[URL=”http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38336101%5DUS F35 fighters to deploy from Royal Navy aircraft carrier
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US and UK F35 fighters are to deploy alongside each other when the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier begins her first operational tour in 2021.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has signed an agreement with his US counterpart to allow Marine Corps F35Bs to fly from HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The first Royal Navy and RAF F35s, the Lightning II, will be deployed in 2018.

The announcement came on the margins of a London meeting about action against the so-called Islamic State group.

The F35 fighter is built by Lockheed Martin in the US.

The aircraft will later also be available for deployment on HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, currently being constructed in Rosyth.

Sir Michael said: “As Britain’s pre-eminent operational partner, including in our current fight against Daesh [Islamic State group], the inter-operability of British and American forces is crucial…

“Britain and America’s longstanding defence and intelligence sharing epitomises the special relationship that helps keeps both our nations safer and more secure.”

The Ministry of Defence said the agreement will mean UK and US personnel will be able to work closer together on operations, exercises and training.

A spokesman added that British pilots, engineers and deck handlers are currently operating from US Navy carriers on skills “which will be important when it comes to deploy the new British carriers”.

But being an indigenous program, the IAF could ask for and get a Mk1A configuration – the airplane is indigenous so as long as a supplier like Elta is willing to sell and help integrate the AESA is available, it can be done.

I can’t help wondering whether any firm other than Elta was considered. I’d have wanted to talk to a couple of others, if only to make sure whoever I picked knew they weren’t my only option. It might keep them keen.

Wondered the same myself. But now it seems they’ve opened it up to other firms, especially US ones, in wake of the recent US defence partnership bill passing.

Light Combat Aircraft to get radar; US, Israeli and European companies to bid for tender

By Manu Pubby, ET Bureau

India is set to initiate a major international competition to acquire new age radars for its indigenous combat planes in the coming weeks, the winner of which is likely to gain a strong foothold for future domestic projects.

Sources have told ET that an expression of interest for a new set of AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk 1A is set to be floated shortly, with top global aviation firms expected to participate. The government had recently cleared an order for 83 of the LCA Mk 1A jets.

The competition would be the largest international contract for AESA radars that are the heart of modern combat jets. These new radars give much more range and engagement potential to fighters, enabling them to engage targets from a distance without getting detected. AESA radars can track and direct weapons to multiple air and ground targets simultaneously.

With India working on an indigenous next generation plane under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), it is likely that the winning company will have a much larger order book, with the potential number going upwards of 200.

The first Indian Air Force aircraft with AESA radars will be the Jaguar fighter that is being upgraded to the DARIN 3 version. The first Jaguar with the new radar is expected to fly in January. The contract to equip 58 Jaguars with AESA radars had gone to Israel’s ELTA, making it the frontrunner for the LCA Mk 1A project as well.

There could, however, also be surprise entries into the Indian competition from the US, with Raytheon, which manufactures the AESA radar for the F/A 18 Super Hornet and the F 16 also showing interest.

While in the past, US firms had limited options to offer to New Delhi, with India now gaining Major Defence Partner status, transfer of sensitive technology and licences have been made easier.

The integration of an AESA radar was a key parameter for the Air Force to clear the order for 83 LCA Mk 1A fighters, after years of blocking the indigenous fighter on concerns that it would not be combat worthy.

The AESA will give the LCA an edge over similar fighter operating in the region that are equipped with conventional radars.

The LCA project took a minor hit earlier this month when Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanbaannounced that the naval version of the fighter is not suitable for aircraft carrier operations, necessitating an international competition for a new range of combat aircraft.

Of course if they take an RFP-driven approach, instead of simply evaluating all proposals as a package and selecting one, it could turn into a long drawn MMRCA-style screw up, further delaying the LCA program and perhaps necessitating more Tejas Mk1 orders in lieu of the Tejas Mk1As.

Alternatively, this could just be a negotiating tactic to keep the Israelis honest, especially since the Elta’s EL/M-2052 was reported to already have been selected.

Elta cements radar status on Tejas fighter – May 2016

The company’s ELM-2032 fire-control radar is installed on prototypes of the Indian-developed fighter, and deliveries will continue as series production starts. According to Elta, it also has been chosen as sole supplier for additional future versions of the Tejas; Israeli sources suggest this could involve using its active electronically scanned array ELM-2052 sensor. They suggest that strong ties between HAL and IAI could see additional Israeli equipment installed on the fighter.

Reveals more than it says.
Gripen E:
-> Time-to-station – 26 min
-> Armament – 2 x Meteor + 2 x IRIS-T
-> Fuel fraction at launch – 42.5%

F-35:
-> Time-to-station – 29 min (at Mach 0.98)
-> Armament – 2 x Meteor + 2 x Aim-120D
-> Fuel fraction at launch – 62.5%

The F-35 will take slightly longer to get there but will be able to deliver far far more time on station.

In this scenario, the expected ground invasion has forced the fleet to abandon the airfields and disperse on multiple emergency road strips, together with tool sets, some basic spares and boxes full with ammo and ordnance.. Most pilots are available, alongside with maintenance crews but the staff must be reduced to bare minimum in order to sustain the ops as long as possible..

Rationing staff can extend the duration of flight operations? (I’ve heard of rationing spares, fuel, and what have you, but this is a new one.)

Most pilots are available, alongside with maintenance crews but the staff must be reduced to bare minimum in order to sustain the ops as long as possible.. Hangars are not available, tarps is all you have, cannibalization of the existing airframes is a daily routine.. ..

