Navy Aircraft Managers Refine Requirements in Post-Iraq Era

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

U.S. defense officials and industry program managers are examining the lessons learned from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom as they proceed with designing the aircraft and weapons that will transform today's armed forces to a more mobile, precise, and persistent force. A look at the following selection of high-profile naval aviation programs reveals that, for the most part, the managers anticipated the lessons from the two operations and are working primarily on fine-tuning their designs to incorporate those lessons learned.

Multimission Maritime Aircraft

Boeing and Lockheed Martin--competitors for the Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) program--are refining their proposals for the selection decision, which is expected in January 2004. Each was awarded a $20 million advanced concept development contract. The Navy's requirement for MMA has been reduced from 251 aircraft to 150 aircraft. Initial operational capability is scheduled for 2012.

The MMA originally was intended to replace the Navy's P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and EP-3E electronic reconnaissance aircraft. Initially, the service wanted two versions: a search/attack (SA) version and an electronic reconnaissance, or surveillance/intelligence (SI), version. However, the Navy has changed its requirements and now wants only the SA version--but program managers are determining which roles previously earmarked for the SI version could be carried out by the SA version. The Navy's plans to replace the EP-3E now are uncertain, but may hinge on the scope and progress of the Air Force's E-10 multirole command-and-control aircraft. The E-10 is the proposed three-in-one replacement for the RC-135 electronic intelligence aircraft, the E-8 Joint Strategic Attack Radar System aircraft, and the E-3 airborne warning and control aircraft.

Boeing is refining its MMA proposal for a design based on the Boeing 737 airliner, but has upgraded its entry from the 737-700 design--which would have the wings of the 737-800--to a 737-800 aircraft fitted with 737-900 wings. The 737-800 design features 10-foot fuselage extensions, both fore and aft of the wing, that would allow for more internal mission space, and relocation of the internal weapons bay (possibly a lengthened bay) from the forward fuselage to a position aft of the wing. Additional fuel tanks would allow the crew greater flexibility in managing the aircraft's center of gravity. The extensions also would provide more surface area for antennas; the 737-900 wing would be internally strengthened to support an extra 10,000 pounds in the aircraft's gross weight.

Boeing's MMA is designed to meet, among other requirements, the conduct of an antisubmarine mission with four hours on station at a radius of 1,200 miles. The aircraft is designed for a crew of eight, including two pilots in the cockpit and six mission specialists.

Boeing recently demonstrated its proposed mission system, which uses BARCO weight-saving flat-panel displays at six multifunctional crew stations. The system detects and tracks moving targets using pattern-matching technology. It includes the VITEC electric light table for side-by-side image comparison of potential targets within the system's library of target images. The mission system enables the aircraft to attack targets within "minutes from initial contact" said Jack Zerr, Boeing's general manager of Maritime Aircraft Programs. The aircraft also is designed for airborne control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and will be able to download search data from UAVs.

Lockheed Martin (LM), the longtime builder of the P-3 aircraft, is proposing a derivative of the proven P-3C as an affordable solution to the MMA requirement. The LM proposal includes systems derived from those installed on the aircraft under the P-3C Aircraft Improvement Program, the P-3C Baseline Modification Program, and the Joint Airborne Signature Modernization Baseline program.

LM recently completed full-scale fatigue testing of a P-3C during a Service-Life Assessment Program (SLAP) and anticipates using the test data, expected to be available in June 2003, to define and develop its concept for the MMA airframe. LM is counting on leveraging the existing capabilities of the P-3C to offer a transformational solution at low cost.The P-3C was first deployed in 1969. One industry source (who did not wish to be named) said that the preliminary SLAP results indicate that the fatigue-life expenditure (FLE) in the P-3C fleet is much greater than earlier believed, that the FLE of the fleet needs to be recalibrated, and that numerous P-3Cs may have to be grounded and/or retired sooner than previously anticipated.

Rather than producing all-new airframes, or completely remanufacturing the current P-3Cs, LM is emphasizing focused production, the retaining of components not significantly affected by FLE--such as landing gear--and producing new components, especially wings, to replace worn-out items, and replacing obsolete mission systems. Vought Aircraft would fabricate the new wings. LM officials said that the Rolls-Royce Allison T56 engine and the propeller used on the current P-3C meet the requirements of the MMA program.

