Current Events in the Americas

From Aviation Week F-35 To Become Electronic Attack Aircraft Nov 30, 2008 By David A. Fulghum After years of debate about the future of tactical, airborne electronic attack for the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps, it appears the F-35 will become the next-generation, digital warfare aircraft for both services. The platform most in demand in combat today is some kind of electronic attack (EA) aircraft, say military operational experts. So the pressure for more aircraft and advanced capabilities is already an operational reality. But the basic question of who does what for whom and to whom remains unanswered. "Who will provide electronic fires to ground tro…

From Aviation Week F-35A Makes First Flight By Ed Phillips/Aviation Week & Space Technology 12/15/2006 05:40:41 PM The first production Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II flew Dec. 15, initiating a six-year, 12,000-hour flight test program involving 15-20 airplanes. Company officials say the 32-min. flight, which originated and terminated at Lockheed Martin facilities at NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, went as planned. "The Lightning II performed beautifully," said Jon Beesley, F-35 chief test pilot. After takeoff Beesley flew the airplane to an altitude of 15,000 ft. and performed a series of maneuvers to check handling qualities and throttle respons…

Aviation Week Lockheed Flies First STOVL JSF Jun 12, 2008 Graham Warwick Lockheed Martin has flown the first short-take-off-and- vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B, in conventional-take-off (CTOL) mode, clearing the way for funding to be released for production of the first six U.S. Marine Corps aircraft. The 44-minute flight of aircraft BF-1, the first production-representive F-35, from Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant also marked the start of a five-year, 5,000-plus test program involving three variants of the Joint Strike Fighter: the CTOL F-35A, STOVL F-35B and aircraft carrier-capable F-35C. F-35B lead test pilot Graham Tomlinson, from JSF industrial…

As if the F-35B program wasn't in enough trouble already ... Major F-35B Component Cracks in Fatigue Test

Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Demonstrates Network Capability in Multiple JDAM Drop here (Source: Boeing Co.; issued April 18, 2006) ST. LOUIS --- Boeing has successfully demonstrated the capability of an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to provide targeting coordinates to other aircraft using the Raytheon APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system. During the test at the Naval Air Weapons Center at China Lake, Calif., an AESA-equipped F/A-18F created a long-range, high resolution synthetic aperture radar map and designated four closely-spaced stationary targets. The aircraft then data-linked two target designations to non-AESA equipped Super…

F/A-18F CFT & Weapons Pod mockup in St Louis (Flight Global, DEW Line blog) Boeing poised to begin flight-testing Advanced Super Hornet features (Jane's)

From Defence Aerospace DOD Approves Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor Aircraft for Full-Rate Production (Source: Lockheed Martin; issued Apr. 19, 2005) MARIETTA, Ga.--- The Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor fighter aircraft has been given the green light by Department of Defense acquisition officials to enter into full-rate production. An acquisition decision information paper released by the Department of Defense on April 18 states "The Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics) [Michael W. Wynne] approved the full rate production capability of the F/A-22." This decision officially transitions the Air Force's premier fighter program to a n…

From Defence Aerospace Legendary Fighter Pilot and Designer Says the F-22 Raptor is the Wrong Weapon at the Wrong Time Source: Project On Government Oversight (POGO); issued March 11, 2005 In concert with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Col. Everest Riccioni (USAF ret.), a pioneer in combat fighter design, has published his critical analysis of the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet program. Riccioni, who pioneered supersonic cruise technology and the F-16 Lightweight Fighter Program, says the decades-old F/A-22 Raptor program is broken and too expensive to fix. From his unique vantage point, Riccioni traces the history of the escalating cost…

From Defense Aerospace Op-Ed: Fate of Surface Navy Rides on Littoral Combat Ship (Source: The Lexington Institute; issued March 20, 2007) By Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D. When the cold war ended, the U.S. Navy faced a crisis of relevance. For the first time in living memory, no Red Navy or Imperial Fleet challenged America's control of the high seas. Having spent the entire 20th Century preparing for such an enemy, the Navy was poorly postured for conducting combat operations closer to shore. Fearing that the Marine Corps would become the tail wagging the Navy Department bulldog, senior admirals began formulating plans for making their warships more useful in fight…

