Test of the Extended Range version of the JASSM….
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=7f464e71-93f0-4eb7-a4e4-186d3e3d723e#d
By: Pbar_b1bwso - 26th May 2006 at 15:29
AESA does always sound sexier with what we are learning about it. However I was just thinking of yanking out the guts of the flight controls and having them replaced with something better…. and putting in a new modern cockpit. This would make the maintenance time much less overall…. One of the things that was promised to the B-1 when it was first downsized some years back is that the “savings” would be farmed back into the B-1 upgrades. “The man” kinda fibbed on that one.
Totally agree with that. Just anecdotally, it seemed like everytime I was sitting there with jet issues, it was a flight control issue (or an engine issue). I’d like to see some new engines too. The current radar works well enough and the new upgrade should solve the sustainment piece.
How those generals could sit in front of Congress and bald-face lie about the money is beyond me…
PBAR
By: ELP - 25th May 2006 at 05:34
AESA does always sound sexier with what we are learning about it. However I was just thinking of yanking out the guts of the flight controls and having them replaced with something better…. and putting in a new modern cockpit. This would make the maintenance time much less overall…. One of the things that was promised to the B-1 when it was first downsized some years back is that the “savings” would be farmed back into the B-1 upgrades. “The man” kinda fibbed on that one.
It is interesting to note also that all of the 51% mission up time jazz a few years ago, had an interesting story behind it that most never heard… they just saw the 51% and thought “maintenance pig”. However, seeing as “the man” only funded sustainment/spares items somewhere around 49%,…. the maintainers in the field were doing 2% better than the resources that were given to them. So, had the B-1 community been funded correctly on sustainment, it wouldn’t have been such a issue. Again though, I think funding flight control guts replacement and giving it a new modern cockpit, is the way to go. It is thousands of non-sexy issues like this, that really makes the USAF a killing force, NOT bleeding ourselves white and wasting huge amounts of cash on something we don’t need: JSF.
By: sferrin - 25th May 2006 at 02:02
I want to see money put into the B-1 for a new modern cockpit and flight controls. ( Improve mission up times / less maintenance stuff to do ).
Would it be worth the money to swap out the radar for an APG-79 or APG-80 AESA?
By: sferrin - 25th May 2006 at 02:01
I hope the Bone gets the external hardpoints back to carry these. A two-ship with 32 each could cause major havoc on an enemy air defense system.
Wouldn’t the loadout be 24 internal and 12 external? The reason I ask is that there are 6 hardpoints that were originally going to mount twin AGM-129/AGM-86 pylons on each one.
By: ELP - 25th May 2006 at 00:12
I want to see money put into the B-1 for a new modern cockpit and flight controls. ( Improve mission up times / less maintenance stuff to do ).
By: Pbar_b1bwso - 24th May 2006 at 23:42
I hope the Bone gets the external hardpoints back to carry these. A two-ship with 32 each could cause major havoc on an enemy air defense system.
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May 22, 2006 at 11:50 pm