for the press.

The July 13 contract provides for the “design, development, integration, manufacturing, test, verification, certification, delivery, sustainment, and modification of F-15EX aircraft,” including spares and support gear, technical and training manuals, and support, USAF said. It is a cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus incentive fee contract.

The Air Force also awarded a $101.4 million contract to GE for the first lot of 19 F-15EX engines—the GE-F110-129—on June 30. The engines will power eight aircraft and there will be three spares.

The F-15EX replaces the oldest F-15C/Ds in the inventory. Eight were approved in the fiscal 2020 budget and 12 were requested for fiscal 2021. Over the five-year Future Years Defense Program, the Air Force expects to buy 76 of the aircraft, toward a possible ultimate buy of 144 airplanes.

It’s not clear how many aircraft the $23 billion IDIQ contract will buy. An Air Force spokesman said the dollar figure is an “upper limit that provides a 10-year ordering period with a 15-year period of performance.” Boeing has said the aircraft would have a flyaway unit cost of around $80 million a copy. If the Air Force means to procure 144 aircraft at $23 billion, the cost per jet including development, facilities, test, and upgrades would be more than $159 million per airplane, not including engines.

Gen. James M. Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, said the F-15EX is “the most affordable and immediate way to refresh the capacity and update the capabilities provided by our aging F-15C/D fleets.” The first one will be “ready to fight as soon as it comes off the line.”

The Air Force did not request the F-15EX, but it was inserted into the service’s fiscal 2020 budget at the behest of the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop, with the approval of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein said at the time the Air Force’s top fighter priority is still the F-35, but the F-15EX can provide near-term capacity the F-35 could not quickly backfill as the 1980s-vintage F-15C/D fleet ages out in the coming five years. Because it can make use of existing hangars, ground equipment, and other support systems, the F-15EX will be able to transition from production to flightline “in a matter of months, not years,” Holmes said.

Critics of the buy say even a souped-up F-15 is not a stealthy, fifth-generation aircraft, and the Air Force is buying a combat airplane that will not be able to survive in highly contested airspace within 10 years, although it will have a life expectancy into the 2050s. “It is perhaps the most un-cost-effective expenditure ever made by DOD,” said retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, head of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Holmes has said that in 15 years or so the F-15 would still be useful for homeland defense missions or in areas where air defenses are not as severe.

The aircraft differs from the C/D model in that it is a fly-by-wire, digital aircraft; has a powerful new processor; additional wing hardpoints; a new electronic warfare system; an updated “glass cockpit;” and the latest software for the Eagle. It is based on the F-15QA, which Boeing is building for Qatar. The EX also has an open mission systems architecture.

“Continually upgrading systems, and how they share data across a Joint Force, is critical for defeating advanced threats,” said Will Roper, Air Force service acquisition chief. The F-15EX “is designed to evolve from Day One,” he said.

“The F-15EX is the most advanced version of the F-15 ever built, due in large part to its digital backbone,” Boeing F-15EX program manager Lori Schneider said in a press statement. She described it as having “unmatched range, price, and best-in-class payload capacity.”

Boeing said the EX can launch hypersonic weapons up to 22 feet long and weighing up to 7,000 pounds. It also described the program as a “pathfinder for the Department of Defense’s DevSecOps initiative, aimed at developing secure, flexible, and agile software.”

The EX is a two-seat aircraft, but the Air Force plans to fly it with a single pilot.

https://www.airforcemag.com/air-force-awards-1-2-billion-contract-for-first-lot-of-f-15exs/

US Air Force ordered the first F-15EX fighters

On July 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Air Force gave Boeing Corporation a firm contract worth $ 1.192 billion to manufacture and supply the US Air Force's first eight new F-15EX multi-role fighters. Their purchase was previously authorized in the US defense budget for fiscal year 2020. Thus, the U.S. Air Force returned to the purchase of fourth-generation fighters 15 years after the cessation of their supply - the last F-15E fighter was delivered by the U.S. Air Force in 2001, and the last Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter - in 2005. The first Boeing F-15EX fighter (military number 20-0001) to be built at the Boeing facility in St. Louis (c) Eric Shindelbower / US Air Force



It is reported that the first two contracted F-15EX aircraft, already under construction at the Boeing facility in St. Louis, will be delivered to the US Air Force in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 (i.e., in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021), and the remaining six in 2023 financial year. All of them will be delivered to Eglin Air Base (Florida) and will be used for testing.

Overall framework contract,issued by Boeing on July 13, determined by the amount of $ 22.89 billion, and, apparently, covers the cost of 144 F-15EX aircraft, which the US Air Force intends to purchase in total. The U.S. defense budget project for fiscal year 2021 plans to authorize the purchase of the next 12 F-15EX units, and a total of 64 aircraft in the next four fiscal years. Thus, purchases of the F-15EX will continue as a whole until at least the fiscal year 2030.