LM has targeted three parameters for improvement over the aircraft in the current P-3C fleet: a reduction, of approximately 34-46 percent, in maintenance man-hours per flight hour; a decrease in cost per flight hour of 12-27 percent; and an increase of about 26-37 percent in aircraft availability.

LM's design includes a glass cockpit--fitted with digital displays to replace conventional dials and gauges--with color weather radar, Traffic Collision-Avoidance System II, and a ground-proximity warning system. (The company has not yet fixed on a two- or three-man cockpit.) The four mission crew stations planned will feature liquid-crystal displays for data from electro-optical systems, synthetic-aperture radar, inverse synthetic-aperture radar, acoustic systems, electronic surveillance measures, and the Global Command and Control System. The aircraft also would be equipped with Link 11 and Link 16 satellite communications, and the Global Positioning System. LM officials envision the MMA as eventually being capable of controlling a number of UAVs.

LM also includes in its MMA concept the capability of receiving fuel in flight.

Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance Program

The Navy wants an unmanned aircraft to augment the work of its existing P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft fleet and its future Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). The unmanned Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance craft, or BAMS, would handle several maritime-surveillance tasks and thus free the service's manned patrol aircraft for the more focused prosecution of targets.

Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, says he wants a plane with persistence--i.e., the staying power required for total continuous situational awareness in all weather conditions. Northrop Grumman is promoting a derivative of its RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as the best aircraft for the BAMS mission. The company is building two Global Hawks for a program related to BAMS, the Navy's Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) program, which is designed to explore the potential of using a long-range, high-endurance, high-altitude UAV in the maritime surveillance role.

The Navy is conducting an analysis of alternatives to resolve the issues involved, and seems likely to decide on the production of BAMS--probably in 2004--before the GHMD program is completed. However, technological innovations derived from the GHMD could be transferred to BAMS aircraft as they are developed and built.

The initial operational capability of BAMS is planned for 2009. Northrop Grumman is slated to deliver two GHMD Global Hawks--the only platform available for the experiment--to the Navy in 2005. The demonstration will focus primarily on sensor payload experimentation and exposure to the fleet of the BAMS concept. Mission data will be sent from the UAV via satellite communications to a mission control element.

The 340-knot Global Hawk can detect targets at distances up to 200 kilometers, a range that program officials expect to double for the BAMS. The UAV can fly for 30 hours and has no airspace restrictions at the 60,000-foot altitude at which it operates. The RQ-4 carries a 3,000-pound sensor payload tailored to a given mission. The varying payload therefore could include electro-optical sensors, infrared sensors, synthetic-aperture radar, inverse synthetic-aperture radar, moving target indicator, and electronic signals intelligence receivers.

Although it will be an unmanned aircraft, BAMS is envisioned as a control craft for a small squadron of three to four UAVs. BAMs units operating from five sites in various geographic regions could "cover the whole world," said Timothy Beard, Northrop Grumman's director of business development for unmanned systems. There is no requirement for the BAMS to be controlled in flight by an MMA.

Two ACTD (advanced concept test and development) Global Hawks flew missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Another two ACTD Global Hawks were lost in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. One suffered structural failure but flew for six hours after the failure; its V-tail failed in the turn for the landing and the UAV crashed. The other suffered engine malfunction but flew for 2.5 more hours before its engine flamed out.

Northrop Grumman estimates that unit flyaway cost for Air Force procurement of 51 Global Hawks would be $16.1 million, plus $8.2 million for the surveillance package. The company considers a production rate of 24 aircraft per year to be optimum.

Foreign nations interested in the Global Hawk include Germany--for signals intelligence collection--and Australia--for maritime surveillance. Japan also is regarded as a potential customer.

In a related development, General Atomics is proposing a variant of its Predator B UAV as a candidate for BAMS. General Atomics proposes increasing the aircraft's wingspan by 20 feet (bringing it to 86 feet) and adding a conformal fuel tank that would give the UAV a 49-hour endurance and the ability to provide coverage of 100,000 nautical miles squared per flight hour. General Atomics officials point out that, unlike the Global Hawk, the Predator can be operated at both low and high altitudes. Also, they claim that the Predetor costs one-tenth the price of the Global Hawk.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Lockheed Martin has refined the design for its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which has gone through its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) after 17 months of design work. The PDR is being held open pending resolution of the government requests for action--RFAs, or requests to resolve design deficiencies--but is expected to be completed in June 2003.

