A wrap-up, a cleansheet design and prenegotiated prices

THE LAST test flight of the F-35’s System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase took place on April 11, 2018. The test mission, flown by BAE Systems’ test pilot Peter Wilson in F-35C CF-02 from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, involved external carriage of two 2,000lb GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (on stations 3 and 9) and two AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles (on stations 1 and 11).

Speaking at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition at National Harbor, Maryland, the F-35 Program Executive officer Vice-Admiral Mat Winter said the SDD phase had accrued 9,000 flight hours and 67,000 test points. To date, 82% of the specification verification has been completed, with 100% due to be completed by the end of the year.

The next major phase for the F-35 programme is the formal start of operational test and evaluation scheduled for this autumn, while the formal end of the SDD phase will be marked in the fourth quarter of 2019, when the F-35 is scheduled to enter full-rate production.

Winter noted that all F-35 aircraft rolling off the production lines at Fort Worth Texas, Cameri, Italy and Nagoya, Japan, are configured with Block 3F software that features all the capabilities developed during the SDD phase; the first block of post- Block 3F software is expected to be delivered in June.

The US Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II began its first operational shipboard deployment on March 5, 2018, when a six-aircraft detachment from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121) ‘Green Knights’ based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, embarked on the USS Wasp (LHD- 1). Assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, USS Wasp is on a routine patrol of the Indo-Pacific region.

This summer, USS Essex (LHD-2) will deploy with a detachment from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 (VMFA-211) based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, the first deployment with aircraft configured with Block 3F software. By the end of 2024, the F-35 is scheduled to be operational on eight amphibious assault ships and four aircraft carriers.

Discussing unit costs, Winter said Lot 10 F-35s being delivered this year are $94.3 million F-35A, $122.4 million F-35B and $121.2 million F-35C, and pledged that all three variants will cost under $100 million for Lot 14 and Lot 15.

Rear Admiral Scott Conn Director, Air Warfare, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee Seapower Subcommittee on March 6 said the first operational fleet F-35C squadron, Strike Fighter Squadron 147 (VFA 147) ‘Argonauts’, should reach initial operational capability (IOC) in late 2018. He said: “For us to declare initial operational capability, the aircraft has to be configured with Block 3F, has to be going through its [IOT&E] in which the weapons and sensors have to perform in a threat-representative environment to the standards identified in the operational requirements document.

“For the IOC declaration, we are event and capability based, not calendar driven. We’re holding firm on that. Although IOT&E has slid to the right, we expect IOT&E to begin in September, and to be complete in early 2019. When the aircraft has met all the requirements as set forth in the original requirements document …then we will declare IOC, which will be well before the first deployment of VFA-147 in FY2021”.

In August, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) will host a complement of F-35Cs from the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 9 (VX-9) ‘Vampires’ detachment based at Edwards Air Force Base, California, for an initial operational test and evaluation at-sea period with Carrier Air Wing 7 (CVW-7).

VFA-147 commenced F-35C training with VFA-125, the Fleet Replacement Squadron at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. In October, the squadron will conduct carrier qualifications once it’s declared safe for flight; the Argonauts are scheduled to deploy on board USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in FY2021.

Conn said 28 F-35Cs have been delivered to date, 21 to the US Navy and seven to the US Marine Corps. The two services will procure 353 and 67 F-35Cs apiece.

Clean-sheet design

Lockheed Martin’s entry into the US Navy’s competition for the MQ-25 Stingray Unmanned Carrier-Based Aerial Refueling aircraft is a taillessflying wing that the company says is a new design, but also uses some proven systems in service on other aircraft.

Speaking to the media on April 9, 2018, at the Navy League’s Sea-Air- Space Exposition at National Harbor, Maryland, Rob Weiss, Vice-President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, said: “This a clean-sheet design, a purpose-built tanker.”

Lockheed Martin’s single-engineflying wing proposal features two under-wing hard points for mounting an aerial refuelling hoseand- reel pod, and an external fuel tank. Sensors are mounted in the nose, one apparently a camera for a carrier crew member to use to taxi the aircraft on theflight deck. There appears to be a satellite antenna fairing behind the nose. A video of the concept shown during the briefing shows two spoilers atop the wing, one on each side.