Hmm… hundreds of tons of fuel and munitions consumed by fleet weekly is available… but there’s a sudden & severe shortage of spares, requiring cannibalization of air frames?

Every day, one of your fighters might not make it back, numbers matter much more than individual capabilities…

Individual capabilities are of less importance in a war where every day one fighter is lost?

This is how the defense war looks like.. How long can your stricken fleet of hangar queens sustain such conditions?

What exactly happens to the F-35 according to you when its pulled out of a hangar and under a tarp?

Leading to…

‘Signature’ US defence project in works

SUJAN DUTTA

New Delhi, Dec. 10: The US and India are set to shortly announce a “signature, big-ticket” project that will symbolise the finalisation of India as a “major defence partner”, senior officials involved in the talks have said.

US defence secretary Ashton Carter was in New Delhi this week on a farewell visit and met defence minister Manohar Parrikar for the seventh time in two years.

Officials would not describe the “signature project”. One official simply said “it flies”.

This has led to speculation that Boeing and/or Lockheed Martin would be partnering an Indian entity to set up an assembly line for F/A-18 Super Hornet or F-16 Fighting Falcon combat jets.

Although this seemingly goes against the incoming Donald Trump presidency’s stated aim of checking the flight of manufacturing and jobs from the US, officials assess that if the project is dovetailed into the “Make in India” policy, it would generate more jobs in both countries.

The project would be under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative that was launched by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama in 2012.

It has now expanded to include seven joint working groups on jet engine technology; aircraft technology; naval systems; air systems; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; chemical-biological protection systems, and other systems.

As the Obama administration phases out, it is highlighting the growth in defence cooperation with India. Since 2008, US-India defence trade has increased from about $1 billion to more than $15 billion.

India has procured 13 Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules aircraft, 10 C-17 Globemasters and 12 P-8 Poseidon from Boeing. It has also contracted 22 AH 64 Apache attack helicopters and 15 CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Earlier this month India had contracted a deal worth $732 million dollars for 145 M777 ultralight howitzers from BAE Land Systems.

None of these purchases is wedded into the “Make in India” initiative. But the howitzers would involve an investment in a Mahindra firm for an “Assemble, Integrate and Test” (AIT) facility.

India and the US are also considering expanding the Malabar naval exercise. This year Japan was included in the war games to make it a trilateral exercise. Now the three countries are in talks with Australia to make it a quadrilateral exercise.

New Delhi has been hesitant about war games involving multinational forces since a 2007 exercise involving five navies was held in the Bay of Bengal.

You’ve obviously lost the scope of the topic.. You are discussing peacetime conditions but the topic is about the aircraft being forced to operate from dispersed roads after the few RCAF main bases have been attacked by the invading force (say Russians). It’s no more about spending an additional $200K/yr on a set of professionals, it’s about finding any, at all.

In this scenario, the aircraft survive, the pilots survive, the POL stores survive, the munition stores survive, the spares stores survive but the maintenance staff doesn’t survive?

And the Gripen, in such a scenario, will be able to operate while supported by untrained conscripts (with the trained conscripts already KIA)?

Also, where exactly is the RCAF to find these conscripts, given that Canada hasn’t has a conscription program since 1944 (and barely had one even back then)?

It has impact on aircraft’s utilization, period.. We won’t know the exact effect on wartime surge until that happens..

Actually the vast majority of us do know. You’re the one that fails to grasp what is a fairly simple principle. The ALIS manages logistics. The absence of ALIS connectivity in no way inhibits the aircraft from engaging in regular combat operations.

Over the short term, it makes zero difference. Over the long term, spares supply can still be manually managed on an (inefficient) ad hoc basis. The same way that the Gripen E & SH logistics are run.

Utterly stupid argument with zero value.. Exactly as expected from you.. But Gripen can be operated by relatively untrained conscripts, that is exactly the concept SAAB has been pushing for decades. It might come down to such tiny details as size of the buttons or absence of touch screens so that the crew does not have to take off their warm gloves while prepping the aircraft for the next flight.

The RCAF is manned entirely by regulars while conscripts form less than 25% of the FiAF’s standing strength (involved in non-technical duties). Neither the RCAF nor the FiAF employ the conscripts to maintain their Hornets. Nor are they so hard up on manpower that they can’t spare a battalion’s worth of professionally trained airmen to maintain just 60 odd new fighters, acquired at the cost of several billion dollars.

So where exactly is this ‘untrained conscripts’ business coming from? Canada isn’t going to introduce conscription because it fits “the concept SAAB has been pushing for decades”. Nor does Finland intend to remodel its AF to reduce professionalisation (quite the other way round).

Or maybe the entire F-35 operation is reliant on a point of entry for ALIS data connecting to CPE and any failure could affect fleet operations or even ground them because there is no redundancy in the system and its structure, as is, is not exactly deployable..

But hey, I have just invented it..

You did just invent it or maybe you’re just not familiar with the topic.

The ‘entire F-35 operation’ isn’t reliant on the ALIS, only the logistics are. An ALIS failure could take the entire fleet offline, but it will not make it inoperable, just like the GPS conking out doesn’t render my car inoperable. The maintenance element of the ALIS is just an issue of getting the stable final version of the system released, which will be well before the RCAF receives any new aircraft.

Combat operations can continue without ALIS support for a month or more, running on the same kind of ad hoc logistics support that the Gripen E will have in the wilderness.