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ST. LOUIS—Boeing conducted four flight tests under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Triple Target Terminator (T3) program, Boeing Phantom Works President Darryl Davis said here May 18.
The test vehicles, about the size of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam), flew “faster and farther” than an Amraam, Davis said, but he did not provide any other details.

Darpa issued T3 contracts to Boeing and Raytheon in 2010, with the aim of demonstrating technology for a single weapon type that could function as an anti-radar missile, an air-to-air Amraam replacement and a cruise-missile defense weapon. The program has now been concluded, but the Navy now plans to develop a longer-range version of its AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile.

Davis also said Boeing will unveil some previously undisclosed Phantom Works programs “in the next month or two,” and that these will be separate from the unit’s work with Saab on the T-X program.

A bit of a background -

Raytheon is being awarded a USD21.3 million contract by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for work on a new air-launched missile designated the Triple Target Terminator (T3), the US Department of Defence (DoD) announced on 25 October.
The programme is intended to develop a high speed, long-range missile able to engage air, cruise missile and air-defence targets. Suitable for internal carriage on stealth aircraft, it would be carried as externally-mounted armament on other types of fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Currently a DARPA programme, it would eventually become the responsibility of the US Air Force.
Enabling technologies identified by DARPA are:
propulsion,
multi-mode seekers,
data links,
digital guidance and control and
advanced warheads.

The new missile would allow any aircraft to rapidly switch between air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities. Its speed, manoeuvrability and network-centric capabilities are intended to significantly improve the survivability of US combat aircraft and to increase the number and variety of targets that could be destroyed on each sortie.
Low-key initial work on the T3 programme has been under way for several years. For example, between June and November 2008, McKinney Associates conducted systems analysis for Boeing Advanced Weapons & Missiles Systems on the programme.
Work planned under the USD12.1 million Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 funding consisted of studies to define what DoD budget documents described as "T3 trade space and concepts of operation", the start of preliminary design studies and risk-reduction experiments and modelling to validate potential designs.
The USD16.9 million planned to be spent in FY 2011 will cover a preliminary design review of T3 concepts and the start of critical design activities.
Work under the new T3 contract will be performed at Raytheon's facilities in Tucson, Arizona (68 per cent), and Gainesville, Virginia (32 per cent) and is due to be completed in October 2011.

Apart form the 'propulsion' side of the development (I believe one solution was a VFDR while the other was a dual or multi pulse, but I could be wrong) there has been little directly revealed on the guidance, multi-mode seeker and new data links other than the studies and contracts that supported the JDRADM and NGM programs. 2014 budget documents revealed that DARPA launched at least 6 missiles (now at least 7)..

http://oi62.tinypic.com/10qa078.jpg

It appears that the AARGM-ER may be benefiting from the T3 VFDR demonstrations in the short (available by 2021) term...

http://s21.postimg.org/oyqpjj5xz/rms12_harm_pic01.jpg

AARGM-ER

http://s30.postimg.org/lqx4ay2ap/Screenshot_2015_06_28_06_12_46.png

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B-52 vs Vulcan drag race.

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http://s21.postimg.org/oyqpjj5xz/rms12_harm_pic01.jpg

AARGM-ER

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https://web.archive.org/web/20080928191451/http://pao.navair.navy.mil/press_releases/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.view&Press_release_id=3977&site_id=16

Press Release Number: ECL200809021 02-Sep-08

WD leads HSAD demo

On Aug. 15, the High Speed Anti-radiation Demonstration (HSAD) Project successfully demonstrated the maturity of an integral rocket ramjet (IRR) propulsion system.

