Lower-tech UAVs Boost Intel For British

Although the technology focus remains on the transition from Hermes 450 to Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), it is the subtler changes to platforms and operational concepts that deliver increased performance to the British Army. And while the tactical UAV continues to provide vital intelligence, it is the lower-tech, less glamorous platforms that are gaining in popularity with the troops whose missions they support.

The army’s UAV battery is based here, where a fleet of leased Hermes 450 aircraft is flown and maintained. But the battery, from 32 Regt. Royal Artillery, is also responsible for two other UAVs that deliver full-motion video (FMV) from forward locations. These are the hand-launched Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III (DH3), and T‑Hawk, Honeywell’s vertical-takeoff-and-landing UAV, which is part of the Royal Engineers’ Talisman route-clearance system (DTI September 2010, p. 19).

Complementary to these are PGSS (Persistent Ground Surveillance System) aerostats, seven of which are deployed above bases in the British area of operations. These are operated and maintained by contractors, with support from 5 Regt. Royal Artillery liaison officers. The PGSS payload contains electro-optical and infrared sensors, which feed data into the Cortez network, permitting drag-and-drop viewing of multiple intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (Istar) sources for a location.

“The good thing about [Cortez] is it enables our cross-cueing piece,” says Capt. Alex Gray, operations officer of the UAV battery. “It could be that a base Istar asset picks something up then cross-cues a Hermes 450 onto it. It’s a useful and powerful tool.” Cross-cueing of layered assets generates detailed intelligence, showing information such as route obstructions and the type and size of structures, doors and windows.

DH3 also feeds FMV into Cortez. Eight of the battery’s 12 DH3 detachments are at bases across Helmand. Two more are on hand as a surge capability and to back-fill during deployment changeovers, while two others are mobile—one with the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, the other with the Warthog group.

“The key with DH3 is it’s quick into action,” says Gray. “It can get into the air in 5-8 min., and we’ve flown almost 2,000 flights on Herrick 14,” the U.K.’s Afghanistan deployment, which began in April.

The aircraft is programmed to return to a given position using GPS. It flies a U‑shaped profile on its way in, enabling it to assess local wind conditions and minimize impact on landing. The modular airframe disperses impact forces by breaking apart.

The new assisted trim landing (ATL) system gives greater control to the user during recovery, including the ability to manually flare for a gentler touchdown. The system was fielded in July.

“With [ATL], we can use the Xbox 360 control pad, which is usually used to control camera movement, and land the UAV,” says Sgt. Matthew Trigg, a DH3 operator. “We’re getting a lot of good reports [from the detachments] and the attrition rate has started to go down.”

Improvements to the T-Hawk are restricted to operational concepts rather than hardware, but the results are impressive. The controversial platform had seemed something of an afterthought in Talisman, but transferring control from the Royal Engineers to 32 Regt. helped it find a niche.

“We overtook the amount of flights the engineers had done in our first month here flying it,” says Chris Darker, a bombardier and member of 32 Regt.’s two-man T-Hawk crews now embedded within Talisman squadrons. “The guys flying it had other jobs within the squadron—they could have been a Talon operator or a searcher—and were doing T-Hawk as a secondary job. But the more we use it, the more they want to use it. They’re adamant now that they want to bring two systems with them every time they’re out.”

Two of the aircraft’s perceived disadvantages—noise and the airflow generated in hover—are now considered pluses. When flown near the ground, it can be used to blow dust away from possible improvised explosive devices to aid visual checks, and the noise has a potent deterrent effect.

The platform’s FMV is considered superior to that provided by DH3, and its utility for Talisman’s route-proving task is undoubted. Darker, who has used Hermes, DH3 and T-Hawk, says: “I’ve probably enjoyed flying [T-Hawk] the most. I flew this 14 times on one op where we cleared a route in [the Nahr-e-Saraj district, Helmand Province], and that route is still being used.”

Photo: Crown Copyright

Frontier Says NEO Order Deadline Is No Issue

Frontier Airlines says it and parent company Republic Airways have “satisfied or amended” a contractual promise to execute a firm order for 80 AirbusNEO aircraft by Sept. 30, 2011, but will not elaborate.

The commitment to execute the firm order is (or was) in a commercial agreement Republic and Frontier signed with FAPAInvest, a limited liability corporation created to represent Frontier pilots employed by the airline as of June 24.

