Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey Passes Key Test Milestones

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

The MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft--built by Bell Boeing--has progressed through several tests designed to evaluate its performance, safety, and reliability during the rigorous re-evaluation by the V-22 Integrated Test Team (ITT) that continued through the first quarter of 2003.

Osprey No. 21 returned to the air in a 20-minute test flight on 18 March, 10 days after the Osprey fleet was grounded until potentially faulty hydraulic lines in the engine nacelles could be replaced, Naval Air Systems Command officials said. The manufacturing defects in the hydraulic lines were discovered during a functional check of the lines on a V-22 being assembled at the Bell V-22 facility in Amarillo, Texas.

Another new-production MV-22B--Osprey No. 22, the second LRIP (low-rate initial production) aircraft--has joined the flight-test program, being carried out at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. No. 22, which brings to five the number of Ospreys in the current test program, is the first MV-22 to feature a special lightweight low-observable paint scheme, that reduces aircraft weight by 30 pounds and helps to reduce the aircraft's infrared signature. No. 22 will be used to evaluate the Osprey's operational capabilities in austere conditions.

The ITT sent a detachment, in Osprey No. 21, to Ft. Bragg, N.C., for three weeks of para-drop tests--which were used to measure the performance of the aircraft's internal equipment (rollers, guide rails, and vertical-retention fittings) as well as the effects of the aircraft's airstream on artificial jumpers and items rolled off the cargo ramp. While returning to Patuxent River, the same Osprey stopped for a visit at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., home of the V-22 replacement training unit, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204.

In January, Osprey No. 10, an EMD (engineering and manufacturing development) MV-22B, operated from the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima off the Maryland coast and completed the aircraft's first series of shipboard suitability trials since its return to flight status in May 2002. The shipboard trials took place after the V-22 fleet had been grounded briefly in early January in order to investigate the cause of an oil leak. Earlier in the month, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, then the Marine Corps' commandant-designate, flew in Osprey No. 21 as the first senior official to ride in the Osprey since the test program resumed.

E.C. Aldridge Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics, was briefed on the progress of the V-22 test program in February. Aldridge will have a major say in deciding the fate of the Osprey program.

In a related development, Rolls-Royce has named the AE 1107C--which powers the V-22 Osprey--the Liberty engine, in honor of the company's first engine built in North America, and which powered many U.S. aircraft during World War I. Rolls-Royce delivered the 100th AE 1107C Liberty in November 2002 and expects to deliver approximately 25 more in 2003.

Multiyear Contract Approved For C-130J Super Hercules

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company's C-130J Super Hercules transport program received a significant vote of confidence with the approval by the Department of Defense of a six-year multiyear contract for the production of 60 aircraft. Company officials said that the $4.1 billion Air Force contract--which covers fiscal years 2003 through 2008--is expected to accrue savings of more than $500 million and permit better planning for basing the new aircraft.
The contract for 40 CC-130Js--with stretched fuselages--for the Air Force and 20 KC-130J versions for the Marine Corps brings to 178 the number of C-130Js ordered worldwide. As of mid-March, Lockheed Martin had delivered 94 Super Hercules to U.S. and allied armed forces throughout the world. Among the recipients of the upgraded aircraft are the U.S. Marine Corps (nine aircraft); the U.S. Air Force (32); the British Royal Air Force (25); the Italian Air Force (15, of 22 ordered); the Royal Australian Air Force (12); and the U.S. Coast Guard (one aircraft, of six ordered). The Danish Air Force has ordered three CC-130Js, with an option to order a fourth.

The Department of Defense had zeroed the funds the Navy Department had requested for the procurement of KC-130Js for the Marine Corps in the proposed fiscal year 2004 budget, but plans to resume procurement next year, with four KC-130Js per year projected for procurement in FYs 2005 through 2008.

"This resounding endorsement of the C-130J program by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps is enormously gratifying," said Dain Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. "This contract is wonderful news to the thousands of employees who made the C-130J Super Hercules a reality, and to the men and women of the armed services who will benefit from the improved performance and operational benefits of the C-130J."
LM Begins VTS Installation

At Three More U.S. Ports

The Coast Guard has authorized Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems to begin installing the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) system in three more U.S. ports to upgrade the maritime safety and surveillance capabilities of those ports.