The system incorporated nozzleless booster and variable flow ducted rocket ramjet technologies in a controlled test vehicle (CTV) air-launched flight from a QF-4 drone at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The telemetry and optical reports confirmed that the CTV boosted and safely separated from the aircraft, accelerated to supersonic ramjet transition speed, completed all IRR transition events, ignited and maintained controlled ramjet gas generator operations, and maintained supersonic sustain phase flight before being commanded to roll-down toward the ground to be flight terminated to facilitate vehicle recovery. The vehicle maintained stable controlled flight throughout its planned flight profile until its planned termination. All flight test objectives were demonstrated. Initial data analysis and post-test visual inspection of the hardware indicates that the vehicle’s systems performed as designed.

The HSAD Project is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, Air Warfare and Naval Weapons Applications, and has Congressional interest in maturation of propulsion and control technologies. The project’s objective is to flight-test demonstrate a near tactical configured vehicle with an advanced propulsion (i.e., IRR propulsion) and control system focused on increased range, time of flight reductions at critical ranges and compatibility with developing guidance/navigation/control components. The project’s products are an “as-built” design data package and performance simulation models that are validated from component level through vehicle level free flight tests.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake served as the project lead and system integrator for this government-industry team. Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. in Ridgecrest provided system engineering support; Aerojet in Gainesville, Va. provided the propulsion section, with Goodrich Corporation in Cedar Knolls, N.J. providing the fuel control and actuator systems. Alliant TechSystems, Inc. in Woodland Hills provided the GNC section and simulation modeling support; Kuchera Defense Systems provided electronic/wiring components, U.S. Air Force’s 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron, Detachment 1 provided the launch platform, and Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Detachment, White Sands, N.M. provided flight test coordination.

Contributed photo
NAWCWD led a successful demonstration of an integral rocket ramjet propulsion system for the High Speed Anti-radiation Demonstration Project on Aug. 15.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/263052596/Aargm-Er-Rfi

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ANALYSIS: Northrop battling to retain JSTARS as Lockheed, Boeing bid on recap

An effort to recapitalise the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) with a modern business jet is shaping up to be this summer’s blockbuster defence programme, with three solid industry teams now vying for the $6.5 billion prize and Raytheon working on a curious new airborne radar called “Skynet”.

Northrop (the incumbent prime contractor), Lockheed Martin and Boeing have competing JSTARS proposals and are in a “blackout period” with no communication with the US Air Force as it decides whether to put two or all three teams on contract for an 11-month “pre-development” risk-reduction programme. The decision is expected in late August or early September, the air force says, and the main downselect to a single design will occur in late 2017.

JSTARS Recap, as the programme is known, officially started this year and aims replace the air force’s 16 large and expensive 707-300-based E-8C ground-looking battle management, surveillance and moving target indicator aircraft with 17 militarised business-class aircraft by 2026.

At Northrop, this is seen as a must-win competition and it represents more than just a large business opportunity. The company practically invented JSTARS and owns the original patent. Now, it is being forced to defend that position and must fend off Lockheed and Boeing to retain its hold on the mission.

The company has expected this requirement for some time. Several years ago it purchased a Gulfstream G5 demonstrator jet that is “550 representative” as a testbed aircraft to trial new radars and mission systems, while also showing the government what is possible.

Flightglobal viewed the aircraft, which carries the G550 tag on its tail, at the company’s Manned Aircraft Design Center of Excellence in Melbourne, Florida – which is considered the birthplace of the E-8, even though the operational fleet is based about 500 miles north at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

Northrop is the only prime contractor to have assembled a dedicated JSTARS demonstrator, which it says is a “70% solution”.

Northrop – or Grumman more specifically, before it was acquired – has been in the JSTARS business since before the programme started in 1985.

The company has everything to gain by retaining JSTARS, and everything to lose should this next version fall to its rivals, Lockheed or Boeing.

The air force has invested approximately $20 billion in the radar-carrying platform since its inception, and the recapitalisation is estimated to be worth another $6.5 billion.

“We are the domain experts,” Alan Metzger, Northrop’s vice-president and programme lead for next-generation JSTARS, said on the tour. “We have been in this mission area for 30 years and have built a tremendous partnership with the air force, and we think it’s relevant in tomorrow’s fight. If the air force wants to recapitalise, we don’t think there’s anybody in a better position to figure out how to help them do that.”

