US-Hubschrauberprogramm "Joint Multi-Role"/"Future Vertical Lift"

[muck]

Sollte die deutsche Bundeswehr mit ihrer Einschätzung, dass Kampfhubschrauber obsolet geworden sind, am Ende doch Recht behalten? Ich mag es noch nicht recht glauben.

[Doppeladler]

Na ob bei der Bundeswehr ein Plan dahinter stand ... ?
Aber ich denke schon, dass der Hubschrauber in der Rolle als bemannter bewaffneter Aufklärer / Pfadfinder nicht mehr zeitgemäß ist. Und es wird noch schlimmer, denn die allgegenwärtige Drohnengefahr wird dafür sorgen, dass auch Anti-Drohnen-Waffensysteme allgegenwärtig sind und diese können auch gut gegen Hubschrauber wirken.

[theoderich]

Sollte die deutsche Bundeswehr mit ihrer Einschätzung, dass Kampfhubschrauber obsolet geworden sind, am Ende doch Recht behalten? Ich mag es noch nicht recht glauben.

Letztes Jahr hat das GAO einen Prüfbericht zu FVL und dabei auch zu FARA veröffentlicht. Anscheinend wurde hier eher "die Reißleine gezogen" bevor es zu einer erheblichen Kostensteigerung kommt:

Future Vertical Lift Aircraft:
Army Should Implement Leading Practices to Mitigate Acquisition Risk

GAO-23-105554
Published: Apr 17, 2023. Publicly Released: Apr 17, 2023.

FARA Cost Estimates in Development Along With Analysis of Alternatives

FARA officials are still developing documentation for the effort and have not yet developed a life cycle cost estimate. Officials stated they are coordinating on the development of cost estimates for the analysis of alternatives, as well as for prior to the start of system development, in accordance with DOD policy for the major capability acquisition pathway. They stated these efforts include developing cost estimates for inclusion within the analysis of alternatives, a draft Army Cost Position, and an independent cost estimate. Several offices are expected to coordinate on these efforts, including the offices of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Cost and Economics and DOD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, as well as The Research and Analysis Center for the Army. An independent cost estimate for FARA is not required until the completion of its analysis of alternatives. Establishing such an independent cost estimate prior to system development reflects GAO leading practices for establishing a business case.

In November 2021, FARA officials provided a briefing on the analysis of alternatives, including potential aircraft designs and cost and schedule risks, to the Office of the Secretary Defense Study Advisory Group. Since that briefing, however, the Army requested permission to withdraw the analysis of alternatives based on schedule delays associated with the ITE. As of October 2022, FARA officials do not have a planned completion date for the analysis of alternatives.

Similar to cost, FARA has not yet developed documentation of schedule risks. In 2020, FARA began to develop an analysis of alternatives for potential aircraft and risks to meeting its planned schedule. For example, an identified schedule risk for FARA is the engine that will go into the aircraft—the ITE, which is managed under a separate program office. According to acquisition officials, the ITE has already experienced a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. FARA now expects to take delivery of its first ITE in the spring of fiscal year 2023 and then complete ground-based testing prior to its first prototype demonstration flights. In addition, the completion of the analysis of alternatives itself and selection of aircraft design has already been delayed by over 6 months. FARA officials stated that they still plan to meet their timelines, including issuing a request for proposal in mid-2023 and starting system development in mid-2025, despite the analysis of alternatives remaining incomplete. Officials outside the effort have expressed concern about FARA’s schedule. For example, officials from the Army’s Research and Analysis Center stated that their initial analysis found FARA’s schedule to be aggressive, relying on consistent success and concurrency in development and testing. In addition, they noted that if FARA experiences technical issues but keeps to its current planned schedule, costs for the effort could increase significantly. We previously reported that attaining technology, design, and manufacturing knowledge concurrently is a major cause of schedule delays and cost increases for DOD weapon system programs.

