[Lusitano89]

[Get_It]

Queda de F-16 coreano atribuída a um erro na manutenção em 2010:

Last month's KF-16C crash attributable to maintenance error: Air Force
(30 de Dezembro de 2022)

The Korean Air Force on Friday attributed last month's crash of a KF-16C fighter jet to a maintenance error that led to the abrasion of a fuel pump part and an engine stoppage.

Wrapping up a monthlong investigation, the armed service said that the crash on Nov. 20 was ascribed to a failure by maintenance staff to lock a nut - used to fixate the drive shaft of the engine fuel pump - during maintenance work in 2010.

The absence of the nut caused the abrasion of a cogwheel on the drive shaft, which blocked the normal transfer of fuel to the engine.

The Air Force plans to conduct special inspections on the same engines installed in fighter jets to see if there is any such problem.

It is considering seeking disciplinary action as well as legal punishments against the maintenance staff, officials said.

The single-engine jet of the 19th Fighter Wing crashed in a mountainous area, about 20 kilometers west of an air base in Wonju, some 85 km east of Seoul. Its pilot ejected safely.

Fonte: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2022/12/205_342679.html

Vídeo: ‘너트’ 빠뜨려 KF-16 추락…군, 10년 넘게 몰랐다 / KBS 2022.12.31.

Cumprimentos,

[NVF]

Korea's KF-21 fighter jet achieves first supersonic flight

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/01/356_343788.html

[Lusitano89]

[Cabeça de Martelo]

DARPA Selects Two Teams For Liberty Lifter X-Plane Program

Two teams -- General Atomics working with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation and Aurora Flight Sciences working with Gibbs & Cox and ReconCraft -- will develop designs for DARPA’s Liberty Lifter Seaplane Wing-in-Ground Effect full-scale demonstrator.

DARPA press release

The Liberty Lifter program aims to demonstrate a leap-ahead in operational capability by designing, building, floating, and flying a long-range, low-cost X-Plane capable of seaborne strategic and tactical heavy lift.

The planned Liberty Lifter demonstrator will be a large flying boat similar in size and capacity to the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft. Goals include takeoff and land in Sea State 4, sustained on-water operation up to Sea State 5, and extended flight close to the water in ground effect with the capability to fly out of ground effect at altitudes up to 10,000 feet above sea level.

“We are excited to kick off this program and looking forward to working closely with both performer teams as they mature their point-of-departure design concepts through Phase 1. The two teams have taken distinctly different design approaches that will enable us to explore a relatively large design space during Phase 1.”


DARPA Liberty Lifter Program Manager Christopher Kent.

The General Atomics team has selected a twin-hull, mid-wing design to optimize on-water stability and seakeeping. It employs distributed propulsion using twelve turboshaft engines.


General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems, Inc. Liberty Lifter concept

Aurora Flight Sciences point-of-departure design more closely resembles a traditional flying boat, with a single hull, high wing and eight turboprops for primary propulsion.


Aurora Flight Sciences Liberty Lifter concept

During Phase 1, DARPA will work with both performer teams and Department of Defense stakeholders to refine the Liberty Lifter designs with particular attention to operational needs and operating concepts. The Phase 1 contract awards are for an 18-month period of performance with six months of conceptual design work and nine months of design maturation culminating in a preliminary design review. There will be an additional three months for manufacturing planning and test/demonstration planning reviews.

As scheduled, Phase 1 will transition into Phase 2 in mid-2024 with continued detailed design, manufacturing, and demonstration of a full-scale Liberty Lifter X-Plane. DARPA anticipates teaming with one or more DoD Service and international partners for those activities and further development of the Liberty Lifter concept into an operational vehicle.

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/02/darpa-selects-two-teams-for-liberty-lifter-x-plane-program/

[Get_It]

Exit of a #Moroccan #AirForce 🇲🇦 C-130 Hercules from a D-Check visit, which is now done in #Morocco, in RMAF facilities, through various partnerships with foreign partners. 

Before, Morocco sent its #C130 to make D-Check type visits abroad.

https://twitter.com/MoorishFighter/status/1626948824907350021

Morocco moves to become maintenance hub for F-16s, C-130s (29 de Abril de 2022)

Cumprimentos,

[Lusitano89]

Helicóptero abatendo uma aeronave a 100km com míssil AIM-120? Pode acontecer em breve!

