Por Tierra Mar y Aire

"La Armada ya plantea una flota de seis submarinos S80 en Cartagena": https://www.infodefensa.com/texto-diario/mostrar/4898722/armada-plantea-flota-seis-submarinos-s80-cartagena

Parece que en el ILA de este año Alemania dará el paso definitivo para integrar el Taurus en el Eurofighter, además del Brimstone 3: https://x.com/MBDADeutschland/status/1797266494566416698

Parece que el piloto implicado en el último accidente de un F-35B (New Mexico, 28/5/2024), se encuentra estable: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-pilot-f-35b-crash-kirtland/

Esta unidad accidentada era una instrumentalizada de pruebas configurada como TR2 y entregada en septiembre de 2023. Esta flota es muy escasa y con mucha demanda, por lo que la pérdida es significativa.

Contrato relacionado con los motores (29/05/2024): https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/3790490/
NAVY

"Raytheon Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded a not-to-exceed $380,604,448 modification (P00053) to a previously awarded, cost-plus-incentive-fee, fixed-price incentive (firm-target), cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable contract (N0001921C0011). This modification adds scope and increases contract ceiling to provide for F135 propulsion system annual sustainment including program management, financial and administrative activities, propulsion integration, replenishment spare part buys, engineering support, material management, configuration management, product management support, software sustainment, security management, Joint Technical Data updates, and support equipment management. Additionally, this effort includes depot level maintenance and repair for all fielded propulsion systems at the F-35 production sites and operational locations, as well as training in support of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) participants, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (40%); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (21%); Indianapolis, Indiana (12%); Windsor Locks, Connecticut (6%); West Palm Beach, Florida (6%); Brekstad, Norway (4%); Leeuwarden, Netherlands (3%); Iwakuni, Japan (3%); Williamtown, New South Wales, Australia (2%); (1%); Cameri, Italy, and Marham, United Kingdom (1%); and Fort Worth, Texas (1%), is expected to be completed in August 2024. Fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance (Air Force) funds in the amount of $91,144,011; fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $54,514,229; fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $16,667,989; non-U.S. DOD participant funds in the amount of $49,397,375; and FMS funds in the amount of $25,311,056, will be obligated at time of award, $162,326,229, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity."

Otro contrato más relacionado con el motor (30/05/2024): https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/3791872/
"Raytheon Technologies Corp., doing business at Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded a $301,762,768 modification (P00002) to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive (firm-target), cost-plus-incentive-fee advanced acquisition contract (N0001923C0030). This modification procures Lot 19 long-lead time materials as well as the manufacture, assembly, inspection, acceptance, and delivery of 108 conventional takeoff and landing F135 propulsion systems, 27 short takeoff and vertical landing F135 propulsion systems, and 13 Carrier Variant F135 propulsion systems. Additionally, this effort provides global spares requirements to include spare engines, power modules, and other hardware supporting the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) participants and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (17%) (labor surplus area); Indianapolis, Indiana (10%); Middletown, Connecticut (8%); Kent, Washington (7%); North Berwick, Maine (4%); El Cajon, California (3%) (labor surplus area); Cromwell, Connecticut (3%); Whitehall, Michigan (3%) Portland, Oregon (2%); San Diego, California (2%); South Bend, Indiana (2%); Columbus, Georgia (1%); Hampton, Virginia (1%); Manchester, Connecticut (1%), Cheshire, Connecticut (1%); Elmwood Park, New Jersey (1%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (34%), and is expected to be completed in June 2027. Fiscal 2024 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $45,759,000; fiscal 2024 aircraft procurement (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $21,319,250; fiscal 2024 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,408,000; FMS customer funds in the amount of $195,364,769; and non-U.S. DOD participant funds in the amount of $20,911,749, will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity."

Hola a todos, un placer estar otra vez por aquí.