• Army Delivers First FARA Engines (23. Oktober 2023)
  
  https://www.army.mil/article/271051
  
  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peo-avia ... _like_view

Mit der Ausgereiftheit gewisser Technologien scheint es ebenfalls Probleme gegeben zu haben:

FARA and FLRAA Plans for Technology Maturation Do Not Meet Leading Practices

The Army does not plan to demonstrate all FARA and FLRAA critical technologies in an operational environment prior to system development, a GAO leading practice for acquisition. FARA officials identified four critical technologies that the effort will evaluate for maturity prior to reaching development start in 2025:

• The ITE,

• Modular Effects Launcher,

• Area Weapons System (Cannon), and

• Digital Backbone.

Of these technologies, only the ITE is approaching full maturity. The other three critical technologies are currently immature, with officials reporting that the technology components have been tested in a relevant environment. For example, testing in a relevant environment could include a high fidelity laboratory environment or in a simulated realistic environment. Technologies are considered fully mature when they can be demonstrated in an operational environment in their anticipated form, fit, and function. FARA plans to fully mature the ITE and Digital Backbone in an operational environment prior to the start of system development in 2025. However, officials do not plan to fully mature the Modular Effects Launcher and Area Weapons System (Cannon) by the start of system development.

[...]

According to our leading practices for acquisition, programs should fully mature all critical technologies in an operational environment by the start of system development. According to Army officials, critical technologies for both FARA and FLRAA will not achieve this level of maturity. This creates a danger of limited insight into key technology risks.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105554

Der Modular Effects Launcher und das C-12 Air Launched Effects
Storage System (ALESS) stammen von einer Firma namens Fulcrum Concepts:

Fulcrum's Modular Effects Launcher (MEL) features a modular open systems approach that can carry a variety of store combinations. It integrates fully with both the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) and MH-60 platforms. The MEL can be jettisoned.

https://fulcrumconceptsllc.com/product/ ... ncher-mel/

Key Features & Benefits

• 4 shot capable (2 each side)

• Compatible with CLT and NOAA-standard launch tubes

• Housed within modified Raisbeck wing locker

• Wing lockers can be swapped with ferrying configuration lockers, concealing internal modifications

• Installed with minimal aircraft modifications

• Provisions for uplink/downlink antennae

• Independent GPS antenna mounted in each locker

• Provisions for mounting equipment racks in aircraft cabin

https://fulcrumconceptsllc.com/product/c-12-aless/

Für die Drohnen ALTIUS-600 war AREA-I Inc. verantwortlich, 2021 von Anduril Industries übernommen:


https://www.anduril.com/hardware/altius/

[muck]

Na ob bei der Bundeswehr ein Plan dahinter stand ... ?

Letztes Jahr hat das GAO einen Prüfbericht zu FVL und dabei auch zu FARA veröffentlicht. Anscheinend wurde hier eher "die Reißleine gezogen" bevor es zu einer erheblichen Kostensteigerung kommt

Das ist halt die große Frage, was kam zuerst? Die Zweifel an einem Waffensystem bzw. an einer Gattung von Waffensystemen, oder finanzielle bzw. organisatorische Bedenken, die dann militärisch verbrämt wurden?

[theoderich]

Army officials question plan for future attack reconnaissance

“The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, or FARA, was to deliver the capability to identify and destroy [anti-access, area denial] bubbles to create advantages for [the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft] to exploit,” Gen. Laura Richardson, U.S. Army Southern Command commander and an Army aviator, said in an April 25 speech at the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual conference here.

“FARA intended to combine our pilots with high end capabilities that unmanned systems provide and create advantages against adversaries. What is going to meet that requirement?” she asked. “What is going to replace the Apache that we’ve taken risk in, in order to field FARA?”

The Army should at least be upgrading and matching sensors to the firepower in the Apache to keep pace with rivals, Richardson said.

“While the Army has not announced any investment in our current attack helicopter, our strategic adversaries are doubling down,” she said.

Maj. Gen. Wally Rugen, the director of the Army aviation in the G-3/5/7, emphasizing the continued need for manned aviation, told the same audience at AAAA that unmanned aircraft in armed reconnaissance is needed, but “we need them to team with our crewed aviation to be decisive.”

While the Army has stated the Apache will continue to serve in the armed scout role when necessary, it took a risk with the Apache fleet, Rugen noted, and said not only do improvements to Apache need to be made if it will fill in that role, but the service should consider replacing 16 crash damaged aircraft.

Those aircraft are not funded in FY25 or the subsequent four years of the budget cycle, he noted.