[Subsea7]

Por cá não teriam ficado mal...
Oh wait, temos de pagar a vinda do Papa... Prioridades...

[Get_It]

Boeing vai fechar a linha de produção em 2025 a menos que a Índia adquira o Super Hornet. De momento a marinha Indiana já tinha recomendado a compra do Rafale: Indian Navy Greenflags Rafale In Deck Jet Contest (15 de Fevereiro de 2023).

Boeing will close Super Hornet production line in 2025
(23 de Fevereiro de 2023)

Boeing will end the F/A-18E-F Super Hornet production line in 2025 and will not accept any more U.S. orders beyond the eight aircraft Congress added to the fiscal 2023 budget.

The company, describing the move as a "pivot," will refocus its people and facilities on other projects and look ahead at future work, it said in a Feb. 23 statement.

With the St. Louis-based workforce and production facility freed up, Boeing said it will be able to increase production of the T-7A Red Hawk all-digital training system, F-15EX Eagle IIs and 777X wing components for the U.S. Air Force and the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker drone for the U.S. Navy.

Additionally, the company plans to devote more attention to developing future programs.

The company is building three new facilities in St. Louis for advanced crewed and uncrewed platforms. These, plus the MQ-25 production facility at the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, a new Advanced Composite Fabrication Center in Arizona, and new design and production tools at existing St. Louis plants, represent a $1 billion investment in the company’s future in military aircraft, according to the news release.

Boeing's announcement caps off a decade of fluctuations for the Super Hornet production line. The Navy initially planned to stop buying the jets in FY14, amid sequestration budget caps, only for Congress to continue adding planes incrementally over the next few years. The Navy eventually began planning for additional purchases, including a multiyear contract covering fiscal years 2019 through 2021, to help manage a projected fighter shortfall in its inventory.

The service intended to end its Super Hornet orders after that multiyear contract wrapped up. But Congress intervened again and added $977 million in FY22 for 12 planes and $600 million in the current year’s budget for eight additional aircraft.

Boeing spokeswoman Deborah VanNierop told Defense News these eight would roll off the production line in 2025 and be the last American Super Hornets ever built. The Navy will have bought a total of 698 Super Hornets over 30 years, according to budget documents.

India is still in the process of selecting a fighter, and the Super Hornet is one option under consideration. If the Indian Navy selects the Super Hornet, Boeing would build those aircraft and shut down the line in 2027 upon their completion, she said.

Asked about the timing of the decision to close the production line, VanNierop cited internal and external factors.

"We must inform our customer and supply base as long-lead aircraft parts and components are ordered and built well ahead of Boeing’s final assembly schedule," she said. "Announcing this decision now also allows us to work with our teams to successfully staff F/A-18 in the future and meet the production ramp-ups on T-7A and MQ-25."

[continua]

Fonte: https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2023/02/23/boeing-will-close-super-hornet-production-line-in-2025/

Malaysia picks South Korea’s FA-50 light combat jet over Indian bid
(24 de Fevereiro de 2023)

Korea Aerospace Industries has won a competition to supply light attack aircraft to Malaysia, the company announced, marking its latest export for the line of trainer/light attack jets.

The South Korean company said the contract, worth $920 million, will see it deliver 18 FA-50 jets to the Southeast Asian country, with the first due for delivery in 2026.

The FA-50 beat the Tejas light combat aircraft, made by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., for the Malaysian requirement. The country had shortlisted the two types out of an initial field that included the JF-17, made by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, and the Russian-made MiG-35.

Malaysia is seeking to bolster its air combat and training capabilities as it seeks to replace its fleet of BAE Systems-made Hawk trainers and light combat aircraft, which has suffered from a high attrition rate in recent years.

The country also wants to replace 16 MiG-29 interceptors it retired in 2017 due to inadequate funding for sustainment. But a planned multirole combat aircraft program to replace the aircraft also stalled due to budget constraints.

Malaysia previously said it required 36 jets, meaning it will continue looking for an additional 18 aircraft.

[continua]

Fonte: https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/02/24/malaysia-picks-south-koreas-fa-50-light-combat-jet-over-indian-bid/

Cumprimentos,

[Get_It]

NATO begins assessment of E-3A replacement; Wedgetail, GlobalEye in the running
(24 de Fevereiro de 2023)

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has started assessment of industry bids for the alliance's Allied Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) capability program, launched to source a replacement for 14 Boeing E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft set to retire in 2035.