Bold history

Exactly what a JSTARS aircraft does is summed up in a Grumman advertisement printed in a 1991 copy of Flight International.

It shows what was famously labelled the “Mother of all Retreats” – columns of Iraqi armour fleeing north out of Kuwait City along the infamous “Highway of Death” into Basrah, Iraq.

With capabilities such as JSTARS monitoring this fatal mass movement from above, American and Canadian attack aircraft – as well as assault troops on the ground –swooped in and routed the fleeing Iraqi forces in what was a final, devastating blow that ended the war.

Operation Desert Storm was JSTARS’ baptism of fire, with two early prototype aircraft deployed to a base in Saudi Arabia to support the war effort.

With its 24ft phased array antenna and a dozen or so battle managers, JSTARS ushered in a new era of unprecedented situation-awareness for US forces.

The USAF purchased a relatively small fleet – just 17 operational aircraft (one crashed). The last one was delivered in 2005.

The two prototypes flew 54 combat sorties in the first Gulf War, and the fleet went on to notch up combat successes in Bosnia, Croatia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, to name a few.

Lt Gen Robert Elder (retired), a former JSTARS pilot and commander of the 8th Air Force, says the aircraft really proved its worth during operational testing as part of the NATO air campaign in Bosnia in 1995.

“The Serbian air force was pounding on the Bosnians, the Croats,” he recalls. “[We] brought over NATO air power, and this is where they really found out how powerful JSTARS could be in terms of locating where they had troops.

“Any time the Serbians would mass for an attack, they would show up on JSTARS and it was easy to see. We would send NATO attack aircraft in so they could never, ever actually put together a force that was optimised to fight.”

Elder says JSTARS aircraft were used during the Global War on Terrorism in the 2000s to monitor Iraq’s porous borders with Syria, Jordan and Iran, as well as many other missions.

In Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the aircraft provided convoy overwatch for the army and marine units until the armed MQ-1 Predator UAV assumed the role. It was also used to monitor patterns of life over vast distances, and it could tell where Taliban forces were crossing into Pakistan, and where their stop-off points were. “It’s about a 50,000km2 area you can cover at any one time,” says Elder, who is now a professor at George Mason University and a consultant to Northrop.

It’s all about the aircraft

As successful as JSTARS has been on the battlefield, the programme has one fatal flaw: its aircraft are very, very old. So old, in fact, that the air force was looking to replace the second-hand, refurbished Boeing 707 freighters even before the final aircraft rolled off the line in 2005.

Using repurposed 707s that were already 20 to 30 years old turned out to be far less economical than imagined, and their antiquated engines were never replaced. A re-engining programme was aborted when the air force started exploring alternative aircraft options.

An analysis of alternatives in 2011 concluded that a modern, mid-size business-class jet that requires fewer crew members would be far cheaper to operate and maintain. Downsizing JSTARS would also open up new basing options, and allow the aircraft to deploy closer to their targets, whether that’s in Africa, Asia, the Middle East or Europe. The air force has not clearly articulated what size it would prefer, only saying “something between a Gulfstream 550 and Boeing 737-700”.

That is exactly what is on offer, and the choice of platform could potentially be where the battle is won or lost.

The primary considerations the air force will be looking at when assessing its platform options are cost, range, altitude, fuel consumption, radar interference from the aircraft – as well as basing options and how easily the aircrews could migrate to the new platform.

Northrop opted for a Gulfstream commercial business jet, and intends to offer the 550 unless the requirements shift considerably. The 650ER is also an option if the USAF requires longer range or more cabin space, but the 650 can’t carry as much weight. The 550 would be powered by two improved-performance Rolls-Royce engines, which give increased power over the standard commercial configuration.

“We did a risk-reduction study where we evaluated over 100 airplanes. We believe migrating the 707 to a Gulfstream-class business jet from a cost, risk and performance perspective yields the best opportunity,” Metzger says.