Para ir probando, pongo esta noticia sobre las mejoras que están introduciendo los británicos, con las que esperan lograr nuevas ventas: https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/technology-enhancements-to-boost-eurofighter-sales-appeal-bae-says/158396.article

Además de las ya conocidas del radar ECRS Mk2 y el HMD Striker II, se habla como novedad de una computadora de misión unificada con 200 veces más capacidad, pensada para la LTE y que se sumaría a la nueva pantalla panorámica de presentación de datos. Respecto a la computadora, el hecho de que hablen de "unificada" hace pensar que por fin se dará el salto de la arquitectura federada a la modular integrada, como ya tienen los 5ª y el resto de Eurocanards

Nuevas operaciones de los Eurofighter británicos en Yemen: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-on-air-strikes-against-houthi-military-targets-in-yemen-30-may-2024

"On Thursday 30 May, UK forces participated in a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which have thus far killed innocent merchant mariners from Vietnam and the Philippines, damaged several merchant ships, and sunk the bulk carrier Rubymar.

Intelligence had confirmed two locations near Hudaydah as being involved with the Houthi anti-shipping attacks, with a number of buildings identified as housing drone ground control facilities and providing storage for very long range drones, as well as surface to air weapons used to impede coalition operations to safeguard shipping in the region. Furthermore, a set of Houthi facilities at Ghulayfiqah, further south on the Yemeni coast, had also been identified as being involved in the command and control of their anti-shipping campaign.

Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s therefore conducted strikes on the target buildings at these three locations, using Paveway IV guided bombs. As ever, the utmost care was taken in planning the strikes to minimise any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure. Conducting the strikes in the hours of darkness should also have mitigated yet further any such risks. As ever with such missions, RAF Voyager tankers provided essential air refuelling support to the Typhoons."

@blasdelezo , el artículo es bastante malo. En primer lugar, la nomeclatura LTE ya se ha abandonado en favor de la más clásica MLU. Después cita la capacidad de guerra electrónica, pero esta se va a implantar antes con la versión especializada alemana y también con el Mk2 británico/Mk1 Step 2 germano-español. En tercer lugar habla de la capacidad MUM-T, pero eso es otro programa distinto... de nuevo anterior a la MLU y con versiones propuestas distintas, como por ejemplo la alemana sobre pod Litening. Lo de que "será capaz de comandar paquetes de fuerzas multidominio, incluyendo satélites, fragatas y fuerzas especiales, directamente desde la cabina" mejor ni lo comentamos.

@elgranmazapan , es la feria aeronáutica de Berlín. Se celebra la semana que viene: https://ila-berlin.de/en

Eficiencia de la capacidad antiaérea ucraniana según Clash Report: https://x.com/clashreport/status/1825933694479090049

Statistics: Report of the General Staff of Ukraine on the effectiveness of air defense.

— Total missiles launched by the Russian Air Force/Armed Forces: 9,627

Total missiles shot down: 2,857

Efficiency 29.68%

— Total UAVs launched by the Russian Air Force: 13,997

Total UAVs shot down: 9,272

Efficiency 66.24%

— Missile kill efficiency:

Kinzhal: 25.23%

Kalibr: 49.55%

Kh-101/555: 78.06%

Onyx: 5.69%

Iskander-K: 37.62%

Kh-35: 6.67%

Kh-22: 0.55%

Iskander-M, KN-23: 4.31%

Zircon: 33.33%

Tochka-U: 8.82%

Kh-25/29/31/35/58/59/69: 22.17%

S-300/400: 0.63%

@frapu , parece ser que los €14.600 son por pack: https://tirotactico.net/2024/08/19/43398/

No se trata de un lote de 40 fusiles MCX Rattler, sino de 40 lotes que comprenden fusiles MCX Rattler en varias versiones y diferentes accesorios ─independientemente que en el correspondiente expediente de contratación 2024/AR40U/00000844E se haga referencia, literalmente, al «suministro de cuarenta (40) subfusiles MCX SIG SAUER con sus accesorios».

Efectivamente el precio unitario de cada «lote», no de cada fusil MCX Rattler, asciende a 14.635€ (12.095€ sin impuestos), teniendo en cuenta que en el expediente de contratación el presupuesto base de licitación es de 585.414,85€ (483.813,93€ sin impuestos).

Aunque no consta en el expediente de contratación, cabe esperar que al igual que los 20 lotes anteriores, cada lote esté formado por una «plataforma» MCX en calibre .300BLK, otra «plataforma» en calibre 5,56mm OTAN, un silenciador para cada una de estas versiones, varios guardamanos para usar el arma con o sin silenciador, un visor de punto rojo Romeo 4T y un magnificador Juliet 4X (elementos que analizamos en marzo), varias culatas distintas, tanto plegables como telescópicas y minimalistas, cargadores de alta capacidad, kit de armero, correa portafusil, y seguro que alguna otra cosa. Ahora que los cuñados expertos en importación y venta de armas hagan sus cálculos de precios de mercado.

