News

First Deployment Of AESA Equipped Super Hornets Making Big Impression
Impact Of F-18 Issues On Fleet Won't Be Known Until Fall, Official Says
Massive Naval Exercise Underway Off US Coast In Possible Preparation For Strike On Iran
Pratt & Whitney F-35 Engine Over Cost Estimate
Helicopter Program In Jeopardy
Warner Backs OLF For Oceana, Won't Rule Out Supporting Va. Site
Camden County Official Urges Opposition To Navy Field
Top U.S. Admiral Says Strike On Iran Means Turmoil

First Deployment Of AESA Equipped Super Hornets Making Big Impression

(DEFENSE DAILY 24 JUL 08) ... Geoff Fein

The Block II F/A-18F active electronically scanned array (AESA)-equipped Super Hornets are providing a significant advancement in technology over legacy systems, according to a Navy official.

"The radar is unlike anything I have ever seen before," Cmdr. Chris Chope, commanding officer VFA-22, told Defense Daily in a telephone interview earlier this week from aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). "The difference in the technology and what it provides us is monumental. This radar affords us so many opportunities and capabilities that we did not have in previous aircraft."

Boeing [BA] builds the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Raytheon [RTN] manufactures AESA.

VFA-22, the first AESA-equipped Super Hornet squadron, is currently deployed in the Western Pacific aboard the Reagan.

Chope has been with VFA-22, also known as the Fighting Redcocks, for 19 months. When he arrived at the squadron, they were flying the single seat F/A-18E.

"I am a weapons system officer, so I was the first back-seater to come into this squadron," he said.

The F/A-18Es were about five years old, Chope added. The Lot 29, Block II, F/A-18Fs were brand new. "We took the squadron from being a single seat F-18E squadron to a two-seat F-18F squadron over the course of the past 18 months."

Initially the squadron received two AESA-equipped Super Hornets, but the transition to the new Block II variants with the advanced radar was put on hold as the Reagan received orders to go on a surge deployment from January 2007 to April 2007.

When VFA-22 returned home, they picked up right were they left off and began receiving Block IIs, Chope added.

"Of course, this was a single-seat squadron, so we only had pilots. We had to pick-up all of our weapons systems officers and integrate them into the aircraft operationally and learn to fight as a crew," he said.

Training detachments were sent to Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West, Fla., NAS Fallon, Nev., and NAS Lemoore, Calif., where the bulk of the training took place, Chope said.

"I won't tell you it wasn't without some growing pains, but I will tell you the Navy does it right, the way we train our aircrews and maintainers and our squadrons and air wings to deploy," he said. "I truly believe right now, that this squadron and this air wing represent the most capable air wing this Navy has to offer."

VFA-22 has 12 Block II F/A-18F Super Hornets and 250 sailors, Chope said.

The squadron spends little time doing any operational test work, he added.

"But I will tell you, anecdotally, that we find we have much better situational awareness when we operate both in the air-to-air arena and in the air-to-ground arena. We find that we see things other aircraft are not able to see...better detection ranges," Chope said. "But again, anecdotally speaking, I find that [AESA] has been a huge leap, and it certainly puts us on the cutting edge of the tactical employment for aircraft in this day and age."

The squadron avionics technicians had to go through a good bit of training because APG-79 is a much different system, he added.

One of the high points of AESA is its maintainability, Chope said, which is much better than older generations of radars.

"I have an embedded technical representative from Raytheon on board the ship who works hand in hand with my maintainers, everyday, training them and helping troubleshoot [issues]," he said. "He is going to make the entire deployment with us. That gentleman is worth his weight in gold. Has been with us since we began to receive these first jets a year and a half ago and has been truly a member of my squadron."

Chope added that the squadron has only begun to scratch the surface of the capability that AESA provides.

"I think there is so much yet to learn and so much more capability that's going to be developed as the radar matures," he said.

VFA-22 is operating much like any other F-18 squadron , Chope said. "The same kinds of tactics with enhanced situational awareness [that AESA] provides us. I will contend we are more lethal and more survivable because of this radar and weapon system. But, by and large, we are operating in the same kinds of ways we have traditionally.

"We use the mapping modes of the radar in the air-to-ground modes of the radar, and I find that that is a pretty darn big leap in technology over past capabilities," Chope added.

Although Chope could not discuss the networking capabilities of AESA, he acknowledged that the radar has enhanced the squadron's ability to link up with other aircraft and share information. "There is no doubt about it."