The Lockheed Martin design team has made a number of improvements in the F-35's airframe design in response to the RFAs, and to certain other issues identified by a Blue Ribbon Action Team. Three of the changes are intended to improve cooling of the aircraft's engine exhaust (to enhance the aircraft's performance in hot weather). The exhaust fairing of the aircraft's integrated power pack has been modified to reduce the thermal footprint. The nacelle vent inlets have been enlarged to increase airflow. The aircraft's heat exchanger also has been upgraded, and its landing-gear doors have been modified to increase clearance with the leading-edge flaps.

The F-35's weapons bay has been increased in width to better accommodate weapons and to allow ordnancemen easier access to the weapons inside the bay. Some wiring and hydraulic lines around the engine are being re-routed.

The F-35A--designed for the Air Force and the only variant to be armed with an internal gun--is being altered so that the gun boresight is optimized for air-to-ground rather than air-to-air combat.

The upper fuselage of the F-35B short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the JSF is being redesigned to reduce drag. Larger exhaust-inlet doors and roll posts are being installed, and the bi-fold lift-fan doors have been replaced by an aft-hinged door.

The F-35C carrier-based version has been redesigned with a larger wing, modified fairings, and an improved fairing for the main landing gear.

The weight of the STOVL version was two percent greater than specified in the design target for the PDR, said Tom Burbage, executive vice president and general manager of the F-35 program at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. Design engineers have been working to meet the weight goal.

"There is great value to having a STOVL variant in the mix," Burbage said, pointing out that the other two variants also would benefit significantly by the weight reduction efforts. He said that the design team would not be "shaving anything off the airplane," but removing things "that were not efficient."

JSF team PDRs also have been completed on the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine and GE Aircraft Engines' F136 engine for the F-35.

The first production F135 goes into engine test in September 2003. The first F136--interchangeable with the F135--is slated for production approximately two years later.

Rolls-Royce has redesigned the clutch for the engine's lift fan to make it more rugged.

Lockheed Martin has increased the number of employees engaged in F-35 work tenfold--from 400 to more than 4,000--since the company was selected to design and build the JSF. The company's plant in Fort Worth, Texas, will build the aircraft's wing and forward fuselage, and will perform the final assembly of the F-35. The company's plant in Palmdale, Calif., will fabricate the low-observable edges of the aircraft's airfoils. The mid-body fuselage and aft fuselage will be built by Northrop Grumman at its facilities in Palmdale and El Segundo, Calif., respectively. BAE systems will build the aircraft's vertical stabilizers and engine exhausts at its plant in Salmesbury, England.

The JSF is scheduled for Critical Design Review in April 2004. The first flight of the aircraft is slated for the fall of 2005.

Lockheed Martin expects to build more than 3,000 JSFs for the United States and United Kingdom at a rate of one F-35 per day when the production reaches its anticipated output rate.

Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle

The Air Force and Navy unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) programs are moving closer to becoming a joint program, and the emerging UCAV designs are indicative of an emerging service commonality.

Boeing currently is under contract with the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the X-45 UCAV, and Northrop Grumman is under contract from the Navy and DARPA to develop the X-47 UCAV for the Navy as the UCAV-N program. DARPA has asked Boeing to modify its current X-45B UCAV design, however, to meet the Air Force's need for greater range and loitering capability and the Navy's objectives for its UCAV-N demonstration program.

The modified UCAV design for what is designated the X-45C is a product of spiral development, or the continuous insertion of new technology as each unit is designed and built. The Boeing Phantom Works is currently demonstrating the X-45A, and had been developing the X-45B when emerging requirements led to the need for more capability, hence the X-45C concept.

"Recent conflicts have indicated a need for greater range and persistence over the battlefield than originally planned, and we were able to quickly respond to our customer's needs," said Darryl Davis, UCAV program director for the Boeing Phantom Works. "This will allow us to more quickly and affordably provide both the Air Force and the Navy with more robust, capable, and operationally representative concepts," he said, "than would have been possible under our previously separate development programs."