He says the 550 can climb to 41,000ft in 20min and its high-set engines and smooth undercarriage greatly reduce radar interference. Metzger says the size, weight and power of the radios and mission systems have reduced so much since the 1980s and 1990s that the 550 can carry everything the system needs.

Lockheed Martin intends to offer a Bombardier Global-series platform, which is comparable to the Gulfstream offering in terms of size, cost, performance and engine position.

“We cannot confirm the specific aircraft at this time, but we are working within the Bombardier product line to select the optimum aircraft,” Eric Hofstatter, Lockheed’s JSTARS Recap programme manager, said in a statement. He pointed to the Global series’ “affordable price, large cabin, high altitude and long endurance”.

Boeing comes to the table with the largest aircraft offering: a business jet from its 737 product line, the BBJ1, which combines the -700 fuselage with -800 wings for greater range and weight capacity. The company says the aircraft is only marginally larger tip-to-tip than the Gulfstream and Bombardier business jets, but has far more cabin space and can carry more weight.

“We meet or exceed every [draft] requirement,” says Rod Meranda, head of business development for Boeing’s next-generation JSTARS capture team. “We’re not trying to sell this as a growth airplane, but we’re trying to say it’s the right size airplane to minimise risk from the integration standpoint.”

Demonstrating capability

According to the air force’s latest JSTARS Recap schedule, two “green” test aircraft are required in the development phase for delivery by 2019.

Northrop has opted not to wait that long, and believes it could put a full-up prototype into the air much sooner.

The company has US Federal Aviation Administration-certified the radar canoe modification on its testbed aircraft, and has tried to limit changes to the commercial baseline wherever possible. Over the past year, the aircraft has visited Hanscom, Langley, Andrews and Robins air force bases and the commanders of Air Combat Command and US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) visited the demonstrator in Melbourne, following the Air Force Association conference in Florida in February.

Hofstatter says the Lockheed team has not yet assembled a demonstrator, but is strongly considering investing in one prior to the start of the development. The company’s Skunk Works division is leading the charge, and has set up a system integration laboratory to test its radar and battle management components.

To date, Boeing has committed only to the air force’s development timeline of producing two test aircraft by 2019. Meranda says the company has a larger 767 testbed aircraft, but he doesn’t “see us putting up a full-up JSTARS system in the prototype configuration” prior to securing a development contract.

The air force has stated that it would like to see as many demonstrator aircraft flying as the companies are willing to pay for, but it’s not a requirement at this stage.

“I’d like to see 10 flying prototypes,” air force acquisition chief William LaPlante quipped at a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event in Washington.

At the same event, though, LaPlante cautioned that while the air force is fully committed to the programme, it could be delayed if defence spending drops.

“We’re serious about it, but the real commitment the government is going to have to make is in about three years,” he says.

Skynet radar

As Northrop, Lockheed and Boeing battle for the prime contractor position, Raytheon is flying under the radar, so to speak, by offering it new “Skynet” radar to all sides. The company is in a non-exclusive partnership with Lockheed, but says it will offer its radar – believed to be a 16ft derivative of the Advanced Airborne Sensor (AAS) carried on the Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft – to whichever company wants it.

According to Raytheon: “Skynet incorporates the latest innovations developed for the US Navy’s stringent, wide-area surveillance requirements [and] meets or exceeds all JSTARS requirements for the lowest possible cost.”

Lockheed confirmed in a statement that it intends to carry Skynet on its business jet design, describing the radar as a “state-of-the-art active electronically scanned array (AESA), long-range, ground-surveillance radar”.

Northrop says it is closely examining Raytheon’s radar offering, but could also choose its own ground-looking AESA radar, depending on the final JSTARS requirements. Metzger’s team has been conducting trials with several different radar types at its radar test facility in Melbourne.