The new VTS systems--which have a combined value of $24 million--are slated for installation in New York/New Jersey on the East Coast and in the Houston/Galveston and Port Arthur port complexes in Texas. All are scheduled to be in place by 2004. The VTS system--built under the Ports and Waterways Safety System (PAWSS) integration contract awarded in 1998--already has been installed in the ports of Valdez, Alaska; Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.; New Orleans, La.; and Berwick Bay, La.

Lockheed Martin originally designed the VTS system to help the Coast Guard carry out its maritime-safety and environmental-protection missions, but the system's proven ability to identify, track, and monitor all ships transiting a port area is now being exploited to support the service's increasingly important homeland-security mission as well.
The VTS system being installed in New York will include a vessel traffic center on Staten Island and 13 radars positioned along the East and Hudson Rivers up to the George Washington Bridge, on waterways connecting New York City to Port Elizabeth and Newark, N.J., and in the approaches to New York Harbor from Sandy Hook, N.J., to the Verrazano Bridge. Ships equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders--which help the Coast Guard maintain a continuous track of shipping in the harbor--will be able to go through port-of-entry processes more quickly than ships without AIS transponders.

Coast Guard officials said that, by reducing the risk of collisions in ports and congested waterways, the VTS system also will help to protect the U.S. coastal environment.

Lockheed Martin Recce System Enhances Targeting by CVNs

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz--deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom--is fitted with a new digital reconnaissance image-processing system that enhances the ability of a carrier battle group to identify and engage time-critical targets.

The Tactical Input Segment (TIS)--designed and built by the Mission Systems and Information Systems units of Lockheed Martin--gives the CVN the capability to digitally receive and process reconnaissance imagery from sensor platforms such as the U-2 aircraft, the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, and the F/A-18 SHARP (Shared Reconnaissance Pod). The TIS--a component of the Joint Services Imagery Processing System--replaces the previous wet-film systems, which required reconnaissance aircraft to land before the imagery could be processed and analyzed.

The TIS--envisioned as a key component of the Naval Fires Network--reduces the processing time of electro-optical, infrared, and synthetic-aperture radar imagery to a matter of minutes and enables reconnaissance aircraft to transmit imagery in real time--making it possible for intelligence officers and strike planners to analyze images, crop sections of interest, and mark potential targets with a computer mouse.

"With this capability, the Navy now has a fully contained end-to-end electronic imaging system greatly enhancing its ability to quickly collect, identify, and strike targets across the battlefield," said Terry Drabant, president of Lockheed Martin Mission Systems. "The TIS installation is a major step forward in 'sensor-to-shooter' capability for the Navy. ... We look forward to a full deployment to all 12 [of the Navy's] aircraft carriers and several other major amphibious [warfare] vessels."

Defense Industry Notes

* Northrop Grumman Ship Systems has laid the keels of the third San Antonio-class landing platform dock ship (LPD) and the 47th Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer (DDG) during ceremonies at the company's shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The Mesa Verde (LPD 19) and the Halsey (DDG 97) are scheduled for delivery in 2005.

* Israel and Singapore have signed on to participate in the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as "security cooperation participants" in the program, joining eight other nations already cooperating with the U.S. government in developing the JSF. Israel expects to receive its first JSFs by 2012.

* A RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM)--built by Raytheon--has been successfully fired from a Royal Australian Navy ANZAC-class frigate for the first time. The ESSM--designed to protect ships from antiship cruise missiles--was fired from HMAS Warramunga. The ESSM first was fired in July 2002 from the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup. In a related development, an ESSM fired from the U.S. Navy Self-Defense Test Ship intercepted a BQM-74 subsonic target missile off the coast of Southern California during the first test shot in which the missile's Improved Target Detection Device was used.

* Raytheon Company has been awarded an $80.8 million Naval Air Systems Command contract for production of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW). The company's Missile Systems unit in Tucson, Ariz., will build a total of 337 AGM-154A JSOWs--313 for the Navy, and 24 for the Air Force. The AGM-154A--carried by the F/A-18, F-16, F-15, B-1, B-2, and B-52 aircraft--dispenses BLU-97 combined-effect bomblets against both hard and soft targets.