The X-45C--the design of which is based primarily on the subsystems and center body of the X-45B design--will incorporate a revised planform that will provide better aerodynamic performance and increased fuel volume, giving the "C" version three times the combat radius that the X-45B would have carrying the same payload. Boeing is assessing the practicality of providing a refueling capability for the X-45C, to provide even greater range and a longer loiter time. The X-45C will in any case be designed to carry a larger payload, including two 2,000-pound Joint Direct-Attack Munitions, than the X-45B.
The naval version of the X-45C will include a strengthened structure and landing gear, an arresting hook, and the avionics needed for precision approach to and landing on an aircraft carrier. The first flight of the X-45C is scheduled for early 2006.

DARPA has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract modification--worth up to $160 million--to build and demonstrate two full-scale X-47B UCAVs, further refinements of the X-47A Pegasus that the company demonstrated in a successful test flight in February 2003. The tail-less, kite-shaped X-47A demonstrated its ability to carry out an approach and landing touchdown on a runway in a manner similar to that required for a carrier landing.

Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems is revising the X-47B design to accommodate the common Navy and Air Force objectives--which, according to a Northrop Grumman press release, include "a combat radius of 1,300 nautical miles with a 4,000-pound payload, and the ability to loiter for two hours over a target up to 1,000 nautical miles away." The company also will develop the UCAV's autonomous control system as well as its mission control system.

The X-47B--with winglets added--is described by Northrop Grumman as a cranked-kite design. The UCAV-N is expected to emerge as a 30,000-40,000-pound-class aircraft, compared to the 5,500-pound X-47A.
The X-47A is not currently scheduled for additional test flights but could be used in the future to demonstrate more UCAV capabilities as well as the technology required for Phase IIA of the UCAV program, which is described by Kenny Linn (director of business development for Northrop Grumman's UCAV program) as a "bridge effort for continuous funding."

Northrop Grumman will focus on developing the technologies, systems, and processes needed to allow the UCAV to operate from an aircraft carrier: a strong airframe, shipboard integration, flight-deck operations, catapult takeoff and arrested landing, carrier airspace operations, command and control, and human interface. The company already has demonstrated the ability to land an F/A-18 Hornet using the Ship Relative Global Positioning System (SRGPS) with no manual control from the pilot, and expects to integrate the SRGPS in the UCAV-N.

One of the greatest challenges in basing UCAVs on carriers, Linn said, is flight-deck handling, including taxiing the UCAV safely on the carrier deck. Northrop Grumman is working with its Newport News Operations sector, and with fleet operators, to meet that challenge, and is considering the use of hand-held control devices. Linn said that the control software needed was easy to develop, but that establishing a reliable communications link between the UCAV and the controller has been much more difficult, mostly because of the intense HERO (hazard of electronic radiation to ordnance) environment of a carrier deck.

Northrop Grumman's UCAV-N is being designed to be launched not only by the steam catapults installed on the Navy's current aircraft carriers, but also by the electro-magnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) scheduled for introduction on the next-generation carrier, CVN 21.

E-2C Advanced Hawkeye

Northrop Grumman expects the E-2C Advanced Hawkeye--formerly known as the E-2C Radar Modernization Program--to reach initial operational capability in 2011. The advanced E-2C is a multifaceted upgrade of the venerable E-2 that was first deployed on Navy carriers in 1965. The heart of the Advanced Hawkeye is its new ADS-18 electronically scanned array radar now under development by Lockheed Martin.

The UHF ADS-18 is designed to conform to the shape of the current dish-shaped radome mounted on top of current E-2Cs. That design decision, company officials said, will preclude the need for a time-consuming new flight-certification process.

Lockheed Martin's AHE radar team has been awarded a $23 million contract for the Weapon System Functional Review, scheduled for November 2003, for the new radar. Lockheed Martin has overall responsibility for development of the ADS-18, its Advanced Detection Data Processor, and its space-time processing. Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems is developing the radar's solid-state transmitter; Raytheon is developing the system's digital receiver.

