Newsdesk – Military

Another application for the Mk IV is the E-2C Hawkeye AEW aircraft. The additional power would allow the Hawkeye to operate at a higher altitude giving increased radar detection range and increasing endurance through a vastly reduced fuel burn; carrier takeoffs would also benefit by the additional power available. Grumman and Allison in conjunction with the Navy are planning to test fly the Mk 14-powered E-2C in 1986. The new engine, coupled with new NASA/ Lockheed propfan propeller development, will also assist the development of an extended fuselage C-130 similar to the RAF models as a successor to the popular H model.

USAF Orders 44 Kc-10s:

McDonnell Douglas has received a 2.7 billion dollar multi-year contract for production of 44 KC-10 advanced tanker/cargo aircraft for the US Air Force. The aircraft will be delivered from 1983 through 1987.

This advanced funding will allow McDonnell Douglas to place orders with its suppliers for parts and equipment needed for production of aircraft in future years. Those suppliers can then produce the needed parts in economical quantities, cutting the cost of the programme to the taxpayer by as much as 25 per cent. Multiyear procurement of the KC-10 will save an estimated 600 million dollars over the 44-Aircraft Programme.

McDonnell Douglas has delivered 12 KC-10s to the Air Force, and four more are in production and scheduled for delivery in 1983. The current Air Force Schedule calls for the delivery of four additional planes in 1983, eight in 1984, eleven in 1985, twelve in 1986 and nine in 1987, making a total of 60 aircraft.

The KC-10s first entered the Air Force inventory in March 1981. In a noteworthy mission in October, the KC-10 helped six F-15s fly non-stop from Okinawa in the Pacific to Florida, a distance of more than 8100 miles. During the 14.7-hour mission, the KC-1O not only refuelled the fighters but carried the fighters/support personnel and support equipment. It also acted as a pathfinder aircraft on the mission.

That mission was carried out with two KC-10s and 4 KC-135s. Without the use of the KC-10s, the same mission would have required the use of seven additional KC-135s, an EC-135 for pathfinder use, and two C-1418 cargo aircraft.

Falklands Losses Finalised:

The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed that 117 Argentinian aircraft were destroyed during the Falklands campaign of 1982. Among the total were 45 A-4 Skyhawk, 27 Mirage Ill/Dagger, 21 Pucara, 4 T-34 Mentor trainers, 3 MB-339, 3 Canberra bombers, 2 Skyvans, 1 Hercules, 1 Learjet 25, 6 Puma, 2 Bell UH-1 and 2 Chinook helicopters. The British lost 6 Sea Harriers, 4 GR.3 Harriers, 3 Chinook and a number of helicopters. Weapons employed were AIM- 9L with 16 confirmed kills, 30 mm cannon of Sea Harriers with 4 kills, Sea Wolf SAM with 5 kills, Sea Dart SAM with 8 kills, Sea Cat SAM (used by RAN) 8 kills, Rapier SAM (used by Australian Army) 14 kills, while nonportable Blowpipes scored9 kills andStinger one kill. Various combinations of guns were responsible for bringing down at least seven other aircraft.

Final Nomads for Indonesia and Papua New Guinea:

Both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea received their final Nomad aircraft in late 1982. The Defence Force of Papua New Guinea now operates a total of five Mission Master aircraft. New Guinea received its first Nomad in 1977 and has found the aircraft extremely useful in that nation’s demanding aviation environment where STOL is a necessity rather than a brochure cliche. Indonesia operates the world’s largest fleet of Searchmaster aircraft, 18 in all, and uses the type in policing smuggling and maritime approaches to Indonesia’s thousands of tiny islands.

