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DEFENCE P18
The Joint Strike Fighter is key to the USAF’s modernisation plans
BUDGETS DAVE MAJUMDAR WASHINGTON DC
US services issue
new cuts warning
Looming sequestration measure could force restructure of
F-35 programme and lead to cancellation of MV-22 deal
Lockheed Martin’s entire F-35
Joint Strike Fighter programme
may have to be restructured
if the Pentagon budget undergoes
the full effects of a
threatened sequestration act, the
US Air Force’s highest-ranking
officer has warned.
Under the Congressional sequestration
budgetary manoeuvre, the
US Department of Defense’s coffers
would be automatically cut across
the board by 10% every year for 10
years. If introduced, the reductions
would come on top of a $487 billion
reduction already imposed on
its spending plans. If full sequestration
were to take effect, “we’re
going to have to look completely at
the [F-35] programme,” USAF
chief of staff Gen Mark Welsh told
the Senate Armed Services Committee
on 12 February. “It’s going to
be impossible to modernise.”
The consequences would mean
the air force would be unable to
operate as effectively in contested
airspace as planned, Welsh says,
noting: “Our ‘kick in the door’ capability
would be impacted.”
Operational testers at Edwards
AFB, California, are expected to
receive their first four conventional
take-off and landing F-35As on
21 February, with a sister squadron
at Nellis AFB, Nevada, due to
receive its first four examples
about a week later. The aircraft
will be handed over in the Block
1B and Block 2A software standards
respectively.
The USAF’s 31st and 422nd test
and evaluation squadrons were
supposed to receive their first aircraft
for operational test about
eight months ago, and have six
qualified F-35 pilots between
them. “The job is really familiarisation
training in preparation for
our big test in 2015-2016, assuming
that doesn’t slip again,” a
USAF official says, referring to the
planned start of operational testing
for the F-35A’s initial war-fighting
Block 2B software configuration.
Meanwhile, the effects of full
sequestration would be equally
dire for the US Navy and US Marine
Corps, service officials say.
Adm Mark Ferguson, vicechief
of naval operations, told
Congress the USN would lose
two carrier strike groups and a
“proportional” number of amphibious
strike groups if the cuts
are introduced. The USMC may
have to “cancel major multi-year
procurements, such as the [Bell
Boeing] MV-22, and incur greater
cost and delay in future programme
buys,” says commandant
Gen James Amos. Unless averted,
sequestration is scheduled to
come into effect on 1 March. �
US Air Force
model of a previously unseen
A Russian unmanned air vehicle
potentially capable of performing
strike missions has been
inadvertently revealed, with the
regional republic of Tatarstan’s
government having posted images
of the design online.
Pictures showing the Altius
UAV were briefly published following
a visit to the republic by
Russian defence minister Sergei
Shoigu on 5 February.
They were subsequently removed,
but had already been
reproduced by the business
daily Vedomosti. Tatarstan-based
Sokol then posted a graphic of
the type on its website following
the disclosure.
The Altius is a high-winged
aircraft apparently powered by
two turboprop engines, with its
design also featuring a streamlined
forward fuselage, slabsided
rear fuselage and a
V-shaped tail. The Sokol illustration
does not include a repre-
Israel Aerospace Industries is offering
a cost-effective means of
converting basic helicopters for a
range of maritime missions, and
is currently exploring co-operation
opportunities with leading
rotorcraft manufacturers.
Suitable for installation on new
or used helicopters, the Skimmer
DEFENCE
DEVELOPMENT ALEXANDER ZUDIN MOSCOW
Russian Altius design is
inadvertently revealed
ROTORCRAFT ARIE EGOZI TEL AVIV
sentative sensor payload or communications
equipment.
Sokol and St Petersburg-based
Tranzas won a Rb 1 billion ($33
million) contract in 2011 to develop
a 5t-class medium-altitude,
long-endurance UAV provisionally
named Altius and a
1t-class system called Inokhodyets
(Wanderer).
Speaking at the time of the
award, Tranzas news agency
Viktor Godunov told ARMS-TASS
that the new systems would be
competitive with their foreign
counterparts, have long range and
endurance and be capable of “all
missions, including strike”.
Sokol is responsible for aircraft
construction and the supply
of ground systems, with Tranzas
developing control systems and
electronics for the Altius and Inokhodyets.
Both should make
their flight debuts during 2014,
and enter detailed testing in
2015, according to Russian
media reports. �
Sokol and Tranzas are working on the roughly 5t twin-turboprop
Skimmer conversion kit offered
package can add a search radar,
electro-optical/infrared sensor,
sonar, datalink, electronic support
measures and communications
intelligence arrays, plus
mission management and monitoring
systems. Weapons such as
anti-ship missiles could also be
installed, IAI says. �
19-25 February 2013 | Flight International | 17
Tim Bicheno-Brown/Sokol