Additionally, the Army has three squadrons of Delta-model Apaches that were not going to be bought, “that now we have to look at very closely and see how we fill that in and modernize those three Delta squadrons,” Rugen, whose last job was managing the Army’s Future Vertical Lift efforts including FARA, said.

Within the Army’s Future Vertical Lift portfolio, the service is focused heavily on launched effects and is only beginning to flesh out exactly how it will take capability out of the concept and development realm and into fieldable systems.

The service plans to wrap up a prototyping evaluation effort for a medium-range LE in September and will weigh options from rapid fielding to low-rate initial production to more prototyping depending on how things go. The Army is also pursuing a long-range and short-range version, which are farther afield but will begin prototyping soon.

The service plans to also focus heavily on LE at its EDGE aviation demonstration event in the fall. Another focus will be autonomy.

“What has to still evolve is autonomy to completely do a reconnaissance and security mission,” Maj. Gen. Mac McCurry, the Army Aviation Center of Excellence Command commander, said at AAAA. “We are still investing in that path to autonomy. Being able to see and surveil something is a component of reconnaissance, but not sufficient to perform the whole thing.”

https://www.defensenews.com/digital-sho ... naissance/


US Army to field long-range combat aircraft to first unit in FY31

The U.S. Army’s plan to field its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft with an initial unit is delayed by one year, due to Lockheed Martin’s protest over the service’s choice of Textron Bell’s advanced tiltrotor design, according to the director of Army aviation in the service’s G-3/5/7 branch.

Despite the protest disruption, “we are working steadily on [the program], and I will say that the team came together this past quarter and did a tremendously detailed plan to look at every aspect of this fielding,” Maj. Gen. Wally Rugen said at the Army Aviation Association of America summit, running April 24-26.

The Army will now equip the first unit with the capability in fiscal 2031. But that milestone is “not our pacing decision point,” Rugen said. “We really have to look to the limited user test in ’27-’28.”

https://www.defensenews.com/industry/te ... t-in-fy31/

[theoderich]

Army special mission aviators will field V-280: SOCOM

Procurement officials with US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) now confirm they plan to field Bell’s V-280 tiltrotor with the US Army regiment that provides rotary-wing aviation support to the USA’s elite commandos.

The SOCOM plan is separate from the army’s existing plan to acquire the vertical take-off and landing V-280 for its conventional aviation forces under the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programme.

That effort is meant to deliver a successor to the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, although the two aircraft now appear likely to overlap for potentially several decades.

Speaking at the annual SOF Week conference in Tampa on 8 May, US Army Colonel Mark Cleary revealed SOCOM’s plans, saying it intends to field V-280s with the army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).

“FLRAA is set to come on to the 160th ramp in the middle of the 2030s,” says Cleary, a test pilot who manages aircraft sustainment and modernisation for the army’s special operations fleet.

“FLRAA is going to come to the regiment,” adds Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Keough, who manages the MH-60 programme for SOCOM.

Acquisition documents indicate SOCOM plans to field its first special operations-configured V-280 in 2034, several years after the first standard V-280s are fielded to the army.

https://www.flightglobal.com/helicopter ... 14.article

[theoderich]

FLRAA achieves Milestone B, enters next phase of development

The Army’s Future Vertical Lift program took a major step forward as the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA, program entered the next major phase of development when the Army announced the approval of the FLRAA Milestone B Acquisition Decision Memorandum on August 2, 2024.

The decision came after the successful FLRAA preliminary design review in April and a meeting of the Army Systems Acquisition Review Council in June. After reviewing FLRAA affordability, technological viability, threat projections and security, engineering, manufacturing, sustainment and cost risks, the ASARC confirmed that all sources of program risk have been adequately addressed for this phase of the program. Milestone B allows the Army to exercise contract options and continues development of the aircraft as it now enters the engineering and manufacturing development phase.

