US Air Force: Discussion and News

Could be worth it...... if it were being done in space.

Definitely something that shouldn’t be tested in our atmosphere.

Sorry for my rudeness and ill-tempered nature but WHAT THE F*** IS THIS SHIT ?????

http://www.nationalinterest.org/feature/5-most-lethal-us-warplanes-the-planet-13364
http://www.nationalinterest.org/feature/russias-5-most-dangerous-warplanes-13255

When it comes to air power, it’s no secret that the United States and the West have often held an edge over Russia.  
(...)Warsaw Pact was numerically superior to NATO but the latter held the technological advantage, including in terms of aircraft.    And even today, Russia’s Air Force doesn’t yet boast anything comparable to the latest American fifth-generation fighter jets like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).      

Since at least the end of World War II, America has usually boasted the most advanced warplanes in the world. Indeed, the Soviet Air Force often built planes in response to new U.S. variants, and these were almost always inferior.       American designs are still some of the most sought-after around the world, as the F-35        Joint Strike Fighter program has demonstrated.

It is weird that the author didn't mention F-15 in the list. Clearly F-15 is the best American fighter, much stronger than the disaster named F-35. In fact, F-15 is the mightiest fighter of the West.

On the one hand are the US military trumpeting from the rooftops how wonderful the capabilities of their stealth and networked systems, whilst down in the engine room they are muttering this stuff.

In an effort shore up its missile defense capabilities, the US military has conducted a massive electronic warfare exercise. The concern? Russian radar jamming technology. Last spring, the US Army conducted a highly classified exercise deep in the New Mexico desert. Held at White Sands Missile Range, the electronic warfare drills were designed to find weaknesses in the Pentagon’s missile defense capabilities. To accomplish this, the military mimicked a series of offensive jamming attacks to test the readiness of the defense system. Evidently, those networks need a lot of improvement, as the results of the exercise produced nearly 70 terabytes of data, roughly twice the size of Wikipedia.

But the prime reason for the drills is concern that Russian and Chinese technology is too advanced for the US military to confront. According to Brig. Gen. Neil Thurgood, the Army’s Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Missiles & Space, America’s principal foes have developed advanced digital jamming far beyond old-school analog technology. That advanced tech is not only capable of blocking missile defense radars from intercepting incoming signals, but can also fool the defenses with a false radar pulse. Essentially, Russian and Chinese jammers can trick US missile defense networks into firing at empty sky.

To improve those defenses, the Army is hoping to streamline its computer networks. Testing the Integrated Air & Missile Defense Battle Command System, the exercise at White Sands experimented with combining multiple radars into one, fluid, detection apparatus.

"Today, we don’t hook all those together. We don’t see one single air picture, one composite track for one target," Thurgood told Breaking Defense. "[But in the exercise] we had the Patriot weapon platform, the Sentinel [radar], the Avenger weapon platform, all linked to IBCS, all making the composite track, one track from all the sensors, and we practiced engagements…" By relying on multiple radar platforms, it will prove more difficult to fool any one installation.

Of course, even with new ideas for improvement, it could still take over a year to fully analyze the results of the exercise, and even longer to implement any corrections.

This isn’t the first sign that Western missile defense systems need drastic overhauls. On Wednesday, the head of the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) announced that the organizations missile defense program “will not work” against an enemy attack. While NORAD’s concerns don’t involve radar jamming, specifically, it is adopting a similar strategy to fix its flaws. By developing a global network capable of quickly transmitting targeting data, the defense organization hopes to improve its response time. "We have the technology," Admiral Bill Gortney told Breaking Defense. "The technologies are probably all out there. It’s getting it aligned."

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150815/1025770505.html#ixzz3isJX3Mme

US army learnt how far Russia has advanced in EW when they were in Ukraine. US quickly claimed like in you above post that they will roll out similar advanced EW systems by 202x ( https://www.russiadefence.net/t860p60-u-s-army-news ) but the thing is by that time Russia will move to photonics based EW. They have made one photonic based ew system already.