Los F-35 holandeses asumen la misión de ataque nuclear: https://theaviationist.com/2024/05/31/dutch-f-35-nuclear-role/

"Defensa sanciona con 9 millones a Indra, Sapa y Santa Bárbara por retrasos en el 8x8": https://www.20minutos.es/lainformacion/empresas/defensa-sanciona-millones-indra-sapa-santa-barbara-5631384/

Bienvenido @Comodoro

Un par de noticias que se me quedaron colgadas de marzo:

• Primera foto de un T4 alemán (recordemos que tenían que comenzar las entregas el año pasado): https://x.com/PAFFalconsPK/status/2037558810378985596
  
  Photo by: Dietmar Fenners

• Los británicos comienzan a producir las unidades turcas: https://www.zona-militar.com/en/2026/03/27/the-united-kingdom-has-begun-production-of-the-new-eurofighter-fighters-for-the-turkish-air-force/

• Unidades desplegadas por RU en el exterior: https://x.com/ArmchairAdml/status/2037520382962307434
  

Actualización de noticias del mes de abril, primera quincena.

• "Los Eurofighter del Ala 14 del Ejército del Aire estarán en el Gran Premio de Fórmula 1 de Madrid en septiembre": https://www.infodefensa.com/texto-diario/mostrar/5833441/eurofighter-ala-14-ejercito-aire-estaran-gran-premio-formula-1-madrid-septiembre

• Habrá un Eurofighter en el Festival Aéreo Internacional San Javier a principios de mayo: https://x.com/EuroAirshow/status/2041855001748807955

• BAE Systems potencia al Eurofighter Typhoon con el sistema de armas de precisión APKWS: https://www.hispaviacion.es/bae-systems-potencia-al-eurofighter-typhoon-con-el-sistema-de-armas-de-precision-apkws/
  
  Foto: BEA Systems

BAE Systems ha realizado con éxito un disparo de prueba del APKWS en Eurofighter Typhoon, marcando un hito en la búsqueda de soluciones de armamento de bajo coste y alta precisión.
...
Se espera que la próxima fase de pruebas incluya enfrentamientos contra objetivos aéreos, consolidando el uso de este armamento en misiones de defensa aérea. El APKWS ya ha sido desplegado operativamente en plataformas como el F-16 y el A-10, así como en helicópteros, ofreciendo una alternativa de menor coste frente a los misiles guiados tradicionales.

• Otro artículo al respecto con un poco más de información: https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/eurofighter-typhoon-apkws-low-cost-drone-defence/
  

• Y un vídeo: https://x.com/Gabriel64869839/status/2042341017328799837

• Más sobre el derribo de drones por parte de los británicos sobre Oriente Medio: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-892150

"UK Typhoons and F-35 jets, supported by Voyager and Royal Navy Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, have continued their defensive missions over the Eastern Mediteranean, Jordan, Bahrain, and the UAE," the post read.

Four RAF pilots have achieved the "ace" status due to the mission, the ministry added in a separate statement, having "aving blasted Iranian drones out of the sky during operations in the Middle East, protecting British interests, partners, and personnel in the region."

• Sobre las configuraciones que se están volando en este escenario: https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2026/uk-typhoon-fgr4-fighter-jet-shows-heavy-air-defence-loadout-in-middle-east-air-operations
  
  A newly released UK Ministry of Defence image shows an RAF Typhoon FGR4 armed with Meteor and ASRAAM missiles, highlighting Britain’s layered air combat posture in the Middle East (Picture Source: UK MoD)

• CAE entrega su generador de imágenes Prodigy para Austria, mejorando su capacidad de simulación: https://www.afm.aero/cae-prodigy-achieves-military-milestone-with-deployment-on-german-and-austrian-armed-forces-simulators

• Tras seis meses y unas 650h de vuelo, termina el despliegue de Eurofighter alemanes en Rumanía: https://www.pressreader.com/romania/nine-o-clock-daily-9jgg/20260406/281565182315174

• Alemania prueba el despliegue rápido de cinco Eurofighter en el aeropuerto civil de Lübeck:

• Una curiosidad sobre los EJ200 y cómo se soldan los blisk ("bladed disk" o "integrally bladed rotor"): https://x.com/Jordan_W_Taylor/status/2042866998766399553

On early engines, something called ‘fretting corrosion’, between tight-fitting parts in the EJ200 compressor, was cutting component life down to a mere 400 hours, rather than the 4,000 they’d been designed for. This occurred due to wear between the tight-fitting compressor blades and disc subject to colossal cyclic stresses, and needed to be eliminated somehow.