The Army awarded the FLRAA Weapon System Development contract to Bell Textron on December 5, 2022, and it includes nine options. The Milestone B allows the Army to exercise the first option which includes detailed aircraft design and build of six prototype aircraft. The Army is planning for the first FLRAA flight in 2026 with low-rate initial production scheduled to begin in 2028 and initial fielding activity in 2030. The Army will continue to review and refine the schedule as necessary based on the contract award and the latest program activities.

https://www.army.mil/article/278591/flr ... evelopment

• https://www.facebook.com/peoaviation/po ... j5qmBxpVHl

[theoderich]

SB>1 Defiant in Rente
Der Superhubschrauber von Sikorsky endet im Museum

https://www.flugrevue.de/sb-1-defiant-i ... im-museum/


https://www.facebook.com/armyaviationmu ... JXEFdRfSQl






https://www.facebook.com/armyaviationmu ... 2ZubtZoDcl


https://www.facebook.com/armyaviationmu ... ApdX7kFjXl




https://www.facebook.com/armyaviationmu ... 92LDKN55Al

[theoderich]

New U.S. Marine Corps Missile Revealed In Partially Censored Photo


https://aviationweek.com/defense/missil ... ored-photo

Late last year, the Marine Corps successfully executed its first live employment test of a new Long Range Precision Fire (LRPF) capability. The event was successfully executed at Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG) in Yuma, AZ where an AH-1Z conducted single launch by way of a wireless application via Marine Air-Ground Tablet (MAGTAB).

The November test at YPG exceeded the threshold requirements with regards to position, navigation, and timing. This activity marks the first time a Marine Corps rotary-wing platform has employed a weapon system using a tablet-controlled device.

https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/Succes ... 32025-1319


Marine Air-Ground Tablet (MAGTAB)

The Marine Air-Ground Tablet (MAGTAB) is an end user device that was designed specifically by Marines to enable detailed mission planning, increased mission effectiveness, and improved debriefing tools.

The tightly integrated suite of apps share relevant information on the MAGTAB and are continuously improved/updated using feedback from end users to provide the most effective solution available.

• Secure WiFi solution provides ability for users to move between nodes throughout the battlefield without the need for reconfiguration

• Enroute situational awareness through battle tracking of all networked users with the ability to inject intel updates

• Streamlined chat enables all users to communicate on the network quickly and reliably

• Understand, monitor, and control status of tactical networks when integrated with MEWLs, and Meshed Network Managers

https://www.kranzetech.com/magtab/


2025 Marine Aviation Plan

January 2025

Precision Attack Strike Missile (PASM)

In response to recent gap analyses, operational assessments, and force modernization initiatives Marine Aviation is conducting a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) for a long-range attack weapon, formally known as Long-Range Attack Missile (LRAM). Recently, PASM successfully completed its first launch from the AH-1Z. Continued testing seeks to prove the technological capability and operational value of low altitude, rotary wing aircraft with advanced weapons for offensive anti-surface warfare or maritime strike.

https://www.marines.mil/News/Press-Rele ... future-re/

• https://media.defense.gov/2025/Feb/03/2 ... ONPLAN.PDF

PASM Sources Sought

Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, MD is conducting additional market research to determine if there are any responsible sources that have the capability, experience and facilities required to support the rapid development, maturation, integration, prototyping, test, qualification and initial fielding of prototype Precision Attack Strike Munition (PASM) units, formerly referred to as the Long Range Attack Missile (LRAM) weapon system in support of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). This additional market research will refresh the list of responsible sources based on updated requirements received from the USMC.

https://sam.gov/opp/ea7e341057a34a2c836 ... 5d549/view


Secretive Long Range Attack Missile For Marine AH-1s Is Now Being Flight Tested (3. Mai 2024)

The U.S. Marine Corps is transforming an unspecified U.S. Air Force missile into a weapon that will give its AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters the ability to strike moving targets on land and at sea 150 nautical miles away. This is exponentially further than the Vipers can reach with their existing air-to-surface munition options. The service has started flight testing this weapon, dubbed the Long Range Attack Missile (LRAM), and plans to conduct the first live-fire launch in Fiscal Year 2025.

Marine Col. Eric Ropella, head of Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) Expeditionary and Maritime Aviation-Advanced Development Team (XMA-ADT), shared new details about the secretive LRAM effort with The War Zone and other attendees at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition earlier today.

“So take everything that you know about an AH-1 and [the] ordnance that it can throw off of it, and exceed that range by a lot, and you will get LRAM,” Ropella said by way of introduction.