Based on an "initial" AFSC capability Request for Information (RFI) solicitation issued by NSPA in December 2022, interested competitors were asked to provide Rough Order of Magnitude price and availability of individual aircraft solutions and evidence of "existing market capabilities, potential applicable contractual frameworks, and potential benefits of a cooperative approach."

The AFSC capability program aims to define "a new generation of surveillance and control capabilities" underpinned by a systems of systems architecture approach, intended to integrate "multiple capabilities and platforms" for future multidomain operations, according to the RFI.

"Answers to the RFI are currently being assessed," said a NSPA spokesperson in a Feb. 22 statement.

NSPA also told Breaking Defense that as lead agency for conducting studies and developing technical concepts for AFSC, the system of systems approach covers "potential combinations" of air, ground, maritime and space assets working collaboratively to collect and share information.

The agency spokesperson said that "named invitees and respondents" who had engaged with the RFI had not been made public, but "some companies chose to announce their involvement."

That includes Swedish manufacturer Saab, which announced it has responded to the RFI, pitching the GlobalEye Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft. Currently under order from both Sweden and the UAE, the spy plane is a modified version of the Bombardier Global 6000 business jet series integrated with Saab’s distinctive Erieye long-range radar and other sensors for detection of items across air, land and sea domains.

(...)

Boeing also confirmed in a Feb. 22 statement to Breaking Defense that it was "pleased to offer" the E-7 Wedgetail in response to the AFSC RFI.

(...)

The US Air Force decided to replace some E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft with the E-7 in April 2022, saying at the time that as part of "notional schedule plans" a fiscal 2025 production decision was being targeted. The UK has also ordered three E-7 platforms, all of which are undergoing conversion by STS Aviation Services in Birmingham, England. Additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) No. 2 Squadron operates six Wedgetail’s from RAAF Base Williamtown.

As NATO's main airborne surveillance and control asset, the E-3A has been in service with the alliance since the 1980's and has been heavily involved in Eastern Flank operations over the course of Russia's war in Ukraine. Most recently, a detachment of three aircraft arrived in Bucharest, Romania, on 17 January 2023 for a deployment to "monitor Russian military activity" across the region. The deployment is set to last "several weeks," noted NATO's website.

[continua]

Fonte: https://breakingdefense.com/2023/02/nato-begins-assessment-of-e-3a-replacement-wedgetail-globaleye-in-the-running/

Cumprimentos,

[Lusitano89]

[Malagueta]

A Força Aérea norte-americana divulgou, no final do mês passado, imagens de um teste de um ataque aéreo a partir de um jato, com o projétil a destruir e a afundar um navio cargueiro de teste em apenas 40 segundos.

O vídeo do poderoso míssil foi capturado por aviões das forças armadas e por câmaras colocadas no navio, demonstrado o forte impacto que a arma consegue ter.

O exercício foi levado a cabo no Golfo do México, em águas norte-americanas. O cargueiro já tinha como destino a sucata, pelo que as forças armadas aproveitaram assim para realizar um treino.

Num comunicado, o laboratório de pesquisa da força aérea norte-americana explica que o míssil, denominado 'Quicksink' (que, traduzido à letra, significa 'afundar rápido') pesa cerca de 900 quilos, é feito propositadamente para atacar e afundar navios inimigos.

As forças armadas explicam também que a munição foi lançada a partir de um jato de baixa altitude, um F-15E, e que a bomba tem um serviço de GPS.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1630176006655934465

[nelson38899]

Romênia quer assinar contrato para compra de caças F-35 ainda este ano
https://www.cavok.com.br/romenia-quer-assinar-contrato-para-compra-de-cacas-f-35-ainda-este-ano

[NVF]

Australia International Airshow 2023

Fotos: https://www.flickr.com/gp/7351785@N03/rBE3664J0q

[Cabeça de Martelo]

Nordic countries plan joint air defence to counter Russian threat

...

Norway has 57 F-16 fighter jets and 37 F-35 fighter jets with 15 more of the latter on order. Finland has 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets and 64 F-35s on order, while Denmark has 58 F-16s and 27 F-35s on order. Sweden has more than 90 Gripens jets.

   https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nordic-countries-plan-joint-air-defence-counter-russian-threat-2023-03-24/

143 F35 +90 Gripens = 233 caças!!!