The solution was to change how they were made: Rolls-Royce elected to replace the conventional compressor disc (with retaining slots for the blades) with a single-piece, fully machined bladed disc, called a ‘blisk’. The rationale was simple: You can’t get wear between tight-fitting parts if there is only one part! To achieve this, Rolls-Royce needed to pursue a new and very unusual type of welding.

Simply put, it needed to use friction, -ridiculous friction!- to join the jewel-like blades to the machined disc. Think of it like rubbing your hands together to keep warm on a cold winter’s day, but taken to absurd extremes, ending with your hands becoming merged together. Uncomfortable body horror, but impressive.

Friction welds were already performed on the shafts that run up the middle of jet engines, to join multiple pieces by spinning them up and forcing them together until frictional heating, and ludicrous pressure, bonded shafts together. The advantages of this are significant: Friction welding creates minimum heat affected zones (HAZ), extremely low porosity and high quality welds with favourable microstructure that’s well-suited to highly-loaded assemblies like jet engines. It also works well with dissimilar metals, and can be done very, very quickly, with low-ish energy costs.

In linear friction welding, a specialized fixture holds a part such as a compressor blade and applies it to the workpiece with many tens of tons of compressive force, while vibrating 20-125 times a second at very low amplitudes of just a few millimetres. This rapidly generates exactly the same kind of frictional and compressive load that woks so well with rotating friction welding, and lets you weld blades onto compressor discs, which can be further machined down into finished ‘blisks’ at leisure, saving weight and adding extra life to the engine.

But it’s not straightforward. Friction welding is one of those weird hyper-specialised processes that’s thrives in strange niches, too awkward and specialised for mere mortals. The capital cost of friction welders, especially LFW machines, is nothing short of astronomical, so you only pick this as a weld method if the output justifies the expense… as it does with jet engine compressor blisks, where it nets you a juicy weight saving as well as eliminating fretting corrosion risk.

• Los blisk no se adoptaron en un principio en el HPC debido al escepticismo, por lo que los 85 primeros motores tenían un diseño más convencional. Por cierto, MTU también contribuyó al desarrollo: https://www.mtu.de/fileadmin/EN/5_Investors/7_Financial_Reports/PDFs/2019_Annual_report.pdf

In 1995, when Arthur Schäffler first unveiled the new full-blisk low-pressure compressor to the four Eurofighter customers for their EJ200 jet engine, the response was less than enthusiastic. “Heated discussions broke out immediately,” recalls the then Technical Director of the EJ200 consortium Eurojet, thinking back to that meeting in London. The representatives from Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom had some grounds for their skepticism. Although a first blisk had already been used in a helicopter engine back then, the blisks that MTU’s Schäffler was proposing had a much greater diameter than the helicopter component. “With the EJ200 blisks, we’d gone out to the very frontier of development technology,” says the engineer, who is now 81 years old. Driven there by necessity, the MTU engineers were forced to try the new technology in order to fulfill the service life requirements for the EJ200. The high rotational speeds of the rotors in the jet engine—and thus the centrifugal forces—were so great that fretting corrosion became a problem for the conventional individual blade technology. Fretting corrosion here refers to the formation of little pits on the surfaces of the blade root and rotor groove, which can lead to cracks and ultimately to loss of the blade.

“The first 85 EJ200 engines that were delivered without blisks in the high-pressure compressor in stages 1 and 2 were thus limited to 400 flight hours—whereas the design had planned for 4,000 hours,” says Christian Köhler, who joined MTU in 1990 and is today the Chief Engineer of the EJ200 program. The blisks resolved the problem and fully convinced the customers of the integrated disk-blade solution. By the start of 2019, 558 jets had already been delivered with the EJ200 engines—and more are on order. MTU’s blisk experience was then further utilized in an experimental high-pressure compressor that was developed as part of the HDV12 technology program and which fit more or less exactly into the PW6000 engine for the A318. “This allowed us to show Pratt & Whitney our technological abilities,” Köhler says. With a few modifications, the high-pressure compressor is a standard component in the PW6000 today, and for blisk technology this represented the leap into commercial business.