Thought this was a story from the Onion when I first heard it ... http://www.globalnews.ca/arrow%2Bcould%2Bfly%2Bagain/6442711404/story.html

From Navy Times Feds seize F-14s from museums, TV firm By Daisy Nguyen - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Mar 7, 2007 6:37:31 EST LOS ANGELES — Federal agents on Tuesday seized four retired F-14 fighter jets that authorities said were improperly transferred from the Navy to two air museums and the company that produced the TV show “JAG.” The Tomcats were not properly demilitarized before being transferred to private parties, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which worked with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in a 17-month investigation. Under the …

CV32: The failure of this entire program is a rather sad state of affairs. Fraud, if borne out, will only add to the misery. From gCaptain [excerpt]

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt] CV32: Flight III will start with John Finn (DDG 113).

From Air Force Times Final mission for venerable MH-53 By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Oct 1, 2008 15:54:37 EDT Born from a helicopter designed to pluck aircrews out of the jungles of Vietnam, the MH-53 Pave Low will die just like it was born — in combat. The storied heavy-lift helicopter was to fly its last mission Sept. 30 in Iraq. Details on when and where the last flight happened are minimal since it likely carried special operators to assault an enemy target, said Maj. Derrick Stamos, 20th Special Operations Squadron assistant director of operations. The Air Force has gradually phased out the Pave Low after service leaders d…

From Aviation Week Fire Scout Test Aimed At Coast Guard Sep 25, 2008 By Graham Warwick/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report The first flight of an MQ-8B Fire Scout with multimode maritime radar has removed a major obstacle to U.S. Coast Guard interest in the shipborne vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned air vehicle (VUAV), manufacturer Northrop Grumman believes. The off-the-shelf Telephonics RDR-1700B imaging surveillance radar completed a functional check flight on Northrop’s company-owned Fire Scout, aircraft P6, on Sept. 19 at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 23). The radar has since been removed to allow testing of another payload…

Just when things couldn't get worse for the LCS program ... From DefenseNews Posted 04/25/07 22:34 Fire Strikes New U.S. Navy Ship By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS A fire broke out on board the U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Freedom early April 25, damaging a ship that already has had more than its share of problems. The Freedom is under construction at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., under a program managed by Lockheed Martin. The ship, launched in September, is about 80 percent complete, said Diana Massing, a spokesperson for Lockheed. The fire, which burned for nearly an hour, broke out about 5:30 a.m. in a starboard-side berthing compartment in…

From Defense Aerospace BAE Systems Delivers First Piece of Production Hardware for U.S. Navy's Advanced Gun System (Source: BAE Systems; issued May 25, 2010) ARLINGTON, Va. --- BAE Systems, along with partner General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, delivered to the U.S. Navy the first automated magazine for the 155-mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) being developed for the DDG 1000 (Zumwalt) Destroyer Program. The magazine is the first major production component to be delivered under the AGS program. It is one of a total of four magazines that will be built under a Navy contract to produce four AGS weapon systems for the Navy’s first two Zumwalt class des…

First Artwork of Hypersonic Missiles on Zumwalt-class Destroyers (Naval News)

From Defense Aerospace Lockheed Martin Delivers First C-5M Super Galaxy (Source: Lockheed Martin; issued December 9, 2008) MARIETTA, Ga. --- Lockheed Martin today delivered the first fully modernized C-5M Super Galaxy to the U.S. Air Force at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga. The aircraft is the first of three developmental test C-5M aircraft to be delivered, with the other two to be delivered to Dover AFB, Del., in February 2009. All three aircraft successfully completed developmental testing in August 2008. Current Air Force plans call for Lockheed Martin to deliver 52 modernized C-5Ms. "The C-5 fleet is now beginning to realize its fu…

From Military.com http://www.military.com/news/article/navy-...ml?ESRC=navy.nl Buddha