"Folks like to have these airplanes up at the same time as they are because it enhances everybody's situational awareness though the sharing of information. It's a wonderful capability to have airborne and everybody wants us to be airborne," he said. "I will tell you, different warfare commanders want to have a little piece of AESA operating within their bailiwicks so that they feel comfortable that they are seeing what they ought to be seeing and getting full fidelity information from us."

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Impact Of F-18 Issues On Fleet Won't Be Known Until Fall, Official Says

(DEFENSE DAILY 24 JUL 08) ... Geoff Fein

While concerns that recent findings from a F-18 assessment program show a number of Hornets might not reach the goal of 10,000 flight hours, thus increasing the Navy's strike fighter gap, the actual impact won't be known until further studies are completed later this year, a Navy official said.

To stave off an expected strike fighter gap of 69 aircraft in 2017, the Navy began to upgrade its legacy Boeing [BA] F-18 A through D model Hornets. The effort was divided into the Service Life Assessment Program phases 1 and 2 and a Phase 1 Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).

SLAP phase 1 began in December 2001 and ended in October 2005. The study looked to extend the number of catapult take-offs, trap landings and field landings, as well as stretch the Hornet's flight hours from 6,000 to 8,000, Capt. Mark Darrah, F/A-18E/F and EA-18G program manager, told Defense Daily yesterday.

"What we had to do to do that wasn't as extensive as we initially thought," he said. "So we were able to do some inspections and give ourselves some interim flight clearance out to 8,000 [flight hours]."

Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) officials knew at that point there were things they needed to determine as they got to the 8,000-hour limit, Darrah said.

"As we did the modeling, we determined that many areas that we suspected wouldn't make 8,000 didn't," he added.

"That validated some of the information we had from Phase 1. And we were also able to determine that obviously if we were not able to make it to 8,000 we were not going to make it to 10,000. That would mean we would have to do a little more work than we probably expected we would have to do, to get to 10,000," Darrah said.

Now, Darrah and his staff are trying to determine in detail those areas that won't make it to 8,000-flight hours and what will need to be done to get them to that goal.

"Is it inspections which we expect many of them will be? As we go through this process we are going to update the current inspections we already have from the Phase 1 effort. We are probably going to have to augment or enhance some of those," he said. "Some of those areas we already inspected we may have to repair."

This is a new area for the F-18 program office, Darrah said.

"We are really going to have to look at. Is it better for us to replace a part instead of repair a part which is a big difference? That's where we are with the SLAP phase 2 results," he said. "As we plan the SLEP part of that, which is the phase we are in now, planning for the SLEP from the results we got, we are going to have to decide things like-- can we just continue to inspect in a periodic way or will we have to repair an area, or does it make more sense because of time or money to just replace [a part]?"

That is the effort that is currently underway, Darrah said.

"Over the next several months, through the early November time frame, we will get a better understanding which will also mean we will have a better understanding of the cost if we decide to either inspect, repair or replace," he added.

Darrah said it is safe to assume this will add cost and time to modifying the Hornets.

Now, with more detailed information, inspections will not only look at a specific area, but areas adjacent to an inspection site, Darrah noted.

"We have also discovered there are some areas that have more difficult access. There are parts we identified that don't make 8,000 that are not as accessible as areas we are currently inspecting," he said.

That will require those aircraft to go into depot-level maintenance, Darrah added.

At the organizational level, maintenance inspections are handled by sailors, because all that is required is for them to remove a panel to take a look. But having to undertake a more extensive examination requires the aircraft to go into the depot, because workers there can take the plane apart and access areas that the organizational level folks can't, Darrah explained.

"What we are finding now is that there were some areas that the sailors were looking at that have adjacent structure that now may have to be looked at by the depot," he said. "So all we are doing now is realigning those inspections with the depot work. That's going to add more time in the depot. That's cost because you are spending more time in the depot."

The Navy has the funding to increase the number of cats, traps, landings, and get out to 8,000 flight hours, under the Phase 1 effort, Darrah said.

"We now know we have some areas that don't make 8,000 that we are going to have to do additional inspections and repairs and so on. That's not funded," he said.

Darrah said they will request additional funding to continue the effort to take the Hornet out to 10,000 flight hours. But just how much money he thinks the Navy will need is an unknown. "We have no idea."

Engineering work currently underway will provide those cost estimates, he added.