According to the USAF’s fiscal year 2016 budget documents, the first two aircraft will be procured as part of the development contract due to be awarded in the fourth quarter of budget year 2017, and another three production-representative aircraft will be purchased later for initial operational capability in late 2023. In the interim, the air force expects to begin retiring E-8C aircraft, beginning in 2019 as the recap programme matures.

The last 12 aircraft will be delivered under a full-rate production contract for full operational capability in 2026.

This latest schedule represents about a one-year slip compared with an earlier draft schedule that was presented at an industry day in 2014.

Northrop believes it can go faster, and wants the air force reconsider its timeline.

The company has a head start as the original equipment manufacturer, and Metzger says his team has the infrastructure, personnel and know-how to deliver the E-8C replacement sooner, potentially avoiding upwards of $1 billion in costs over current estimates.

“Based on the maturity and the risk-reduction done to date, we think we can advance the schedule and have a significant amount of cost avoidance,” he says. “If you go faster, you save money. Our software is real, our people are knowledgeable, and we’re ready to go.”

LaPlante, however, contends that it is better to “go slow to go fast”.

He prefers to front-load a programme so that as much work as possible is done in the materiel solutions phase prior to the government committing to a significant, multibillion-dollar development effort.

“We’d like to get as many as three teams on programme, and get them working on risk-reduction activities. That’s where they’re funded by the government to continue the systems engineering flow down on identifying the high-risk items,” LaPlante says. “The ideal is to have three different companies at that point that have brought their solutions up to about a preliminary design review, and maybe even put their own money into a prototype. Then, when we’re ready to do the real programme, we have something really good to start with.”

Some nice pictures and graphics at the source

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USAF unveils roadmap for microwave weapons use

The [AFRL] says it is working on an improved, second-generation “multi-shot, multi-target HPM cruise missile” that builds on the mature counter-electronics high-power microwave advanced missile project payload previously demonstrated.

Based on past comments by AFRL officials, this next iteration of the Boeing and Raytheon-built system will probably be carried on an extended-range Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER).

Source:
www.flightglobal.com/

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First JSTARS Competition Contracts Awarded

WASHINGTON — The competition to replace the US Air Force's Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) fleet is officially underway.

The service Aug. 7 awarded the trio of competitors in the program each a pre-engineering and manufacturing development contract, for a total of $31.4 million.

The E-8 JSTARS is a modified Boeing 707-300 with long-range radars the Air Force says can locate, track and classify ground vehicles at a distance of up to 124 miles. There are 18 platforms in US Air Force inventory.

As the 707-300 is no longer being produced, the service has concluded that upkeep costs for the existing fleet will skyrocket in the future. Those costs, combined with advances in technology since the JSTARS entered service, are driving the decision to push ahead with a recapitalization program.

Three distinct teams, drawn from some of the biggest players in the defense industry, are taking part in the competition. The money will be put toward risk-reduction efforts and helping the companies prove out their offerings, as well as funding prototypes.

Lockheed Martin received just under $11.5 million under the pre-EMD contract. The world's largest defense contractor is teamed with Bombardier, which will provide a business jet option, and Raytheon, to help with the sensor integration.

Northrop Grumman, the incumbent contractor on the program, received $10 million in funding. Northrop is offering up a partnership with Gulfstream and its G550 business jet, with L-3 helping do integration.

While both companies are basing their designs around a smaller business jet solution, competitor Boeing is going larger, offering a modified version of its 737-700 commercial airliner, the same basis for its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft. Boeing officials say they can win due to the extra space for crew onboard its offering. The Seattle-based company was awarded just over $9.9 million for its pre-EMD phase.

The goal for making the new fleet operational is 2023, which would make 2017 a likely time frame for a winner to be announced.

A potential roadblock for the program, however, is if Congress fails to pass a budget resolution. If the Pentagon is forced to operate under a continuing resolution or falls to sequestration-levels of funding, the competition may well end up being pushed to the right.

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The Air Force also sees lasers as multi-purpose offensive/defensive weapons that can fire in a low-power mode for self-defense, then dial up to a non-lethal offensive mode — burning out sensors or engines, for example — or all the way to “kill.”