“So, we’re excited about that… we’ve flown with it, you know, attached to an [A]H-1 and the live fire testing will happen in [the] next fiscal year,” he continued. “So, super excited to do that. I know a lot of H-1 test pilots that are fighting to be the one that gets to pull the trigger on that first test.”

Specific details about the LRAM’s capabilities are limited, but the Marine Corps has said in the past that it will have a maximum range of at least 150 nautical miles (just over 170 miles or nearly 278 kilometers) and will be capable of engaging moving land and sea targets.

https://www.twz.com/air/secretive-long- ... ght-tested

H-1 Capability Milestones

[...]

Future Modernization Priorities

[...]

• Lethality (AIM-9X, IT-2, Long-Range Attack Munition (LRAM))

https://www.marcorsyscom.marines.mil/Po ... %20276.pdf

Rotary Wing Long Range Attack Missile (LRAM)

In order to address capability gaps inherent in its rotary wing and future vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) systems, the Marine Corps requests RDTEN funding in FY 2025 to further develop a long-range, precision guided munition capable of engaging mobile land and maritime targets from standoff ranges greater than 150 nautical miles. This munition will enable the Marine Corps’ extensive rotary wing fleet, and future VTOL aircraft, to deliver precision effects from standoff ranges and expeditionary air sites in collaboration with 5th generation aircraft and network-enabled targeting sources. The FY 2025 President’s Budget requests $20.3 million in RDTEN to transition the LRAM project from a Defense Innovation Acceleration (formerly Joint Capability Technology Demonstration) project to a formal Program of Record capable of fielding operational missiles to the Marine Corps’ rotary wing fleet in FY 2027.

https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/ho ... 240416.pdf

Attack / Strike

• LRAM (Long Range Attack Missile)

• Cost effective & survivable long-range precision fires from low-altitude FVL-like aircraft in expeditionary and maritime environments

• Next MS: Live fire testing FY25

https://marinemilitaryexpos.com/wp-cont ... IR_ADT.pdf


Force Design 2030
Annual Update
June 2023

In fact, with the support of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, we will begin the Long-Range Attack Munition project to rapidly develop and field a low-cost, air launched family of loitering, swarming munitions.

https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Docs/ ... e_2023.pdf


Department of Defense
Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Budget Estimates
March 2023

Office of the Secretary Of Defense
Defense-Wide Justification Book Volume 3 of 5
Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide

Title: Low-Altitude Future Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) Long-Range Attack Missile (LRAM)

Description: LRAM is a FY 2023 new-start JCTD. The LRAM JCTD will build upon L3Harris’ Red Wolf air-launched unmanned air vehicle (UAV). Specifically, the JCTD will develop a launcher and control interface for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, kinetic payload, command and control (C2) architecture, and a seeker for autonomous over-the-horizon engagements. Most of the aforementioned will be extensible to other aircraft, to include unmanned aircraft. This weapon system concept will significantly extend the lethal range of VTOL-launched weapons. Moreover, outfitting the VTOL fleet of tactical aircraft (H-1, H-60 series, AH-64, and Joint Future Vertical Lift) with this weaponized UAV will dramatically increase the number of aircraft available for over-the-horizon strike.

https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals ... PB2024.pdf


U.S. Army Shows Off Future Warfare At The EDGE (18. Mai 2021)

The Army also showed other new tools that Whalen’s squad could summon during the EDGE 21 demonstration. A new ALE-Large, identified as the L3Harris Red Wolf, adds a 6-ft.-long, turbojet-powered UAS to the General Atomics MQ-1C’s options of air-launched tools. In this case, the Red Wolf—developed secretly by the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office with a German-made turbojet—functioned as an airborne communications relay.

https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircra ... rfare-edge

US Army aviation exercise unveils unprecedented progress as service preps for future war (17. Mai 2021)

The ALE-Large is a system under development by the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office through a classified program. The ALE-L used at Dugway was built by L3Harris Technologies, is capable of flying at more than 200 knots and has a range of more than 300 kilometers. The system flew only one other time at Yuma, Arizona, in February.

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/project ... uture-war/

[theoderich]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/l3harris ... 97664-Rj3z