* Sikorsky Aircraft has been awarded a $113.3 million Naval Inventory Control Point contract for logistics support of 14 dynamic components of the H-60 helicopter used by all U.S. armed services. Sikorsky also has been awarded a $13.5 million contract modification to provide maintenance support for the Navy and Marine Corps F-5 adversary aircraft based in Fallon, Nev., and Yuma, Ariz.

* Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems has been awarded a $37.6 million Naval Air Systems Command contract modification to provide four Aircraft Improvement Program (AIP) kits for Navy P-3C Update III maritime patrol aircraft and to install five electronic flight display systems in the P-3Cs.

* Electric Boat Corporation--a General Dynamics company--has been awarded two Naval Sea Systems Command contracts, one of them a $17.4 million contract for new work on the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) Jimmy Carter to accommodate advanced technology for naval special warfare, tactical surveillance, and mine warfare operations. The second contract, worth $17.2 million, was awarded for development and design studies related to the Seawolf-class SSNs.

* Boeing has been awarded a $32.9 million Navy Strategic Systems Programs contract to provide material and technical support services to repair and modify navigation systems for the Trident I and II submarine-launched ballistic missiles deployed on U.S. Navy and Royal Navy nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines.

* Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems has delivered to the Egyptian Air Force the first of six E-2C Hawkeye radar warning aircraft the company is upgrading for the service to a Hawkeye 2000 export configuration under a $74 million contract. The ex-U.S. Navy E-2C was remanufactured and upgraded with a more powerful commercial-off-the-shelf mission computer and advanced operator workstations. The second Hawkeye 2000 export E-2C is scheduled for delivery to Egypt in early 2004.

* Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems has been awarded a $25 million Naval Sea Systems Command contract for the procurement of 24 Mk54 lightweight torpedoes. The all-digital Mk54 is an antisubmarine torpedo designed to be deployed from surface warships and antisubmarine aircraft.

* Recon/Optical Inc. and Raytheon Technical Services each have been awarded $19.2 million Naval Air System Command contracts to build components for Shared Reconnaissance Pods deployed on F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters. Raytheon will build eight pods; Recon/Optical will build four high-altitude and four medium-altitude sensor systems for the pods.

* L-3 Communications has been selected by the Naval Air Systems Command to provide 17-inch color, flat-panel, liquid-crystal displays for the Enhanced Main Display Unit (EMDU) Upgrade Program for the Group II version of the E-2C Hawkeye radar warning aircraft. The new displays--which offer reduced weight, lower power requirements, higher resolution and brightness, and reduced life-cycle costs--will replace outdated cathode-ray tube displays. L-3 expects to deliver more than 150 of the new displays.

* The DRS Technologies, Sensors & Targeting Systems unit has been awarded contracts from the Naval Inventory Control Point to provide spare parts for the SAY-1 Thermal Imaging Sensor System, a stabilized turret installed on Navy ships for mine-detection, surveillance, navigation, and other missions and operations.

* FLIR Systems Inc. has been awarded a $20 million contract modification for engineering services and spare parts for the Navigational Thermal Imaging System (NTIS) program. The NTIS is deployed on the U.S. Marine Corps' UH-1N helicopters.

* Northrop Grumman Marine Systems has been awarded a $57.9 million Navy Strategic Systems Programs contract to provide support services for the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile launcher subsystems for the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy.

* Raytheon has been awarded a 17.5 million Naval Air Systems Command contract modification to provide five APS-137C(V)5 inverse/synthetic-aperture radars for Navy P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.

* Indigo Systems has been awarded a Northrop Grumman contract to design, develop, test, and deliver infrared Integrated Detective Assemblies (IDAs) for the Distributed Aperture System (DAS) planned for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The IDA will enable the DAS to capture real-time imagery, which will then be stitched together by an image processor to provide streaming video footage for display on the pilot's helmet-mounted video monitor.

* Boston Whaler Commercial & Government Products has opened a new 46,000-square-foot facility in Edgewater, Fla., that will be used to build fiberglass boats for military, law-enforcement, fire/rescue, and commercial use.

* Marotta Scientific Controls has been awarded a contract by the Electric Boat Corporation to supply fluid control valves to be used in the missile launch tubes of the four Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs) being converted to nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines (SSGNs). *