Under that deal—created to compensate pilots for the cost-cutting they agreed to in a separate but concurrent amendment to their collective bargaining agreement—Republic promised to do several things. Two of them had a Sept. 30 deadline: to raise more than $70 million in new financing and execute a “firm order” for 80 NEO aircraft. Republic signed a letter of intent for those aircraft in July.

Jeff Thomas, FAPAInvest’s manager and registered agent, told Aviation Week on Sept. 30 that the group “came to a resolution” with Frontier and Republic on the financing issue, although he declined to provide details and Republic referred questions about the financing issue to FAPAInvest.

Thomas added, however, that the deadline for a firm NEO order was not amended, and referred questions about the order to Republic.

Republic and Frontier refused to comment on the NEO order until Oct. 5, when a Frontier report on its September traffic included a two-sentence update that referred to it indirectly.

Ambiguous NEO Order

“Certain of Frontier’s restructuring agreements included conditions that were to be satisfied by Sept. 30, 2011. Those conditions have either been satisfied or amended, and Frontier is in compliance with all restructuring agreements,” the carrier reported. It did not immediately respond to a request for elaboration.

Presumably, if Republic finalized the NEO order, it or Airbus would have announced it. That has not happened, and Airbus is declining comment on the deal’s status.

One question is whether any of it matters because there is no real consequence to missing the deadline unless someone makes an issue of it.

The biggest potential consequence of missing the deadline is that, under the separate collective bargaining agreement with the Frontier Airline Pilots Association, some of the cost-cutting concessions are supposed to be negated if any of the conditions in the commercial agreement are not met. But Frontier pilots do not really have an incentive to enforce that—as long as they believe the financing and aircraft order eventually will come through—because the cost cuts have been declared essential for Frontier’s survival.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters does not seem inclined to make it an issue, either. The Teamsters became the union representative for pilots at Frontier and Republic’s three regional carrier subsidiaries just days after the former Frontier Airline Pilots Association ratified the cost-cutting collective bargaining agreement amendments and the newly created FAPAInvest signed the commercial agreement. The Teamsters union is challenging the legal validity of the entire FAPA and FAPAInvest agreements in court—not whether a condition in them has been violated.

“At this point, Republic Airways Holdings’ position is FAPAInvest controls whether the concessions are voided,” adds William Wilder, the Teamsters’ attorney for the case.

Republic says the uncertainty created by the Teamsters lawsuit has made it more difficult to obtain the new financing. That delay also could be a factor in firming up the aircraft order.

NEW VIDEO: 2nd Lightning II Strikes the Wasp's Nest

The second F-35B, tail number BF-4, has landed onboard the Navy's USS Wasp amphibious ship. The landing occurred today, according to F-35 Joint Program Office spokesman Joe Dellavedova.

BF-4 joins its sister aircraft, BF-2, for a few weeks of shipboard trials designed to validate that the single-engine stealthy fighter can operate in and around the small deck of this amphibious ship class.

IAG Launches Iberia Express

Iberia is setting up a new subsidiary for short- and medium-haul routes. The airline, Iberia Express, will be based in Madrid and is aimed at turning the loss-making short-haul business back into profitability.

The move was approved by the board of Iberia’s parent International Airlines Group (IAG) at a meeting on Thursday.

The airline will start operations in the summer of 2012 and will initially fly four Airbus A320s. The fleet will increase to 13 units by the end of next year. The aircraft will all come from Iberia’s current fleet. The carrier stated that its new subsidiary will hire employees at market rates, but that the decision will have no impact on terms and conditions of Iberia’s existing workforce.

The company hopes that Iberia Express will be able to operate at lower costs, particularly through the more efficient use of aircraft. Iberia Express is planned to fly domestic and European routes from Madrid and will also feed its parent’s long-haul network.

Iberia’s short-haul business has been loss making for years, like at most other European network carriers, and the airline has been indicating the move for some time. The decision is likely to cause union opposition, as aircraft are taken away from Iberia’s mainline fleet to be operated by pilots at lower wages.

The airline has also been moving to a more integrated relationship with its Barcelona-based low fare unit Vueling, which has also started code-sharing with Iberia and other Oneworld airlines. Iberia stated that the decision to launch the Express unit will have no effect on Vueling.