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A U.S. Air Force F-16 jet crashed in southern Germany

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-f-16-jet-crashes-germany-pilot-survives-police-n407716

Just a bit of finger trouble on the old calculator Guv. Anyway, what's $25B between friends (that's politicians and cash holding lobbyists) when there is a juicy new gravy train on the horizon?


The Air Force this year estimated the cost of the new Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB) to be $58.2 billion for the next 10 years, up from the previous year’s estimate of $33.1 billion. Unnerved by the price hike revealed in an Air Force report to Congress, Representative Jackie Speier, of California, demanded answers from Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James and General Mark Welsh, the service's chief of staff.

The Air Force chalked up the $25 billion miscalculation to human error, saying the cost should have actually been $41.7 billion. "We were surprised by the number when we saw it as well once it had been pointed out to us that it looked like the number had grown, because we've been using the same number," Welsh said.

The price gap for the new aircraft is another budgeting snafu by the Air Force, whose F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is notoriously over budget – it is also the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program ever.

The Air Force's most recent fighter program, the dogfighting-optimized F-22 Raptor, produced 187 units between 1996 and 2011 at the cost of $157 million each, reported Blake Stilwell, of We Are The Mighty. The Raptor was not used in combat until 2014.

The LSRB is estimated to cost $500 million per plane, with a total cost of $55 billion to replace the Air Force’s 77 aging B-52 (first developed in 1955) and 21 B-2 (1989) bombers, Stillwell reported.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150831/1026413268/air-force-bomber-speier-budget.html#ixzz3kQoY8dAl

Seems like a considerable number of U.S. weapons have a tendency of cost skycraping.

AIM-9X Block II approved for full production



Full-rate production (FRP) of the latest instantiation of the AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile has been approved by the Pentagon.

The AIM-9X Block II introduces a full lock-on-after-launch capability - enabled by improved electronics, upgraded software, and a new weapon datalink - to support beyond visual range (BVR) engagements.

The FRP milestone was achieved on 17 August 2015 when Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition, signed off the Acquisition Decision Memorandum allowing the Naval Air Systems Command's Air-to-Air Missile Systems Program Office (PMA-259) and industry partner Raytheon Missile Systems to move forward into volume production.



http://www.janes.com/article/53985/aim-9x-block-ii-approved-for-full-production

US Plans to Boost Sensor Integration Against Russia, China Gen5 Aircraft


A new US aerospace strategy to boost warfighting and technological capabilities will improve sensor integration to battle Russian and Chinese generation five (gen5) combat aircraft, retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Carl Baker told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Colonel Carl Baker said that "the current threats from Russian and Chinese gen5 aircraft are driving the concern with sensor integration and in hypersonic weapon development."

On Monday, US Air Force Secretary Deborah James said the US military would unveil a new aerospace operating strategy to enhance warfighting and technological capabilities to counter claims that the United States was losing its technological edge against potential adversaries.

Baker explained that the main effort by the military was going into the fields of command and control, networking and integration of sensors and data velocity.

"There are also important organizational issues that must be addressed to maintain superiority in the OODA (observe-orient-decide-act) loop cycle including decentralization of command and control facilities and inter-organizational training and operational interface," Baker said.

Baker also noted that the gen5 aircraft strategy is focusing on stealth qualities and information fusion.

"[Drone development]creates some concern with cyber protection and a diffusion of battle space management capabilities," he said.

Drone development is mainly tied to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance issues, Baked concluded.

Boeing KC-46 Pegasus is alive.

https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/767/41275/N462KC-Boeing

F-16 crash in Gulf of Mexico

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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



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

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

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

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



Mentioned airbase in Turkey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pentagon extravagant stuff yet again:

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

Freshly released HD video of B2 by Northrop Grumman.

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

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

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

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

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