“When we fly a fourth-generation plane against an air defense system, they see us, so we have to do certain tactics differently. We’re at a lot greater risk when we do those things,” he said. “But when we have, say, a fifth-generation airplane, they can locate those SAMs [surface to air missiles] a lot faster than we can, they can get closer without being detected, and then can knock them out or suppress them, allowing us to just save a lot of fuel, carry more weapons into, say, a different target area.”

Col. Robert Novotny, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England cited in defense news.com

Source:
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/show-daily/farnborough/2016/07/06/f35-lakenheath-overseas-air-force-construction/86729876/

Thales Watchkeeper UAV to Be Full Operational By April 2017

A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian revealed that, “despite taking delivery of dozens of Watchkeeper, the British Army only had 6 trained pilots for the 33 Watchkeeper aircraft delivered by the autumn of 2015,” British Forces TV reported Oct. 6, 2015, adding that “most are now boxed up, sitting in storage.”

The pilot shortage is one reason why, since January 2014, Watchkeeper has only logged 400 sorties and 1,000 flight hours, after a still-unexplained suspension of flight activity between September 2013 and January 2014.

The Guardian story added that, “despite the gloomy statistics, the forecast is more promising. The Army is set to begin the first operational conversion courses to train Watchkeeper pilots later this year, with 24 pilots due to complete it in two years’ time, rising to 100 pilots before the project’s Full Operational Capability deadline arrives in 2017,” which is the date confirmed by Lord Howe.

!!

That’s what we thought… Today the requirement are for 25hr loiter at… 250 km… Line of sight. We are not in the Predator range of perfs (but the Protector might fill the void in the upper part of offer).

Reading this I had more in mind the smaller Boeing ScanEagle UAV. Or one of the Turkish or UAE recently dev’d drones.

The MALE UAVs should have a service ceiling of 30,000 feet or more, and a maximum range in excess of 250kms in line of sight mode. An endurance greater than 25 hours with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) payloads has been asked for.

Scaneagle, definitively.

India issues tri-services RFI for MALE UAV

The base requirement as per the RFI is for 100 UAVs, 50 ground control stations, and 100 payloads

“The UAVs are proposed to be developed and manufactured by the Indian industry under an appropriate category of the Defence Procurement Policy like Buy & Make (Indian) etc,” says the RFI.

The manufacture of the MALE UAV can also be undertaken by industry consortiums.

Source:
FlightGlobal.com

Turkey to open Incirlik base to Russia

Turkey may open its Incirlik airbase to Russia, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, during an interview to TRT channel.

link: http://www.theasian.asia/archives/95349

Also: NATO’s AWACS to join the coalition over Syria and Irak

NATO leaders will approve the use of AWACS surveillance aircraft to assist the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State extremist group, the alliance’s secretary-general said Monday.

Source:
Military Times.com

AFSOC favours side-mounted laser for gunship

he also outlined his plan to operate a low-observable aircraft for silent sabotage. In a Congressional hearing in June, Goldfein described the Air Force’s plan to complete stealthy, laser attacks.

“Right now when I want to, or when we want to place firepower on the enemy, they and everyone else in the area knows we’re there,” Goldfein said. “What we need is a capability to create an effect and not have them know exactly where it came from or who.”

Interesting

JBER Pilot Reaches New Heights

The T-38s [Agressor] are typically flown by Raptor pilots who are the most qualified to challenge the Raptor, and exploit any and all perceived air-to-air vulnerabilities. Imagine a widely dispersed flight of T-38s moving fast at 50 ft off the water attempting to penetrate an area under Raptor CAP (Combat Air Patrol). The final result most certainly makes Raptor pilots extremely familiar and confident in their aircraft and its capabilities as they push both sides of an engagement thoroughly.

In response to the editor’s note…

Source:
The Aviationist 2014*

*As a journalist, being unable to aknowledge an information that is 2 years old (at least) should constitute a professional misbehavior.

non-optimum throttle/altitude due to real world: Unchanged (and even less critical – see below).

bleed losses: None (or drastically less). All bleed goes in the 3rd stream

accessory loses: Per unit of mass flows, there are less accessory losses (more fluid stream per equivalent architecture)

inlet losses: Un-affected and less critics.

You failed to see that as the engine has the same diameter, the hot section (the turbojet part) is narrower. Hence the inlet section become less critical (mass flow is generated more with air mass than speed of jet – hence reducing shocking sensibility, engine stall risk and the need for a larger inlet).

——-
Notice how they are talking of increased acceleration and not top speed.
Speed might be limited by material and op need (friction heat) or this to preclude having to redesign the inlet.