Boeing Studies X-37B Evolved Crew Derivative

LOS ANGELES — Boeing is studying scaled-up variants of the reusable X-37B orbital test vehicle (OTV) for potential delivery of cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations.

The development plan is believed to be aimed at providing a larger cargo adjunct to the company’s CST-100 crew vehicle as well as a possible longer-term, crew-carrying successor. The plan builds on the ongoing OTV demonstration with the U.S. Air Force, the first phase of which ended when the classified, unmanned OTV-1 demonstration flight concluded in December 2010 with an autonomous landing at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., following 244 days in orbit. A second mission, OTV-2, is under way.

OTV-2 has been in space since March 5, and assuming it has not already been covertly recovered, is expected to remain in space until at least mid-October. A landing around Oct. 15 will equal the OTV-1’s mission length. Given the 270-day mission endurance limit of the X-37B, as earlier described by the Air Force, the early March launch means the landing at Vandenberg can be expected on or before Nov. 30.

The X-37B evolution study, which harks back to the pre-military NASA origins of the OTV, envisages a three-phase buildup. The first would see the current 29-ft.-long vehicle used for demonstration flights to the ISS. In its current configuration, the X-37B launched inside the 5-meter (16.5-ft.) fairing of the Atlas V could already take bulky items such as the station’s control moment gyros, battery discharge and pump module, Boeing says.

The second phase would see the development of a 165% scaled-up version, roughly 47 ft. long and large enough to transport larger line replaceable units (LRUs) to the station. The larger version would demonstrate operations to and from the ISS, paving the way for a human-carrying derivative in the third phase. This would see a human-rated version transport “five to seven astronauts,” says Art Grantz, Boeing’s X-37B project chief.

Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2011 conference in Long Beach, Calif., Grantz says “the next step is a larger cargo vehicle that can deliver and return large ISS LRUs while retiring the risks associated with autonomous transportation of astronauts to and from LEO.”

Although many details of the OTV-1 flight remain unknown and with OTV-2 shrouded in even more mystery than the first flight, Grantz says the initial launch was aimed at “making it operate like an airborne test platform.” From a vehicle viewpoint, however, it also demonstrated autonomous de-orbit using “shuttle-style” trajectory and aero-braking manuevers as well as a “soft landing” on a runway. The test also validated the X-37B’s autonomous guidance, navigation and control system, electro-mechanical flight control system and thermal protection. During the X-37B’s eight months in space, Air Force controllers also demonstrated deployment of the solar wing, its subsequent stowage and return for reuse.

Photo: USAF

Major ERAM Target Slips To December

Although the FAA has missed a near-term milestone for deploying its new en-route air traffic control system, the agency says it will still make major progress by the end of December.

The en-route automation modernization (ERAM) program has been plagued by high-profile cost and timetable overruns (see related story). ERAM is to be the backbone system at 20 en route ATC centers, and an essential precursor to many NextGen technologies.

So far ERAM is only operational at its two initial sites, Salt Lake City and Seattle. Under its revised timetable, the FAA was scheduled to achieve initial operating capability (IOC) at five more sites by the end of its fiscal year on Sept. 30. However, this goal was not met.

The FAA tells AviationWeek that it now expects to achieve IOC at six sites by the end of December. The deployment list has also changed somewhat. The earlier plan was for the next ERAM sites to be Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Chicago, Denver and Houston. But for the December goal, FAA has added Los Angeles and Oakland to the list, and removed Houston.

A government website that tracks federal projects had already classified the FY2011 goal as high-risk, and the FAA admitted in August that achieving the Sept. 30 target would be more challenging thanks to the agency’s temporary shutdown in July caused by congressional inaction on reauthorization legislation.

The FAA has rebaselined ERAM to be deployed at all 20 sites by the end of 2014, which would represent a four-year delay from the original schedule. However, the U.S. Transportation Department’s Inspector General believes the end date will slip to 2016. The FAA estimates a $330 million cost overrun, but the IG says this figure could balloon to as much as $500 million.

In congressional testimony on Oct. 5, the IG once again slammed FAA for mismanaging the ERAM program. Early in the program, FAA and contractor Lockheed Martin “significantly underestimated the complexity in fielding ERAM,” and “ignored early warning signs of trouble during initial site deployment,” the IG says.