"If we just have to inspect, that's going to be significantly less of a bill than if we have to do a major repair of a piece of a structure," Darrah said. "And that's what we are doing right now, determining whether we have to inspect, repair or replace."

The issues that surfaced as a result of the initial SLAP were not altogether surprising, Darrah said.

After all, the Hornet was designed for 6,000 flight hours, he noted. "We are trying to extend it to 10,000. That's a 66 percent increase in its service life."

There are 159 locations on the Hornet that require analysis. According to documents provided to lawmakers, 57 percent of those areas, or "hotspots," didn't make it to 8,000 hours.

"The analysis we have [received] identified several of those key areas that don't make 8,000 and we kind of expected that might be the case," Darrah said.

Engineers are working to determine if all of those areas are the same for all the Hornet configurations, he added. "It's very complex."

The Navy has 636 legacy Hornets, 50 percent of which are beyond the original 6,000-flight hour service life, according to the Navy. Adding in the international partners which are flying legacy Hornets, and that number jumps to more than a thousand aircraft in operation worldwide.

The average age of the Hornet fleet is approximately 18 years, and the Navy has planned to keep the Hornet in service until 2023, the Navy said.

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Massive Naval Exercise Underway Off US Coast In Possible Preparation For Strike On Iran

(INFOLIVE.TV (ISRAEL) 22 JUL 08)

The large exercise comes barely a month after the Israeli air force conducted a massive exercise in the Mediterranean reportedly a rehearsal for a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites, and also shortly after the Geneva meeting where six world powers gave Iran yet another ultimatum of two weeks to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

For the first time units of the US Navy Expeditionary Combat command who are trained to operate in shallow coastal waters similar to those off the Perisan Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz where  Iranian Revolutionary Guards are stationed on islands near the strait. One cannot rule out the possibility that international forces may have to control the islands to ensure oil shipping freed passage out to world markets.

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Pratt & Whitney F-35 Engine Over Cost Estimate

(BLOOMBERG 22 JUL 08) ... Tony Capaccio

Pratt & Whitney estimates it has a cost overrun of as much as $850 million in developing engines for the F-35 Joint Strike fighter, the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program, according to the U.S. Navy.

The overrun, equal to about 14.7 percent of the company's $5.8 billion development contract, would be the largest on the engine since the company won the contract in October 2001.

The estimate by East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney, a unit of Hartford's United Technologies Corp., is "significantly" higher than the Pentagon's, Navy Deputy Assistant Secretary William Balderson wrote in a June 26 memo alerting Navy Secretary Donald Winter to the problem.

The Pentagon program office estimates the overrun is between $600 million and $700 million, Balderson wrote. The difference matters because the contract requires the Pentagon to reimburse most expenses, including any overruns.

Because of its cost — $298 billion — the F-35 program is under intense scrutiny from the Pentagon and Congress. The U.S. Government Accountability Office in March estimated the program is now projected to cost as much as $38 billion more.

The engine overrun is scheduled to be discussed today at a meeting between Pratt & Whitney officials, Winter and Pentagon Undersecretary for Acquisition John Young.

The F-35's 12-year development is entering its most challenging phase. It includes starting test flights, proving out millions of lines of software code, finishing design of the three different models and refining manufacturing processes at Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. and its subcontractors.

Pratt & Whitney, at its plant in Palm Beach, Fla., is developing three engine models for the F-35, one for each version of the plane. Development of the one for the most advanced model — the short-takeoff and vertical-landing version — has been slowed by vibrations that caused two major engine failures.

Young and Winter will review Pratt & Whitney's proposal to fix that flaw today, and Young will decide whether to proceed with a production contract worth as much as $1.6 billion for the first six of the planes, which will go to the U.S. Marine Corps and the British Royal Navy.

According to Balderson's memo, Pratt & Whitney in March told Young the engine overrun could be as much as $600 million. The company's estimate now "exceeds $850 million," he wrote.

Pratt & Whitney Vice President Bill Gostic said all cost figures are "premature."

"We are working hand-in-hand" with the government, he said in an interview. "We are analyzing the program task by task and we are jointly deciding how much it is going to cost." Gostic said the overrun is driven by "a variety of factors — not one thing we can point to."

Pentagon program manager Maj. General Charles Davis, in an e-mail, said he has been working with Pratt & Whitney for more than a year "to ensure all work to complete F-35 engine development is adequately funded."

He said he has kept the U.S. defense secretary, military services and congressional staffs "briefed on all aspects of this issue for over six months and they are all comfortable with the approach."