“I used to think offensive first and foremost,” Heithold said. But after talking to industry about the art of the possible, he went on, he came to realize that “a single laser can be defensive and offensive,” depending on the power applied.

“Directed energy can be used against weapons coming at us but also used to go after the shooter,” Harris said. Near-term lasers may not have the raw power to blow an enemy aircraft out of the sky, but they could burn out its radar and other electronics.

“It is possible in the near term to develop and field the next generation of laser defenses that will burn out, not just blind, sensors on SAMs [surface-to-air missiles] and air-to-air-missiles,” said Gunzinger, a former Air Force pilot now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, which co-sponsored the conference. In fact, lasers would be especially effective against the most advanced missiles, those with sensitive multi-mode sensors. “Within the next five years,” he told me, “we could have 150-plus kW lasers on aircraft, [starting] on gunships and bombers.”

The Air Force, however, is focused on fighters. That’s a tighter fit than gunships or bombers, so the Air Force Research Laboratory has a relatively cautious three-phase plan, AFRL commander Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello said at the conference:

A defensive system with “tens of kilowatts” of power called SHIELD, the Self-protected HIgh-Energy Laser Demonstration. It will be demonstrated circa 2020.
A longer-range defensive system with 100 kilowatts of power, to be demonstrated in 2022.
A 300-kilowatt offensive system capable of destroying enemy aircraft and ground targets at long range.

All these systems will be weapons pods or other external add-ons to existing aircraft, not “fully integrated” inside the airframe like a gun or radar, Masiello cautioned. That means radar-evading aircraft like the F-35 or F-22 couldn’t use them without sacrificing stealth. “We’re talking decades to have some sort of a 300-kw laser possibly integrated into a fighter,” he said.

http://breakingdefense.com/2015/08/air-force-moves-aggressively-on-lasers/

This really would basically redefine air combat. Hardening a missile to resist a powerful laser would be extremely difficult. Consider that the missile must keep its nose pointed at the target more or less throughout the engagement, and do so even as the range decreases to zero. (letting the laser focus its work on one specific part of the missile) Next consider that the nose of the missile must allow the seeker to function, you can't just build it out of any material you like, whatever it is must transmit some part of the EM spectrum well. You also don't want to put a lot of weight right at the nose of a missile for fairly obvious reasons...

Also, the author is wrong about adding pods wrecking the F-35's stealth. The F-35 was designed from the start to use a stealthy centerline pod.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]239780[/ATTACH]

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Boeing Exploring Enhanced Close-Air-Support Capabilities For B-1
Helmet demo slated for the fall

B-1 Lancer manufacturer Boeing is investing in research to support a slate of potential upgrades that would enhance the platform's ability to perform an increasing load of close-air-support missions.

The bomber has in recent years taken on a greater portion of CAS missions, particularly as part of ongoing operations in the Middle East. According to Boeing's director of B-1 advanced programs, Dan Ruder, the platform is due for a series of upgrades to help support that broadening mission set. In an Aug. 11 interview, Ruder said the company is investing in enhancements to the B-1's helmet and weapons carriage options.

B-1 pilots and crewmembers currently operate with a standard helmet that does not feature a heads-up display or cueing system. Ruder said that as he talks to pilots returning from forward operating locations, he consistently hears of the challenges associated with pilots and weapon system operators trying to visualize a common target.

"They've run into issues where it has taken hours to try to talk a weapon system operator onto a particular spot of interest," Ruder said. "In some cases they haven't been able to talk them on at all, and of course with time-sensitive targets, that's just not acceptable."

That communication is especially difficult in terrain that lacks man-made objects or reference points, Ruder said.

To help address this problem, Boeing is working to develop a helmet-mounted cueing system (HMCS) that would attach to a B-1 pilot's helmet and allow them to pass coordinates of a particular target on the ground -- simply by looking at it -- to the weapon system operator. The company, with cooperation from Air Force Global Strike Command, has demonstrated the capability in a laboratory environment and is planning a ground demonstration at Dyess Air Force Base, TX, in October or November.