While the FAA has made improvements in this area, the IG says “problems with ERAM are directly traceable to weaknesses in program management and contract oversight.”

Software-related problems force controllers to use “a large number of procedural workarounds” in ERAM, says the IG. This would be a major concern at more complex ATC centers such as Chicago and Los Angeles, where controllers do not have time “to use workarounds to compensate for ERAM’s deficiencies.”

The FAA says ERAM has been operational at its first two sites since late last year in what it describes as an operational suitability demonstration phase. The system was declared “in-service” in March this year.

Lawmakers have also been critical of FAA’s efforts on ERAM. In language accompanying its proposed FAA budget for FY2012, the House Appropriations Committee says that given ERAM’s problems, it “does not view the current projected cost and schedule for the program as being realistic.”

Fiscal 2012 will be “a pivotal year” for ERAM, the Committee says. “Absent real progress towards establishing true 24 hour, seven-day operations, in which controllers can safely rely on ERAM to separate aircraft with a system that provides the core functionalities expected of this multi-billion dollar effort, the Committee will be left with no choice but to recommend suspending the program or denying future funding to this effort.”

(Photo: Lockheed Martin)

Delta's Free Wi-Fi Content Could Boost Revenue

Delta Air Lines has launched new free inflight Wi-Fi options with a dual purpose: to make money from the activities people engage in once they are connected and to encourage more people to sign up for the pay-for-access content.

Delta, which offers Wi-Fi on all of its mainline aircraft and will finish installing it on most of its two-class regional jets by the end of this year, will not disclose what percentage of passengers pay for Wi-Fi access now. But it does disclose that some passengers are telling the airline they are reluctant to commit their money until they know how the inflight connection compares to the connection they get on the ground.

The new Delta Connect portal is designed to give them that experience—and provide some additional revenue to Delta in the process—by expanding the free Wi-Fi content the airline provides. Delta had a “soft launch” of the new content on selected aircraft types on Sept. 30, but did the full rollout on Oct. 4.

Delta already offered free Wi-Fi access for Delta website content, some Wall Street Journal content and shopping site Gilt.com. The expanded free content includes features, such as OpenTable, which will enable passengers to make restaurant reservations in the city they are flying to, and Zappos.com for shoe shopping. It also includes StubHub and Eventful for finding events and buying tickets.

Featured partners have paid for their positioning on the free access site, a Delta spokesman said. He would not provide details on revenue-sharing aspects of the arrangement, if any.

Ultimately, whether Delta obtains more revenue from what passengers pay for Wi-Fi access or from what they do once they are connected will depend on how each traveler makes use of it, the spokesman says.

Also this week, Delta launched entertainment on demand via Wi-Fi on all 16 of its Boeing 757-300 aircraft, which do not have seatback inflight entertainment systems. Choices will include an introductory price for television programming starting at 99 cents and movies available for $3.99, and the TV show and movies the person “rents” will remain accessible on the customer’s personal device for viewing after landing for at least 24 hours after the flight.

The Wi-Fi entertainment on demand will be available for laptops initially and expanded to tablet and mobile devices by early 2012. There are no plans yet to expand the option to other aircraft that already offer more options via their seatback IFE, but Delta does plan to keep an eye on how much customers make use of the 757-300 offer.

Lockheed Developing Winglets For C-130, C-5

Lockheed Martin is testing winglets and other drag-reducing modifications to cut the fuel consumption of C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy airlifters.

With large-scale wind tunnel testing completed, Lockheed is fabricating a shipset of winglets for flight testing on a C-130 in 2012. The modification could be available for both retrofit and forward-fit by early 2014.

Computational analysis and small-scale tunnel tests have been completed on the C-5 winglets. Large-scale tunnel tests are planned for 2012, leading to flight tests in 2014 “if the customer is interested,” says Jack O’Banion, director of advanced development programs at Lockheed’s Marietta, Ga., plant.

The 5-ft.-tall winglets are projected to reduce cruise fuel flow by 170 lb./hr. on the C-130J and “probably more” on older versions of the Hercules, he says. They are designed to be fitted to any C-130 with the beefed-up “enhanced service life” center wingbox. This has the extra structural margin to accommodate winglet-induced bending loads.