According to Balderson, the program office said the "preponderance" of the projected overrun stems from Pratt & Whitney's "failure to control" its own costs and those of its sub-vendors. The failure includes "high and poorly negotiated vendor quotes, increased engineering hours beyond that required to build the propulsion system" and excessive "pass-through" or administrative rates that Pratt & Whitney charges the Pentagon for handling sub-contractor components, Balderson wrote.

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Helicopter Program In Jeopardy 

(THE HILL 21 JUL 08) ... Roxana Tiron 

The already troubled presidential helicopter program may face new challenges as Navy officials brace for as little as one-quarter of the money needed to pay for the new chopper next year.

The Pentagon requested more than $1 billion in fiscal 2009 for the VH-71 presidential helicopter. The Navy recently restructured the program, which has nearly doubled in cost during the last three years. The Navy blamed the price increase on complex requirements and an initial schedule that was determined to be too aggressive.

Congressional leaders have talked about pushing off all appropriations bills until President Bush leaves the White House. If that happens, the helicopter program would be funded at the 2008 level, at least temporarily. That could mean only $231 million.

Navy officials have started to worry that little to no money next year could have severe repercussions on a program that the Navy and its contractors, Lockheed Martin and AgustaWestland, have struggled to turn around in recent months.

The two contenders for the White House, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), have said they will take a closer look at the program, which has gone from an estimated cost of $6.1 billion to $11.2 billion.

Both stopped short of saying whether they would cancel the program, according to The Associated Press.

Pushing a funding decision into 2009 and onto a new administration could cast more uncertainty on the program and put pressure on the president to tackle the issue, widely considered symptomatic of the skyrocketing costs of defense programs.

The new presidential helicopter is designed to ferry the president on shorter trips — oftentimes from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, Md. — and would be equipped with a high-speed, protected communications suite, advanced navigation systems, a kitchen and a bathroom.

The presidential perks on the new choppers would be closer to Air Force One than the 30-year-old Marine One helicopters they would replace.

The VH-71 is supposed to be developed in two phases. The first would focus on five helicopters to be delivered by September 2010, according to Navy officials.

Work on the 23 helicopters in the second phase — all with significant changes from the first batch — is scheduled to start this October. That coincides with the start of fiscal year 2009. The second phase is projected to be complete by 2017.

“Issues with 2008 funding slowed the program down, meaning increment one will be operational no earlier than 2010,” Navy Capt. Donald Gaddis, who is in charge of the program, said at the Farnborough Airshow in England last week.

The helicopters in the second increment will have an increased range and upgraded navigation, communications and connectivity.

The Navy’s request for VH-71 in 2009 is for $1.04 billion in research and development funds and $31 million in procurement.

The Pentagon placed a stop-work order on the second increment, so about $313 million would be needed to start the increment and about $700 million to continue the work on it, according to industry sources.

Without a certain prospect for a defense bill next year, some concern is starting to creep into industry, the Pentagon and congressional offices.

Appropriators can determine whether to allocate more money for certain programs in the continuing resolution, but funding the VH-71 at $1 billion is highly unlikely among several other priorities, said congressional sources.

Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said they want a defense bill before the start of the new fiscal year. A Democratic aide said that lawmakers could end up passing a 2009 defense appropriations bill and seeking a continuing resolution on the other 11 appropriations bills.

But discussions over the appropriations process have been in flux. House Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) told The Hill that the implications of not having an actual defense bill could be “severe.”

He said he has not started thinking about those yet, and has tried to prepare the bill in case it can be brought up before Congress adjourns at the end of September. It is unlikely that Congress will take up the bill before the August recess.

The VH-71 program would be perhaps one of the hardest hit if a defense bill is delayed, but is certainly not the only one. Programs in the research and development phase would suffer; programs that are starting or ramping up would be affected as well. Among those ramping up is the high-profile Joint Strike Fighter program, which also could be caught in the funding quandary.

Together with the Joint Strike Fighter, the presidential helicopter is one of the Navy’s top five programs in the research and development phase. The VH-71 funding request for 2009 represents 5.4 percent of the Navy’s overall request of $19.3 billion for research and development.

A Lockheed Martin spokesman did not comment on the appropriations bill but instead touted what he called the program’s accomplishments.

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Warner Backs OLF For Oceana, Won't Rule Out Supporting Va. Site

(NORFOLK VIRGINIAN-PILOT 22 JUL 08) ... Warren Fiske

NORFOLK - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner said Monday he's keeping an open mind on the Navy's search for an outlying landing field for Oceana Naval Air Station.