F-18 Into Service:

On January 7th USMC squadronVMFA-314 based at El Toro Air Station, California, became the first fully operational F-18A squadron. McDonnell Douglas has delivered 65 of the planned 1377 USMC/USN orders and will deliver a total of 84 aircraft through 1983 By the time the first Australian aircraft (to be fully built at St Louis) is flown, more than 200 Hornets will have been delivered to the US and Canadian services. To date, more than 18,000 flight hours have been logged m over 12,500 sorties since the first flight back in November 1978. MDC claim the F-18 is achieving a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of over 3 hours as against barely 1 hour for the late model F-4 Phantoms and A-7 Corsair lls that the aircraft replaces in the US inventory.

New Anti-ship Missile:

The US Navy is developing an inexpensive air-launched weapon that will allow the use of extended-range PGMs at minimum cost. Utilising a standard Mk 83 1000 lb bomb, the new missile, designated Skipper 2, utilises a Paveway laser-seeking head and a Shrike rocket motor. Skipper 1 1s the same bomb minus the Shrike rocket motor. The concept of Skipper 2 is to be able to deliver a sizeable bomb over a range far in excess of that of a standard PGM glide-bomb Paveway delivery. The use of a rocket motor to sustain speed after launch also frees the attacking aircraft to approach at a low level below the radar horizon of the surface fleet. Such a weapon, when fully developed, will be a relatively economical solution to stand-off attacks for our F-18 and F-111 aircraft in the maritime strike role.

Taiwan Purchases Used Star Fighters:

With political considerations precluding the purchase of 1ew generation fighters such as the F-16′!1. or the F-20, Taiwan has opted to purchase 60 F-104G Starfighters from the West German Air Force. Included in the $30 million deal will be a large inventory of spare parts and support equipment. West Germany based the aircraft in the US where the type was used for training at Luke AFB, Arizona. While stationed in the US the Starfighters bore USAF markings for political reasons. On the other side of the globe, Egypt is to sell its 35 F-4E Phantoms to Turkey and will order up to 60 Shenyang F-7 (Chinese MiG-21 copy) in their place. Egypt already operates a number of F-7 aircraft in addition to the F-6 which is based on the Soviet MiG-19 Farmer.

New Mirage Enters Flight Development Phase:

The greatest source of competition for Dassault in marketing Mirage 2000s is about to come from their own stable. Dassault’s latest Mirage variant, the IIING (New Generation) looks like a real winner in that the performance on offer is relatively high considering the low acquisition cost The IIING is basically a Mirage III airframe utilising the fly-by-wire flight control system from the advanced Mirage 2000 with the Cyrano IV air-to-air and air-to-ground radar and Snecma Atar 9K50 turbojet from the Mirage F-1 The NG also features a blended Leading Edge Extension (LEX) and canards similar to the Israeli Kfir and Mirage 4000. The NG also utilises a Head-Up Display (HUD) and a comprehensive nav that regularly formed at the end of each runway. Aircraft can now also employ simultaneous operation of both runways where their operations would not conflict. This has resulted in a slight easing of congestion at KSA in peak times and eliminates some of the long waiting periods experienced by aircraft awaiting access to a departure runway. As this change though has been virtually employed at the simple insistence of the Minister we question why the simple, logical and quite necessary changes weren’t introduced years ago.

Pratts Announce JT9 Successor:

Pratt & Whitney have verified their intention to remain the number one producer of commercial jet powerplants with the announcement of the PW4000 range, destined to replace the JT9 which powers the bulk of the world’s 747 fleet. The PW4000 will burn around 70/o less fuel than the JT90-7R4. tile attack system from Thomson-CSF. Mirage NG will be demonstrated at the Paris Air Show and will be available for production deliveries from mid-1984.

Boeing to Fly Kc-707 Demonstrators:

Boeing are enthusiastic about the possibility of modifying the surplus 707 airlines to tanker configuration. A 707 is presently being flight tested with a combina­tion of one, two and three hose/drogue units attached and this aircraft will be displayed at the Paris Air Show. Installation of a 5000 US gallon underfloor fuel tank boosts total 707 fuel capacity to 28,860 US gal. Boeing claimed that this would allow 18,000 lb of fuel to be transferred 500 nm from the base. Similarly, in the transport role, the aircraft would be fitted with strengthened floors and forward freight doors allowing 85,000 lb of freight to be carried. Boeing foresaw a potential market for between 100 and 150 KC-707s which would cost between $10 million and $15 million each, which would include airframe refurbishment, an avionics update and systems support.