A Navy NC-130H--equipped with a prototype ADS-18 radome--is being flown by Air Test & Evaluation Squadron 20 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., as a test platform in the development of the new radar. As of mid-April, Lockheed Martin had completed the ground testing of the Advanced Hawkeye radar as well as 11 successful test flights of the Advanced Hawkeye radar data-collection system installed on the NC-130H.

The Advanced Hawkeye configuration--an upgrade of the Hawkeye 2000 configuration currently in production--also includes such improvements as an improved IFF (identification friend or foe) system; an upgraded mission computer; upgraded navigation systems; tactical displays in the cockpit; improved communications--including the ARC-210 anti-jam radio and a new intercommunications system; an upgraded center fuselage and new engine-driven generators; and new engine gearboxes.

Northrop Grumman expects to prepare two Advanced Hawkeyes for the aircraft's flight-test program in 2006 or 2007. The company expects to build 75 Advanced Hawkeyes, beginning with four in FY 2008, followed by four more in FY 2009, five in FY 2010, six in FY 2011, and seven in FY 2012. The production numbers in the outyears of the program have not yet been released.

In a briefing at the Navy League's 2003 Sea-Air-Space Exposition in Washington, D.C., Capt. Robert Labelle, the Navy's E-2C program manager, praised the Hawkeye's versatile performance over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and over Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the Enduring Freedom operations, he said, E-2Cs performed command and control, tanker control, and strike ingress/egress control missions over Afghanistan. Airborne Early Warning Squadron 112 (VAW-112)--the first to deploy for a combat operation with Group II E-2Cs equipped with the Mission Computer Upgrade and the Advanced Control Indicator Set--"did a great job," Labelle said.

Similar missions were carried out by the E-2C squadrons embarked on the six Navy carriers deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. VAW-117, currently deployed in the Persian Gulf on board USS Nimitz, is equipped with the USG-3 system as a node for the Cooperative Engagement Capability, a force-wide sensor-to-shooter data network that enables a weapons platform to use the track data generated by sensors on other platforms to launch attacks against enemy targets.

Among the lessons learned over Afghanistan and Iraq, Labelle said, are the need for extended on-station time (made possible, perhaps, by an in-flight refueling capability); a more coherent tactical picture with better multisource integration; improved communications reliability and more satellite communication channels; and an automated air tasking order that could be provided to the aircraft's tactical-display systems.

Labelle said that the Navy's goal is to bring the Advanced Hawkeye to full operational capability by FY 2012. The Navy hopes to win Department of Defense and congressional approval for multiyear procurement of the Advanced Hawkeye, he also said.

EA-6B ICAP III

The operational evaluation of the Improved Capability III (ICAP III) version of the Navy's EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft is scheduled for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003, when the service plans to equip one fleet electronic attack squadron with the new Prowler. Northrop Grumman officials said the company expects to modify three lots of aircraft--10 to 12 EA-6Bs per lot--to the new configuration in fiscal years 2005 through 2007.

Two EA-6B ICAP III aircraft have been going through tests at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.; those tests included an operational assessment period that was completed on 1 February 2003. The Naval Air Systems Command was expected to issue a report on the operational assessment by the end of May 2003. The technical evaluation of the ICAP III also was being carried out in May. A decision to begin low-rate initial production is expected by the end of June 2003.

The ICAP III program will provide the Prowler a number of new systems, including a new ALQ-218 tactical jamming system receiver, a new mission recorder, new color displays, satellite communications, and an integrated USQ-113 communications jammer. Collectively, those systems will give the new aircraft important new combat capabilities, including rapid emitter location and reactive jamming.
The aircraft modified in Lot 1 will be equipped with a basic Link 16 system. Lot 2 will be equipped with full-up Link 16 (which will be retrofitted to the Lot 1 aircraft) as well as the APX-118 IFF (identification friend or foe) equipment. The Navy already has issued a requirement for a replacement to the USQ-113 jammer that will be installed in the ICAP III aircraft, and is planning on a digital upgrade to the ALQ-218 in 2007.

The ICAP III will form the baseline system for the follow-on EA-18G, an electronic attack version of the Super Hornet planned for development funding in the FY 2004 defense budget. The system also may be integrated in some Air Force B-52H aircraft.

The EA-6B ICAP III is expected to reach initial operational capability in the first quarter of FY 2005. *