The US Air Force plans to replace some of the Boeing F-15C / D Eagle fighters with F-15EX fighters. The F-15EX is a two-seat fighter (contrary to the originally promoted Boeing single-seater F-15X variant) and should be equipped with modern avionics based on the digital highway concept and Open Mission Systems (OMS) architecture, including the Raytheon AN / APG-82 series radar with AFAR. It is stated that the F-15EX will be capable of carrying up to 22 guided air-to-air missiles or "hypersonic weapons up to 22 feet long and weighing up to 7,000 pounds." The aircraft will be equipped with conformal tanks.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4086790.html

Smartest decision USAF made in quite a while, VKS should be taking notes for Su-30

PapaDragon wrote:
Smartest decision USAF made in quite a while, VKS should be taking notes for Su-30

Well they already have enough su30/35 to counter all the f-15. And their SM are going to be upgraded to su-35 level (SM1).

Su-57 will be counterpart of f-22 that is suffering of loses.

What they need is a lighter and cheap mig lmfs to be counterpart of f-35 and add numbers/volume to russian air force.

In terms of number they don't need to have as much as US because they have huge AD forces also. And also mig-31 interceptors with r-37 that is more than enough to deal with f15/16/18.

Big mistake would be that r-77M doesn't work with other jets than su-57.

Wait for the complaints about this programme that will come from the establishment... because any alternative risks their 3,500 F-35s which will seriously cut the amount of money they will be making... and with genuine competition they might have to fix more of the problems with the F-35 design instead of ignoring them and saying they are not really problems...

Smartest decision USAF made in quite a while, VKS should be taking notes for Su-30

It was an act of desperation because their all the eggs in one basket plan was clearly not working.

The VKS will monitor their programme, but I doubt there will be much worth copying...

GarryB wrote:...The VKS will monitor their programme, but I doubt there will be much worth copying...

Heavily upgraded reliable fighter jet (Su-30) with double the expected service life available quickly in huge batches at affordable price is definitely approach they should copy

They build an improved variant of F-15 for air defense primarily. What Russia did with Su-35S from Su-27

That means also no more F-22s as a replacement of all F-15s

The cheaper lighter fighter will be the Okhotnik or a special derivative for air patrol/interceptions = faster.

Heavily upgraded reliable fighter jet (Su-30) with double the expected service life available quickly in huge batches at affordable price is definitely approach they should copy

[sarcasm]Wow... thanks for the tip America... so what you are suggesting is that we should keep doing what we were already doing.... brilliant idea... how could we continue without having your smart ideas to copy...[/sarcasm]

But the only problem is that Russia does not need huge batches of anything...

That means also no more F-22s as a replacement of all F-15s

The original plan was for 1,500 F-22s to replace all the F-15s and then a light stealth fighter to replace pretty much everything else.

After making less than 200 they realised they were very expensive and that they couldn't justify making 1,500 of them, so they decided to stop production and just focus on the light model and make 3,500 of those and just replace all fighters with that... and just use the F-22s they do have....

Now they realise the price of the F-35 is just going to spiral up so they are not fixing its problems to control its price and they are going to COPY what the Russians are doing with having a small number of expensive stealth fighters but the main body of the force being conventional fighters and drones... and now they will likely claim that was the plan all along...

They are so smart because wiki says so... once they edit out all the bad stuff.

The cheaper lighter fighter will be the Okhotnik or a special derivative for air patrol/interceptions = faster.

Think of drones as an extension of a fighter... sort of its own towed decoy/jammer/weapon truck... a smaller aircraft will still be useful even just to create 5th gen light equipment for a smaller aircraft so further work on the Su-57 and the S-70 can be used to upgrade Su-35 and be a drone for it as well, and the new stealthy MiGs avionics and systems and drone can be used to upgrade the MIG-35 and its drone.

It is like a ground force with a unmanned ground vehicle with a machine gun and 5,000 rounds of ammo that can be sent to different locations to flank an enemy or hold the high ground and provide fire support for a unit...

GarryB wrote:[sarcasm]Wow... thanks for the tip America... so what you are suggesting is that we should keep doing what we were already doing.... brilliant idea... how could we continue without having your smart ideas to copy...[/sarcasm]

Exactly... the ones backtracking on what they said and copying Russia are the Americans.

Look at this, for example:

https://www.defenseone.com/business/2020/07/us-may-need-nationalize-military-aircraft-industry-usaf-says/166894

So now they are suggesting that the aerospace industry should be nationalized, after mocking everyone doing just that? They are nothing but bullshitters.

As to the F-15 effectively substituting the F-22, this should clinically kill them from embarrassment, but they don't know the notion. It certifies the complete failure of their strategic military planing in the last decades and hollowness of their claims about their 5th fighter generation. They cannot even recover the peace-time losses of their "best" plane, while its predecessor keeps the production lines open and is the only option with the capacity and kinematics to be a serious A2A asset and carry big ordnance. And to make things worse, they are reducing their budget for their newer fighters, since they can't make up their mind as to what would be the way to recover the overwhelming superiority they need to dare going to war. It is a shame they cannot accept or understand that such thing is gone for good  

Isos wrote:Su-57 will be counterpart of f-22 that is suffering of loses.

Su-57 will not perform the same role as that of the F-22. The F-22 was designed primarily for SEAD.

Su-57 is more of a hunter killer. It will detect stealthy and non stealthy aircraft at BVR and then defeat them in a WVR battle. This explains why Sukhoi has designed the Su 57 to be more manoeuvrable and less stealthy compared to F-22.

The F-22 was designed for air superiority, to shoot down enemy planes and keep the airspace safe for F-35´s. And the "less stealthiy" part is pure BS.