F-35C CF-02 during the finalflight of the SDD phase on April 11, 2018. F-35flight testing highlights during the 17-year System Development and Demonstration phase include fullflight envelope performance andflying qualities, high angle-of-attack testing, short take off and vertical landing development testing, ship trials, 183 weapon separation tests, 46 weapons delivery accuracy tests, and 33 mission effectiveness tests.
Lockheed Martin

The video also showed the aircraft dropping two weapons. Weiss said there is no Navy requirement for the aircraft to carry ordnance. But the company is prepared to integrate weapons should such a requirement develop, though the aircraft will have a basic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability.

Weiss said the Skunk Works did a lot of trade studies, including leveraging work completed for the US Navy’s Unmanned Carrier- Launched Air Strike Surveillance (UCLASS) system and that the decision to modify its plan for UCLASS was neither optimum nor satisfactory.

Instead, the Skunk Works team decided to reuse many of the systems from UCLASS, including some avionics, but most notably the landing gear and the GE F404 engine, the latter to simplify engine logistics with the huge F404 enginefleet used by the Super Hornet. The landing gear — built by United Technologies Aerospace Systems — is the same system used on the F-35C Lightning II.

Weiss said theflying wing design avoids the weight of a tail and fuselage and enables the wing to carry more fuel. He said there is no requirement for the aircraft to be low-observable, but pointed out that theflying wing is a planform that “would lend itself to a lowobservable design” should Navy go in that direction. Weiss said the Skunk Works design would be able to operate at “altitudes and speeds that commensurate with the strike assets”.

Accelerated timeline

US Navy MH-60 helicopters are planned to receive enhanced capabilities provided by the Lockheed Martin ALQ-248 Active Off board Electronic Warfare (AOEW) pod, a self-contained system with its own power source and datalink.

After a preliminary design review in August 2017, following an accelerated timeline, the AOEW is currently scheduled to go through a critical design review in June–July and commence ground testing. Flight-testing using the six developmental pods already ordered will start in 2019, with low-rate initial production planned to start in 2019–2020.

The AOEW is intended to provide US Navy battle groups with a range of capabilities to counter anti-ship threats, incorporating an electronic intelligence, jamming and electronic attack (disrupting threat system electronics). Its datalink enables remote tasking to be fully integrated with other shipboard and airborne systems supporting a battle group.

Speaking at a briefing in Washington DC on April 10, Director of electronic warfare systems for Lockheed Martin Joseph Ottaviano said: “There are advanced capabilities in the pod. It could take data from the F-35, and the E-2D. You can share — with all these assets — without announcing your arrival [by using passive sensors]. Link 16 is the basis, but other capabilities are possible.” David C Isby

Osprey opportunities

The US Navy expects to issue the third multi-year procurement (MYP) contract for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor assault transport aircraft in June, one that will present opportunities for further orders, including foreign sales, at economical prices.

Speaking at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition in National Harbor, Maryland, on April 10, US Marine Corps Colonel Matthew Kelly, Naval Air Systems Command’ V-22 programme manager, said MYP 2 will complete deliveries in approximately 18 months and MYP 3 would cover FY2018 to 2022. Kelly said the MYP would give existing and new customers the opportunity to purchase Ospreys at pre-negotiated prices.

To date, Japan is the only non-US country to order the Osprey, with the first deliveries scheduled for FY2019. Kelly said other nations have expressed interest and discussions with Israel have taken place, but stressed an order is not imminent.

The Osprey has conductedflight operations from four foreign aviation-capable ships: South Korea’s ROKS Dokdo, the French BPC Dixmude, the Netherlands HMNLS Karel Doorman and the Spanish LHD Juan Carlos. Later this year, Ospreys are expected to conductflight operations on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The US Marine Corps is executing Common Configuration – Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM), a programme that will update the MV-22Bfleet to a standard 2018 configuration, one that includes all of the engineering change proposals from the last 15 years. There are currently more than 70 different configurations of MV-22B in the Marine Corps inventory; CC-RAM will ease the burden on maintenance and aircrews alike.

Delivery of the first US Navy CMV-22Bs is planned to begin in 2020. Although the aircraft will be dedicated to the carrier onboard delivery role, they could also be used for other missions, including vertical replenishment, vertical onboard delivery, medevac, special operations support, SAR and humanitarian disaster relief.

Kelly said the Osprey has performed well in Iraq and Syria and has been a game-changer for combatant commanders: “Every combatant commander wants V-22s, because they can respond to such a wide range of contingencies”.