Winglets for the C-5M are 6 ft. tall and projected to reduce cruise fuel flow by 1,100 lb./hr. This is on top of the 8-20% improvement in fuel efficiency that comes with re-engining of the C-5 with General Electric CF6-80C2 high-bypass turbofans, O’Banion says, adding that the wing already has sufficient margin to accommodate the winglet loads.

Lockheed Martin in August flight tested an aft-body drag-reduction modification on the C-130. This comprises a series of 36 vortex generators mounted on the aft fuselage. These “microvanes” alter the aft-body flowfield to pull the underbody vortex closer in and reduce base drag, he says.

Results are still being analyzed, but indications are the microvanes will reduce total drag by up to 3.7%, O’Banion says, for a fuel-consumption reduction of 2-3%. No significant changes in aircraft handling have been observed, he says.

The vortex generators, mounted in rows on the aft fuselage on either side of the rear loading ramp, are planned to be available by the end of 2012 for forward-fit and retrofit to the C-130J and earlier Hercules.

Another fuel-saving modification being studied for older C-130s is an upgrade to the latest Series 3.5 version of Rolls-Royce’s T56 turboprop, coupled with Hamilton Sundstrand’s NP2000 eight-blade propeller.

For the C-5, Lockheed also is working on a drag cleanup that is expected to improve fuel efficiency by 2-3%. This would include new seals on the flight controls to minimize aerodynamic leaks that cause drag; and new seals in the pressurization system to reduce bleed-air demand on the engines and thus improve their fuel efficiency.

In addition, equipment installed on the C-5s over time — such as defensive systems — would be cleaned up to reduce parasitic drag. “We are in the process of laying out a detailed program for the Air Force, including the business case and potential benefits,” O’Banion says.

The C-130 and C-5 drag reductions are part of an initiative by the U.S. Air Force to cut its fuel consumption. Other elements include drag cleanups on the Boeing C-17 and KC-10 and engine upgrades on the KC-135.

Photo: Lockheed Martin

For Anyone Wondering About That Wasp Deck

"That is just the deck," says Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. He provided this response to questions about the dark spot on the U.S. Navy's USS Wasp, the amphibious ship being used for ship integration tests with the F-35B. 

photo credit: JSF JPO

There has been much speculation about those dark spots, which are shown in the first photos released by the Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office of BF-2 conducting its first landing on the Wasp deck. Some wonder whether the decks of amphibious ships can withstand the hot exhaust from the F-35B. And, some suggest that there could be protective matting placed on the deck of the ship.

However, DellaVedova says that no special matting or coatings have been put down for the F-35B's shipboard trials. The only items added to the deck are sensors that are used to collect test data, he says.

Pentagon Searching for a Path Forward for Ground Vehicle Fleet

Breaking off a little chunk from my story in DTI's October issue:

Given all the unknowns in the budget situation, Army leaders are moving forward with three combat vehicle programs—two wheeled and one tracked. How many will actually make it to the fleet remains to be seen, though the service maintains that all three—the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), the (tracked) Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV), and the Humvee recap program—are doable.
Others aren’t so sure. Stephen Daggett of the Congressional Research Service recently told DTI that he thinks “the Army is going to give up the Ground Combat Vehicle and JLTV” in subsequent budgets, relying instead on recapped Humvees, Strykers, M-ATVs (MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles) and recapped M-ATVs.
In August, the Army awarded almost $900 million to two teams led by BAE Systems and General Dynamics for its GCV program, a move that appeared to be a big vote of confidence in the program. But then came the details.
In giving the green light to the program, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter instructed the Army to conduct two analyses of alternatives (AOA), which will come on top of the AOA the Army completed to ensure that no existing programs perform the tasks envisioned for the GCV. Army Col. Andrew DiMarco, GCV project manager, asserts that his office “looked at a variety of platforms,” including the Bradley and the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle, as well as several foreign programs such as the Puma infantry carrier, made by Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall Land Systems. None had the capabilities that the Army believes it can achieve with a newly built vehicle.
The other sticking point in Carter’s memorandum was the issue of differing price estimates between the Army and the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office. While the Army is sticking to its average unit manufacturing cost range of $9-10.5 million, and its $11-13 million estimate for average unit production cost—which includes spare parts—CAPE estimates the average unit production cost to be $16-17 million, DiMarco reveals. He calls the discrepancy the result of “different methodologies” in estimating costs.

Click through to read the whole thing here...