"In the lab environment, we had to simulate a lot of that so this will be the first time we actually do a demonstration with the real aircraft and the real targeting pod," he said.

Ruder said along with enhancing the passage of targeting information, the HMCS brings added visualization to a platform that is starting to run out of room for displays. The company has experimented with adding a capability to the HMCS which would project a virtual display into the helmet. He said this capability would have benefits not just for the pilot but for the rest of the crew.

"If that's something the Air Force thinks is a capability that would be beneficial, they could put virtual displays up into their helmet-mounted cueing system to give them more information or give them the information they need at that particular time," he said. "So we're going to demonstrate that as well."

Ruder noted that the helmet could also have benefits for B-52 crewmembers as that platform also performs close-air-support missions. He said the company doesn't have plans to demonstrate HMCS on the B-52, but he noted that the Air Force's decision to move the B-1 to Global Strike Command creates more opportunities for B-1 capabilities to transfer to other platforms and vice versa.

Boeing is investing its own independent research and development dollars in the effort, but Ruder said the company has had discussions about transitioning the system to a program of record should the service decide to move forward following the ground demonstration. Should the Air Force choose not to invest in the system right away, Ruder said Boeing would likely continue with some low-level investment but not with the same emphasis it has now.

The program has seen some success with transitioning internal research and development (IRAD) efforts like this into formal programs, Ruder said, and he cited the B-1's targeting pod as an example. When the company first started investigating the possibility of adding a targeting pod to the B-1, the Air Force didn't view the aircraft as a close-air-support platform. Still, Boeing decided to invest, expecting that there would be a future need for the capability. When the Air Force did decide to pull the trigger, the technology was available off the shelf.

"The Air Force is focused on fighting the current battle and here in industry, what we can do is sometimes we can look out and look at what we think future capabilities are or future needs would be," he said.

Another area of investment aimed at enhancing the B-1's CAS mission is expanded weapons carriage -- both to increase the number of Joint Direct Attack Munitions the bomber can carry and to integrate the Small Diameter Bomb onto the platform. Right now, the B-1 can carry 24 2,000-pound JDAMS and 15 500-pound JDAMS, both weapons that are typically used for CAS missions. The company in 2010 demonstrated what it calls a two-position multiple ejector rack that would allow the B-1 to carry 48 500-pound JDAMs. The new rack would not increase the B-1's carriage capacity but it would allow the platform flexibility in which weapons it carries.

For now, the capability is on the shelf ready to be used should the Air Force recognize a need for it.

The B-1 does not currently carry the Small Diameter Bomb, but Boeing is exploring integration on the B-1, which could carry 96 SDBs.

"There's already a multiple ejector rack developed for the Small Diameter Bomb, which is used on the fighters," Ruder said. "All we would have to do is integrate that onto our rotary launcher and of course do the software to interface with it."

Ruder said there have been some studies looking at the complexity of SDB integration and that there is some interest from the Air Force, but cost is a constraint.

"With the fiscal environment that we're in, they have their hands full just fighting the current fight and keeping the airplane sustained," he said. -- Courtney Albon

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Nice display!

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Nice display alright - need to buy another 180 more examples. When are they going to do that?

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I have a proposition.
Like never..

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http://s24.postimg.org/b6eyl9er9/Screen_Shot_2015_08_16_at_9_49_36_AM.png

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From AFA symposium earlier this year..

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I have a proposition.
Like never..

We should have however.

Gates evidently wanted to have one monumentally stupid decision above all the rest during his career as SecDef.

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having 350+ f-22 would have meant chances for f-22 followup design (the current usaf f-x programme) being ready in 2030s are close to nil. This way there may indeed be new, sixth gen fighter coming on line at least a decade earlier.

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F-22's to deploy to Europe soon..(SECAF)