Hercules Sales Book Exceeds 1700 Units:

It is nearly thirty years since the prototype Hercules air lifter took to the Marietta, Georgia skies. Despite corporate enthusiasm for their aircraft at the time I am certain Lockheed did not envisage that the aircraft would see more than three decades of continuous production and sales passing the 1700 mark. Recent orders by the US Coast Guard, Japan and Dubai have achieved this total while the Dubai aircraft is the first of a new extended fuselage model using design technology from the civil L.100-30 and military C-130H.

Malaysia Orders Aermacchi Trainer:

The Royal Malaysian Air Force will replace its Canadair CL-416 jet trainers with twelve Aermacchi MB 339 with deliveries commencing April 1983. The RMAF is also in the process of receiving the first of its 44 aircraft orders of Pilatus PC-7 turboprop primary trainers.

A Jet-Powered Hawkeye?:

NASA is studying the feasibility of employing Upper Surface Blowing (USS) technology to existing military designs. Two candidates of interest to Australia would be the Grumman E-2C Hawkeye AEW aircraft and the Lockheed C-130 transport. The Hawkeye would have its two Allison T56 turboprops replaced with four above-wing mounted General Electric TF34 turbofans. The modified Hawkeye would be able to transit cruise at 125 kts faster than the propeller-driven aircraft providing a larger area of mission sweep in addition to being able to provide better radar coverage from a typical operating ceiling of 43,000 ft as against only 29,000 ft for current Hawkeyes. Approach speed would also be reduced to only 65 kts. The Hercules could be powered by either up-rated versions of the TF34 or the CFM56-3 which is set to power the Boeing 737-300 and the proposed McDonnell DouglasSuper90.USS has been extensively test flown on the specially modified NASA Buffalo and was employed in the Boeing YC-14 AMST USAF transport programme.

USAF Looks at New Aircraft for the Jolly Green Giants:

Sikorsky has been awarded a $37 million contract by the USAF for the conversion of two UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters to the specialised HH-60 Night Hawk role for use in the recovery of downed aircrew in enemy territory. Unlike the Jolly Green Giant teams with their large HH-53 Sea Stallions of the Vietnam war, the proposed HH-60 will feature a complete self-defence capability and will be configured to undertake autonomous penetration in all weather conditions of hostile territory. Night Hawk will have a crew of four and will be equipped with terrain-following radar, FUR and an extendable in-flight refuelling boom to extend the already significant 4.8-hour mission endurance. Armament comprises a door-mounted minigun, Hellfire anti-armour and defence suppression missiles and General Dynamics Stinger missiles in the air-to-air role. Flight testing of the modified UH-60s commenced during 1984 and USAF foresees an eventual requirement for up to 243 HH-600 helicopters spanning 1986 through to 1993.

Hot Hawk:

British Aerospace have released details of an uprated version of the Hawk jet trainer. Designated the Series 100, the new model can still be fully utilised as a trainer in the conventional sense in addition to being able to uplift a maximum warlord of 6800 lb in the offensive role. The Series 100 is equipped with a Singer Kearfott INS coupled with a Smiths HUD and weapons aiming computer. Low-level navigation accuracy is vastly enhanced while a large variety of air-to-ground weapons can be carried including laser-guided bombs which are slaved directly from a laser ranger in the aircraft’s nose.

New Mirage 2000 Order:

Peru has joined Egypt, India and France as future operators of the Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft. The Peruvian order is for 26 aircraft with deliveries commencing in 1984.

New GE Engine Designation:

The General Electric Derivative Fighter Engine (DFE) or F101 has been re-designated the F110 by the USAF. The F110 has been flight tested aboard an F-16, has flown several hundred hours in a Grumman F-14 and will power the Rockwell 8-18 strategic bomber.