• Un vídeo al respecto:

Airbus presentará su concepto de UAV de escolta en el ILA: https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-06-unmanned-escort-for-manned-fighter-jets-airbus-presents-new-wingman

@bandua , cada uno tiene sus pros y sus contras. En primer lugar, decir que el EJ200 es más capaz, desarrollando más potencia con menor peso y en principio menor consumo (mayor índice de derivación). Otra ventaja es que eludes los controles de exportación de EEUU. Sin embargo, como contras tiene el precio, no tiene una versión desarrollada para monomotores y no está integrado en el Hürjet. Esto llevaría inevitablemente a mayores costes y plazos más abultados. Y si se quiere exportar hay que preguntar a Alemania...

Respecto al F404, esta es la opción barata y ya desarrollada. Sin embargo, además del menor rendimiento, tiene el gran inconveniente de que la producción tiene ahora mismo un cuello de botella (dos años de retraso para los Tejas de la India encargados en 2021). Esto genera incertidumbres sobre si llegarían a tiempo para cubrir nuestras necesidades, ya que primero habría que cubrir las necesidades de EEUU y la India antes de proveérselas a un rival en el mercado.

Sinceramente, creo que ahora mismo ya estamos en plazos imposibles. Recordemos: https://www.outono.net/elentir/2024/05/24/los-cuatro-candidatos-del-ejercito-del-aire-de-espana-para-reemplazar-a-sus-viejos-f-5m/

En marzo del año pasado, el Ministerio de Defensa de España afirmó estar trabajando en la elección de un sustituto para el F-5M: "el compromiso del Gobierno es que estará completado a finales del año 2023 en consecuencia, en el año 2024 ya tendremos madura la cuestión para poder garantizar que en 2028 estarán ya en el país los nuevos aviones para la formación de nuestros pilotos de caza y ataque". Sin embargo, ya estamos a punto de acabar mayo de 2024 y todavía no ha sido elegido un sustituto.

Y como todo puede empeorar, metemos a Airbus por el medio.

"Semana importante en las ventas de Navantia: la Armada india prueba el submarino S-80": https://theobjective.com/tecnologia/2024-06-24/ventas-navantia-armada-india-submarino/

En el F-15EX las cosas van un poco mejor, pero aún así hay casi un año de retraso: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-24-106831.pdf

Ese sobrecoste del 32% es debido a que se van a adquirir más unidades de las previstas inicialmente, pasando de 78 a 104. Sobre los retrasos:

Program officials said the recent production issues are because of Boeing’s new forward fuselage manufacturing process. Boeing is using new, automated manufacturing processes to drill holes prior to assembling the forward fuselage. Korea Aerospace Industries built the forward fuselage for earlier aircraft. According to program officials, Boeing has experienced increased quality deficiencies after switching to this new manufacturing process, including improperly installed tubing and wires that required timeconsuming rework.

While Boeing developed quality improvement plans for specific risk items, officials noted that rework continued in other areas of the forward fuselage. Recent Boeing data suggest that the cost of rework has more than quadrupled over the past year. Boeing is still refining the forward fuselage’s new, automated manufacturing process, which could result in increased rework costs and additional schedule delays. To mitigate future rework costs, program officials stated that Boeing plans to increase training and transfer experienced manufacturing staff from other product lines, such as the F-18.

El EPAWSS lo analizan aparte. A este programa le han metido las tijeras y muchos de los F-15E (y todos los C) que lo iban a montar se quedarán sin él, pasando de las 413 unidades inicialmente previstas a tan sólo 206, incluyendo las que van para el F-15EX.

"Defensa nombra al teniente general Braco nuevo jefe de Estado Mayor del Ejército del Aire y del Espacio": https://www.eldebate.com/espana/defensa/20240723/defensa-nombra-teniente-general-braco-nuevo-jefe-estado-mayor-ejercito-aire-espacio_215303.html