"I think the OLF is critical to maintaining the mission at Oceana," Warner said during an interview with The Virginian-Pilot's editorial board.

He said the Navy's process of selecting a site to practice nighttime aircraft carrier landings should continue. If the Navy can make a good case for one of three sites under consideration in southeastern Virginia, Warner said he would push for construction despite local opposition.

"I would be willing to support it and make the case to the local community," he said.

Warner said he would "not rule out" the use of government condemnation powers to seize land for the air field. "But that should only be a last resort," he added.

Besides the Virginia sites, the Navy is considering locations in northeastern North Carolina.

Warner indicated that before supporting a site chosen in Virginia, he would talk to local residents and seek their reasons for opposing the field. But he said he would not be afraid to buck local sentiment.

"Trying to use whatever political capital I have to advocate for what may or may not be politically popular, I think I've proven my stripes on that," said Warner, who was governor from 2002 to 2006.

Warner is running against Republican Jim Gilmore, who was governor from 1998 to 2002. They are seeking the Senate seat held since 1979 by Republican John Warner - no relation to Mark Warner. John Warner chose not to seek re-election.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Warner reiterated calls for a comprehensive energy policy that stresses development of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles. He faulted Gilmore for stressing new domestic drilling offshore and in Alaska, saying such actions will not alleviate demand for oil and natural gas.

He pledged to pursue centrist policies and not be beholden to partisan politics in the Senate. "The value of that is that it really sends the message that you're acting in the country's interests and not the party's interest," he said.

Warner said he is anxious to withdraw troops from Iraq but declined to endorse the 16-month timeline being proposed by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. He called for improved health benefits for veterans but offered no details on the cost of such a program.

He also urged a national program to improve roads and rail and lay broadband lines for computer access. He acknowledged he has not figured out how to pay for infrastructure improvements.

Warner said the federal government must curb spending and the only way to do that is to stem the growth in entitlement programs such as health care.

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Camden County Official Urges Opposition To Navy Field

(WRAL (RALEIGH)21 JUL 08)

CAMDEN, N.C. — Residents of a northeastern North Carolina county should step up efforts to counter a proposed Navy landing field, according to the county manager.

The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City reported Monday that Camden County Manager Randell Woodruff suggested last week that local residents go door-to-door to explain opposition to the proposed outlying landing field.

The Navy is studying two sites in North Carolina and three in Virginia for a proposed field where carrier jets can practice landings.

Woodruff said the county already has a good start in opposing the project because it has hired a law firm and a public relations representative. He said those firms will help the county show effects of the field on the local economy, tax base and environment.

Woodruff said at a meeting that "we need to go door to door in the community and let people know our opposition."

He also urged residents to complain about jet activity by using the county Web site to notify officials. Woodruff said the complaints will be compiled and presented to the Navy.

"If we don't start complaining now, the Navy can say, 'Well, we've been flying over the area for months and nobody has complained about it,'" Woodruff said.

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Top U.S. Admiral Says Strike On Iran Means Turmoil

(REUTERS 20 JUL 08)

WASHINGTON - White House military adviser Adm. Mike Mullen said on Sunday he was concerned that any U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran carried a notable risk of more turmoil in the Middle East.

"I think it would be significant. I worry about it a lot," Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the "Fox News Sunday" television program.

U.S. officials have played down fears of a military strike against Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. But Israel fears Iran is seeking to build atomic weapons, and speculation it would bomb Iranian nuclear installations has grown since a big Israeli air drill last month.

"I worry about the instability in that part of the world and ... the possible unintended consequences of a strike like that," Mullen said.

He said it would be difficult to predict the impact throughout the region or what actions the United States would have to take to contain it.

"Right now I'm fighting two wars, and I don't need a third one," Mullen said, speaking of U.S. military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he quickly added the U.S. military would be capable of handling another front.

Alternately, he added, the risk of doing nothing is also big.

"It's a very, very tough problem," Mullen said. "But that's where I think this international community -- and the pressure has got to continue to be brought specifically on Iran to not proceed in this regard."

Iran faces tougher sanctions after talks on reining in its nuclear program ended in a stalemate on Saturday despite unprecedented U.S. participation.

Mullen said he believed the Iranians are intent on building nuclear weapons. "We need to figure out a way to ensure that that doesn't happen," he said.

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